The aim of this chapter is to set the context for the content to follow. It discusses the origin of the idea for this work and the South Australian contextual setting that has inspired the concept that innovation is integrated through firm and socio-economic levels. It proffers the ideas that entrepreneurship is a key contributor to an ecosystem that integrates innovation and that the tools of intellectual capital management are important for understanding how that ecosystem functions to integrate innovation. It then provides an overview of the chapters and outlines the structure of the book before concluding with the challenge that this endeavour undertakes.

This chapter examines the theoretical and policy discourse that has informed South Australia's innovation policy since the 1980s. The recommendations and policy strategies to support innovation have changed little during this time, and yet South Australia's productivity improvement through innovation still lags behind other states and economic regions of similar size. This chapter considers where impediments may lie in South Australia's innovation system and argues that there is a need to move beyond the current policy path dependency that relies upon behaviours and attitudes that have traditionally served to maintain stability and control. The state needs to invest in gaining a different and more holistic understanding of the contribution and value contributed by diverse knowledge taxonomies, from both the HASS and STEM disciplines, and the multiple monetary and non-monetary transactions that inspire and support innovation across the economy.

This article explores innovation performance in the context of patent data from South Australia (SA). The analysis highlights underlying assumptions and limitations of such an approach, although certain conclusions concerning that state's innovation trajectory are suggested. Integral to this exploration are the economic, regulatory and constitutional features that affect and define the nation of Australia, of which SA is one of six states.[…]