SSTI Digest

Gov. John Huntsman, Jr. named Jack Brittain, dean of the University of Utah Business School, vice president in charge of the new Office of Technology Ventures. Brittain, dubbed the "innovation czar," will continue to lead the business school in addition to his new position. Gov. Jim Doyle named Mary Burke as the new head of the Wisconsin Department of Commerce. Burke replaces Cory Nettles, who resigned last month. Rose-Hulman Ventures President Jim Eifert and Executive Vice President Brij Khorana resigned their positions to return to faculty duties at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.   John Maxson, former president of the Illinois Coalition, was named CEO of The Greater North Michigan Avenue Association. Michael Relyea was named deputy executive director of the New York State Office of Science and Technology Academic Research. Gov. Matt Blunt appointed Greg Steinhoff to head the Missouri State Department of Economic Development. …

The first two installments of SSTI's annual look at how TBED will play in the 2005 legislative priorities of the governors can be found in the Digest archives on our website: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/digest.htm Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, State of the State Address, Jan. 18, 2005 "I ask you, in particular, to provide a Small Business Investment Incentive, giving modest relief...to small firms that take the risk to add jobs. To stimulate the formation of new small businesses, I propose that existing local economic development funds be freed to establish new venture capital funds in each region of our state. "To help towns hit hard by the retreat of traditional manufacturing, I ask for the passage of brownfields legislation to encourage new investment in abandoned sites, and for new pre-permitting authority to speed the time for new investor interest to turn into new jobs. Meanwhile, we must modernize our tax laws and build out our broadband infrastructure, so that we become as hospitable to the jobs of the knowledge economy and motorsports as we are to manufacturing."…

Business community advocacy for public investments in technology-based economic development (TBED) may make the difference between legislators appropriating programs $1 million or $100 million. Most importantly, active private sector engagement in establishing, implementing and overseeing a state or community's TBED agenda speeds realization of the true benefits of public-private TBED partnerships: more competitive and innovative companies, more high-yield investment opportunities, more high paying jobs, and a more skilled workforce. Unfortunately, often the largest business associations in town -- the chambers of commerce -- are the last to embrace the long-term investments necessary to effect real positive change in their communities or states. In other regions, chamber involvement stems from a one-upmanship philosophy that also grips many politicians, as we're seeing in the escalating battle between the states to simply spend the most in stem cell research. There are promising alternatives that focus inward, however, as the two stories below from South Carolina and Utah reveal. South…

We greatly appreciate the praise and suggestions we've received from readers regarding the Tech-based Economic Development (TBED) Resource Center, a cooperative project of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of Technology Policy and SSTI. The new online library contains links to more than 1,300 research reports, strategic plans, best practices and impact analyses from state and federal government, university researchers and foundations. Based on initial user input, we've added capability to search by author and by date entered. The year of publication also will be shown in search results. We welcome additional suggestions for the site and recommendations of materials to include in this free resource. To browse the collection or make a suggestion, visit: http://www.tbedresourcecenter.org.

To fulfill a goal within the state's 2010 Initiative of becoming a recognized leader in research and technology development, the South Dakota Department of Tourism and State Development will operate an Office of Commercialization under the direction of Mel Ustad, current Interim Vice President for Research at the University of South Dakota. The Office of Commercialization serves two purposes, according to Jim Hagen, secretary of the Department of Tourism and State Development. Its main function will be to coordinate technology transfer from university and private research centers to the private sector. The office also will facilitate the commercialization of that research, Hagen said. Ustad said he would focus on trying to create new technology ventures at the universities and to more effectively coordinate the entrepreneurial activity of various entities in the state. The 2010 Initiative consists of five goals for economic growth and visitor spending in the state by the year 2010. More information on the Initiative is available at: http://www.2010initiative.com/index.htm

Anyone working with an entrepreneur knows they like to write their own rules. The latest survey characterizing the world's pool of entrepreneurial talent finds a large majority of them also write their own checks to finance their businesses. It's easier to write - and change - the rules when you also control the purse strings. Seventy-three million people are nascent entrepreneurs or own or manage a young business, according to the 2004 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) released today. Directed by Babson College and the London Business School, the report is the largest annual measure of entrepreneurial activity worldwide. The report strongly supports the notion that self-funding and informal investment are critical to an entrepreneurial society. About 99.9 percent of nascent entrepreneurs launch new ventures without formal venture capital or business angel investments, the report states. Entrepreneurs themselves provide 65.8 percent of the start-up capital while others, mainly informal investors, provide the remaining 34.2 percent. Of the nation's 500 fastest-growing private…

