Overview

Aligned with global trends in post-industrialization, the economy of Metro Vancouver is changing, but along its own trajectory. The focus is shifting away from resource-based activities to local entrepreneurial initiatives across a remarkable range of industries, from software to craft beer, biopharmaceuticals to mountain bikes. This evolution is being shaped by local business and the city's location on the national and global periphery. The Thin Edge of Innovation focusses on the performance of signature businesses in these entrepreneurial sectors to grow and foster industrial clusters and integrate with the global economy. The contributors give a mixed report card to this economic transition. Within Metro Vancouver, innovation has stimulated economic diversification and promises to deliver high-income jobs. But this diversification has also been thinly spread and lacks deep local roots or dominant anchor companies. This constructive study examines the distinctive opportunities facing Metro Vancouver. Despite challenges, it reveals a region with undoubted potential for sustained, broadly beneficial local development

Full Product Details

Author:   Roger Hayter ,  Jerry Patchell ,  Kevin Rees
Publisher:   University of British Columbia Press
Imprint:   University of British Columbia Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.530kg
ISBN:  

9780774869935

ISBN 10:   0774869933
Pages:   344
Publication Date:   15 November 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Introduction: Metro Vancouver’s Economy Post-industrial Transformation Towards an Innovation Economy 1 Rethinking Forestry’s Role Towards Value and Innovation 2 Metro Vancouver High-Tech Firms in Arrested Transition? 3 The Influence of FDI in Metro Vancouver High Tech 4 Inter-firm Relations Among High-tech Activities: Local Clustering and Global Connections 5 Deepening Institutional Support for Metro Vancouver High-tech 6 Lifestyle Innovators, West-coast Style 7 Metro Vancouver on the Thin Edge of Innovation, and Associated Conundrums Appendix 1: Locally-Founded “Transitioning” Firms in Metro Vancouver High-tech to circa 2019 Appendix 2: Foreign Firms in Metro Vancouver’s High-tech Sector 1980-2019 Notes; Selected Bibliography; Index

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Author Information

Roger Hayter is a professor emeritus of geography at Simon Fraser University. He is the author of Technology and the Canadian Forest-Product Industries: A Policy Perspective, The Dynamics of Industrial Location: The Factory, the Farm, and the Production System, and Flexible Crossroads: The Restructuring of British Columbia's Forest Economy. Jerry Patchell is an associate professor emeritus of social science, environment and sustainability, and public policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He is a co-author, with Roger Hayter, of Economic Geography: And Institutional Approach and author of China's Greater Bay Area: Agglomeration, External Economies, Governance, and Urbanization. Kevin Rees is an associate professor and head of the Department of Geography at Swansea University.

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