Opinion: Ireland needs to cultivate an innovation ecosystem which is not hampered by binary definitions of success and failure
By Jane Bourke, Josh O'Driscoll and Conor O'Driscoll, UCC
In Ireland, supporting business innovation is an important national priority. The new National Strategy on Research and Innovation, Impact 2030, identified innovation as a significant driver of enterprise success. Successive Irish governments have committed to investing in research centres, business incubators and accelerators, as well as business development support agencies. As a result, Ireland compares very well on a variety of metrics, with the European Commission categorising Ireland as a 'Strong Innovator’. Indeed, Irish innovation success stories are regularly publicised and celebrated.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Countrywide, James Maloney of Enterprise Ireland on their search for new agritech businesses to showcase at this year's Ploughing
But innovation failures or abandoned projects receive far less attention. Approximately one in 10 Irish businesses abandon or suspend an innovation project, and this figure increases with firm size. We know very little about these failures in terms of decision processes or lessons learnt. Most people conflate failure with fault, and few individuals or organisations understandably trumpet their failures. However, learning from failure is thought to be far more valuable than learning from success, and the magnitude of failure significantly determines how well lessons will be learned.
Our Innovating in Ireland: Can We Fail Better? report provides an overview of key stakeholders' perceptions of innovation failure and what failure means for individuals and businesses in an Irish context. Three insights from this report are discussed below: a fear of failure can lead to an emphasis on marginal improvements or incremental innovation; from start-up or scale-up female entrepreneurs face particular challenges; and the national eco-system must support radical, disruptive innovation to secure economic growth and meet critical societal challenges.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Beo ar Éigean, Siún, Sinéad and Áine talk about the fear of failure - and the fear of success - which stops us in our tracks.
Fear of failure can have far-reaching consequences and can lead to an over-reliance on marginal improvements. Stakeholders at individual, firm and national level warned us that an environment which over-emphasises the importance of marginal improvements can hinder more radical and innovative ideas, ideas which are foundational to addressing complex societal issues, such as climate change. Success can be seen and measured more easily for marginal improvements, as their impact is generally immediate and obvious, while there can be a legitimate fear of longshots failing due to their uncertain horizons, scope, and potential.
A fear of failure can also manifest itself in procurement decisions by large Irish public organisations and funding bodies. They are often more likely to purchase or fund innovations from large multinationals rather than an Irish start-up or SME. As a result, some Irish businesses develop two different business plans, one for the Irish market and one for US markets, with the Irish plan marketed towards more conservative procurement decision-makers.
This may be indicative of a national preference for targeting marginal improvements. An interesting suggestion from our study was to dedicate a proportion of public procurement to SMEs and start-ups, and thus potentially support more disruptive innovation.
Women in innovation and business
Female entrepreneurs also face specific challenges, particularly those juggling family and business commitments. Caring responsibilities create additional barriers-to-entry for female entrepreneurs and innovators. Furthermore, there may be less space for risk-taking, less space to learn from failures, and fewer opportunities to succeed in an innovation context.
The proportion of women in innovation and business has direct positive effects on economic growth, arising primarily by making greater use of the available talent pool to increase the relevance and quality of innovation outputs for society. Gender equality across society increases the collective intelligence when neither males nor females dominate, whereas gender inequality raises questions about the validity of scientific, technological, and innovative advancements.
Enterprise Ireland’s Action Plan for Women in Business prioritises increasing the participation of women in entrepreneurship and business leadership. While Ireland’s childcare crisis adversely impacts individual female entrepreneurs in reaching their potential, it also has far-reaching consequences for innovation, business success, job creation and economic growth in Ireland. For instance, Ireland's gender gap is the highest for self-employment in Europe. Increasing the number of female entrepreneurs and women-led start-ups will mean addressing broader societal issues such as childcare.
A focus on job creation may thwart radical innovation by potentially incentivising the pursuit of relatively marginal improvements
An overarching objective of Impact 2030 is to continue to support and develop a strong, competitive national eco-system. In line with our report, Impact 2030 outlines that radical, disruptive innovation is the most likely solution to major societal issues, such as climate change and digital transformation. Reassuringly, Impact 2030 aims to broaden and deepen enterprise innovation capability, especially within indigenous SMEs.
In our report, concerns were raised that national and international funding strategies focusing on research prioritisation areas and ‘missions’ do not necessarily lend themselves to funding disruptive innovations. There is also a perception that longshot projects are being captured by established large companies and less ambitious research projects. While these projects may be beneficial in themselves, they may not meet the ambition of the original funding instrument.
In Ireland, job creation is, understandably, a key metric of success. However, an over-emphasis on job creation may potentially disadvantage start-ups where increasing their workforce is not necessarily a primary objective, such as unicorn start-ups. Furthermore, the report highlights how a focus on job creation may thwart radical innovation by potentially incentivising the pursuit of relatively low-hanging fruit and marginal improvements.
The Innovating in Ireland: Can We Fail Better? report points to the importance of cultivating a national innovation ecosystem which is not hampered by binary definitions of success and failure. This report is a first step in understanding innovation failure in Ireland, and how best to support learning from innovation failure at the individual, firm and national level. In the words of Samuel Beckett, "ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
Dr Jane Bourke is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the Cork University Business School at UCC. She is an Irish Research Council awardee. Josh O'Driscoll is a Cork University Business School (CUBS) funded PhD student in the Spatial and Regional Economic Research Centre, Department of Economics and Department of Food Business and Development at UCC. Conor O'Driscoll is a PhD candidate at the Spatial and Regional Economic Research Centre (SRERC) and Department of Economics at UCC.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
