Innovation

What is Innovation-Driven Entrepreneurship (IDE)?

Innovation-driven entrepreneurship is a very important part of our economy today, and will be even more important in the future. But what does it mean, and how is it different from small-medium size entrepreneurship (SME) and traditional corporate business?

MIT REAP describes innovation as a “process of taking ideas from inception to impact.” Entrepreneurs who focus on growing innovation-based companies develop new to the world solutions that address global problems and markets. The solutions are scalable and they create new value. Entrepreneurs who bring such ideas to life create deep impacts that shape the world around us, from the kind of work we do, to the way we communicate and to the health care we enjoy.

Think of it as the difference between your local bookseller (SME) and Amazon (IDE). Both sell books, but Amazon has scaled and now offers transactional platforms like Amazon Marketplace, and innovation platforms like Amazon Web Services, not to mention their advancements in cloud computing, AI, and the fact that they employ roughly 675,500 people around the world.

Innovation-driven companies also enable other businesses to grow and develop. Some create network effects where positive feedback loops link different users and markets together accelerating investments, value creation, jobs and growth. In fact, the newly formed Innovation Economy Council which includes Canadian accelerators like MaRS and DMZ conducted a study which “found that innovation companies create an outsized share of new jobs and grow at a much faster rate than the overall economy.”

Moreover, innovation-driven start-ups are in a position to help traditional businesses re-tool and pivot while adopting new technologies to make them more globally competitive. With global economic uncertainty, we have never needed innovation-driven entrepreneurship more than we do now.

Why is Inclusive Innovation - Driven Entrepreneurship Important?

At ONSIDE, we believe Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada have the innovation capacity and resources to thrive through innovation-driven entrepreneurship. To unlock this potential, we must ensure inclusion, creating access for women, rural communities, African Nova Scotians, and Indigenous peoples, so that together we can co-create a prosperous future. Join us in building an innovation ecosystem where everyone has the opportunity to succeed.

What is collective impact?

ONSIDE understands that innovation and entrepreneurship do not happen in a vacuum. They emerge within systems shaped by people, resources, and relationships.

Collective impact is an evidence-based framework that brings stakeholders together to address complex challenges that no single actor can solve alone. At ONSIDE, we adapt a version of collective impact developed by MIT REAP, designed to understand and accelerate innovation-driven entrepreneurship within evolving ecosystems.

This approach focuses on three core elements:

  • Understanding the system

  • Engaging key stakeholders

  • Designing and executing an acceleration strategy

With these fundamentals in place, partners can mobilize around a shared agenda, the catalyst for sustainable, system-wide change.

The Five Principles of Collective Impact:

  • Defining a common agenda

  • Maintaining accountability through shared measurements

  • Coordinating mutually reinforcing activities for greater impact

  • Ensuring constant communication

  • Providing backbone support through a coordinating body