Edwin Mansfield was a research pioneer into the economics of R and D and technological change. As appreciation and remembrance for his scholarly contributions, eminent scholars have contributed original papers for this edited volume. The authors have followed the "Mansfieldian" approach of emphasizing economic insight and intuition over mathematical rigor and as a result are very accessable. Essays in Honor of Edwin Mansfield has the potential to serve as a reader in all advanced undergraduate and graduate classes/seminars in the economics of R and D and technological change. This edited volume will be the definitive work in the field.
This book examines knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship (KIE) with a focus on the European textile and apparel industries. The primary purpose is to review the extant academic literature related to the European textile and apparel industries and reflect on that review empirically using a new and robust database on KIE to discover patterns between human capital and strategic entrepreneurial and innovative behavior.
According to the Advancing Knowledge-Intensive Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Economic Growth and Social Well-being in Europe (AEGIS) project, KIE is defined as an interface between knowledge generation and diffusion and the productive system. Knowledge-intensive entrepreneurs are thus involved in mechanisms that translate knowledge into innovation, which in turn leads to economic development and growth within an industry and/or region. To date, KIE is often associated with high-tech industries such as aerospace, computer engineering, automotive or telecommunications. For this reason, few studies have been conducted that specifically examine KIE as an avenue for firm or sector growth in the textile and apparel industries. However, new studies have positioned these industries as ones in which KIE can foster growth through innovation, and where products and processes are often evaluated within a knowledge-based framework. Building on this growing literature base, this volume explores potential policies and strategies for driving innovation and growth at the firm and industry levels in Europe and other regions, including the United States.
This book explores public sector entrepreneurship from an international perspective. It features essays from eminent scholars in the field addressing entrepreneurial public policies from different countries. Public sector entrepreneurship is at the cusp of becoming a watchword in international policy circles. This book is a pioneer volume in this emerging field and provides topics and policies that are broadly applicable across different economies. Public sector entrepreneurship refers to innovative public policy initiatives that generate greater economic prosperity by transforming a status-quo economic environment into one that is more conducive to economic units engaging in creative activities in the face of uncertainty. In today's economy, public sector entrepreneurship affects that transformation primarily by increasing the effectiveness of knowledge networks; that is, by increasing the heterogeneity of experiential ties among economic units and the ability of those same economic units to exploit such diversity. Through policy initiatives that are characterized by public sector entrepreneurship, there will be more development of new technology and hence more innovation throughout the economy.
This volume examines the involvement of minority- or women-owned businesses in technology-based research, with particular focus on the differences in research outcomes in achieving commercialization. Specifically, the authors empirically investigate the correlation between technologies from projects funded through the Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and the minority or gender demographics of the owners of the businesses conducting the research. This study offers an opportunity to not only examine public-sector agencies' investments in research, but also to investigate if there are race and/or gender gaps in such business' participation in innovative activities. It also provides a means to understand innovation by minorities and women in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Investments in fundamental science and technology research and investments in human capital through science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education areimportant building blocks of innovation. Two methods of fueling innovation are to 1) accelerate the commercialization of federally funded research and 2) ensure opportunities for underrepresented minorities and women in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Despite this understanding, there is still a disparity in the rates of educated men and women in STEM fields participating in entrepreneurship. Moreover, the link between underrepresentation of minorities and women across STEM fields correlates with entrepreneurial entry and performance. This book expands on these findings and estimates the probability that (1) a funded research project reaches completion, (2) the developed technology is commercialized, and finally (3) the commercialized technology is successful in the marketplace (i.e., the business gained revenue and market share from the technology).
This book is the first collection of scholarly writings on science and technology parks (STPs) that has an international perspective. It explores concrete ways to systematically collect information on public and private organizations related to their support of and activities in STPs, including incubation to start-up and scale-up, and collaborations with centers of knowledge creation. Rather than perpetuate the qualitative assessment of successful practices, the focus of this book is to present quantitative and qualitative evidence of the impact of STPs on regional development and to raise awareness on the importance of systematic data collection and analysis. Only through a systematic collection of data on fiscal identification numbers of companies, universities, and university spin-offs will it be possible to conduct current and especially future analyses on the impact of STPs on entrepreneurship, effectiveness of technology transfer, and regional economic development. To this extent, the synergistic views of academics, representatives from STPs, and policy experts are crucial.
Technology transfer-the process of sharing and disseminating knowledge, skills, scientific discoveries, production methods, and other innovations among universities, government agencies, private firms, and other institutions-is one of the major challenges of societies operating in the global economy. This volume offers state-of-the-art insights on the dynamics of technology transfer, emerging from the annual meeting of the Technology Transfer Society in 2011 in Augsburg, Germany. It showcases theoretical and empirical analyses from participants across the technology transfer spectrum, representing academic, educational, policymaking, and commercial perspectives. The volume features case studies of industries and institutions in Europe, the United States, and Australasia, explored through a variety of methodological approaches, and providing unique contributions to our understanding of how and why technology transfer is shaped and affected by different institutional settings, with implications for policy and business decision making.