Large industrial or technology firms are often sought by economic development recruiters to serve as anchors for cluster development. Once an anchor is attracted, policymakers often nurture local industrial districts as ways to promote transmission of technical know-how and deepen industrial relationships. Does the strategy work? Not always, according to a recent working paper by Andrea Morrison of Universita del Piemonte Orientale, Gatekeepers of Knowledge within Industrial Districts: Who They Are, How They Interact. Based on interviews with two leading firms in the Italian furniture district of Murge, Morrison concludes that employees and executives with two top firms glean significant technical knowledge from research groups within the area’s science parks, regional universities, and service centers. However, individuals within these companies do not share this knowledge widely with firms within the industrial district, Morrison finds. Only a handful of clients and suppliers gain from the compiled external knowledge of these industry leaders. Morrison uses the data from…

Many regions support local knowledge clusters in the hopes that geographic proximity will promote technology diffusion and enhance industrial competitiveness. A working paper from Italy suggests the effectiveness of such clusters or science parks depends upon the nature of the firms and institutions involved. Roberta Capello of Politecnico of Milan and Andrea Morrison of Universita del Piemonte Orientale compare survey data from firms in two Italian regions (Pisa and Genova) where knowledge facilitators actively operate. In their working paper, An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Science Parks in Local Knowledge Creation: A Territorial Perspective, the authors evaluate innovation based on these efforts to facilitate knowledge exchange via internal and external networks. Using regression and cluster analyses, Capello and Morrison examine the effectiveness of these networking efforts. The research demonstrates that science parks play a critical role in building relationships among local businesses and institutions ­ particularly for smaller firms. However, efforts to facilitate external…

A recent collection of weekly headlines gathered by the Montana Associated Technology Roundtables brought to our attention the annual world academic rankings compiled by the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. For the past two years, the school has identified the world's top 500 academic institutions based on a weighted scale of six indicators: Alumni of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (10%) Staff of an institution winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (20%) Highly cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories (20%) Articles published in Nature and Science (20%) -- Note: For institutions specialized in humanities and social sciences such as London School of Economics, N&S is not considered, and the weight of N&S is relocated to other indicators. Articles in Science Citation Index-expanded and Social Science Citation Index (20%) Academic performance with respect to the size of an institution (10%) For each indicator, the highest-scoring institution is assigned a score of 100, and other institutions are…

Areas working to encourage the growth of technology companies and build tech-based economies have a new resource to aid their cause. A new website, the Tech-based Economic Development (TBED) Resource Center (http://www.tbedresourcecenter.org), offers users the chance to learn from others’ experiences and benefit from the latest research on building a tech-based economy. The TBED Resource Center categorizes and provides links to more than 1,300 research reports, strategic plans, best practices and impact analyses from state and federal government, university researchers and foundations. The website is a result of a cooperative project of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Technology Policy (OTP) and SSTI. “This website will be an invaluable tool to anyone involved in economic development,” said Under Secretary Phil Bond. “Access to information on what has worked in various communities will help policy-makers and business people make efficient use of valuable time and money, and provide good ideas and contacts that others might find useful.” The user-friendly search options allow for…

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, State of the State Address, Jan. 10, 2005 "...I'll also ask for supplemental requests so we can become part of the e-corridor. We are one of the only Southern states that is not connected to the e-corridor, and it's vital to our long-term success and development. We'll also seek to provide more research dollars so we can see the incredible economic value that research provides for us." Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, State of the State Address, Jan. 10, 2005 "To expand opportunity, we must focus on economic growth. As we widen the pool of highly skilled workers, we should encourage businesses to create high wage jobs. These jobs can be in many fields--from tourism to high-tech companies. That is why I will propose a series of tax relief measures--from guidelines for tax exemptions, to actual tax credits--to spur Arizona's competitiveness for new jobs. "There are some tax cuts we can now afford and should pass. We should expand the research and development tax credit for businesses that partner with our state universities…

Most of the nation's governors use the winter months to publicly lay out their agendas, visions and budget requests for the coming year. The text of State of the State Addresses, Budget Messages and, to a lesser extent, Inaugural Addresses, often reveals each governor's legislative priorities and new initiatives to be pursued over the coming months. As a service to the tech-based economic development (TBED) community, SSTI provides excerpts from the various gubernatorial speeches and addresses that provide glimpses into how tech-based economic development issues are positioned in each governor's 2005 agenda. We kick off the sixth annual series of "Tech Talkin' Govs" with TBED highlights from addresses given by the governors of New York and North Dakota. New York Gov. George Pataki,State of the State Address, Jan. 5, 2005 "Just as we created Operation IMPACT to target high-crime counties, let's create an economic version to leverage job growth and investment in communities that need it the most. To that end, I will propose Operation SPUR - the Strategic Partnership for…