The new role of law in stimulating industrial innovation and regional development: the Canadian experience with reflexive law in reconciling economic development, environmental protection and entrepreneurship in the energy industry

Social and environmental pressures are having a profound effect on natural resource firms and regional development. The traditional application of law has fallen short in addressing these new societal pressures. This paper uses an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on management and legal scholarship, to explain how stakeholder generated managerial knowledge creation and innovation may be stimulated by innovative approaches to the application of natural resources law. Using the Canadian oil and gas industry as a case study, the article shows that this new managerial knowledge, in turn, provides firms and the regional industry with competitive advantage. In resource-based regional economies facing pressure from global societal calls for sustainable development, law and how it is applied is a critical variable in fostering corporate innovation and regional development.