SSTI Digest

While wider market opportunities have led to increased exporting and lower costs for business operations in some Minnesota companies, others are facing difficult operational challenges as a result of the rapid integration of global business practices, according to a new Issue Brief from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) and Minnesota Technology, Inc. The two agencies jointly released Gearing Up and Going Global: Experiences of Minnesota Businesses in order to better understand the global business experience in Minnesota and its impact on the state's economy. The survey details global business practices, motivations and the impact on business operations and employment was administered to 252 small, medium and large-sized companies. Findings therein offer a preliminary view of Minnesota business experiences in the global marketplace and are expected to help the legislature, economic developers and education system improve efforts to facilitate business, worker and community adjustments. The survey explores current and projected global activities and trends…

Study Suggests Cultural Changes in Universities Could Be Key to Promoting Greater Tech Transfer Despite legislation, policies and financial incentives, universities still struggle to motivate professors to participate in technology transfer. A few well placed individuals engaged in entrepreneurship could create a culture encouraging others to be involved in technology transfer activities, according to a new study by Janet Bercovitz of Duke University and Maryann Feldman of University of Toronto presented at the Minnesota Cluster-Entrepreneurship Conference in September 2004. In Academic Entrepreneurs: Social Learning and Participation in University Technology Transfer, the authors review those factors influencing individual researchers in their decision to file invention disclosures – the first step in the commercialization process. The study draws its conclusions from qualitative interviews and quantitative analysis from departments within two university medical schools. Bercovitz and Feldman found empirical support for the following organizational factors: Graduates from…

Peter Bianco has been named executive director of University Enterprise Laboratories, a nonprofit entity created by the University of Minnesota that provides incubator laboratory space for bioscience start-up companies.

The presentations from last week's conference, Knowledge Clusters and Entrepreneurship in Regional Economic Development, now available online, provide a good introduction to many of the topics and issues to be discussed at SSTI's annual conference, Building Tech-based Economies: Preparing for Tomorrow's Challenges, in Philadelphia, Oct. 13-15. Organized by the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, the Clusters conference included case studies on U.S. and Irish clusters and entrepreneurship as well as: Knowledge Clusters as a Means of Promoting Regional Economic Development Entrepreneurship Policy and the Strategic Management of Places Economic Development in Post Conflict Society: A Cluster-Focused Development Plan Crafting a New Rural Development Strategy Academic Entrepreneurs: Social Learning and Participation in University Technology Transfer Entrepreneurship and Government Policy: An International Perspective based on the Research of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Energizing Entrepreneurship in Rural Communities and Amongst Under…

Cleveland Fed: "Innovation, Growth, and Economic Policy in an Environment of Change," At a time when manufacturing jobs are relenting to the pressures of an expanded service sector, foreign competition and productivity growth, the idea of economic prosperity has a renewed urgency with innovation as the greatest strength and flexibility the greatest asset, argues a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. In the 20-page essay portion of its 2003 annual report, Growth and Economic Policy in an Environment of Change, the fourth federal reserve bank district sets forth to answer, “What is the source of economic prosperity?” The report examines innovation's role in economic development, reviewing the theories that have shaped the nation's economic history with an eye on current and future challenges. The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland 2003 Annual Report is available at: http://www.clevelandfed.org/Annual03/index.cfm Women Entrepreneurship Special Focus of May '04 Minneapolis Fedgazette Higher levels of confidence, the desire for independence, and…

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently selected Texas A&M University and the University of Minnesota to lead the second and third Homeland Security Centers of Excellence (HS-Centers). The department anticipates providing Texas A&M University, the University of Minnesota and their partners with a total of $33 million over the course of the next three years to address security in two key agricultural sectors -- foreign animal diseases and food security. The selections were made from 23 proposals submitted in response to a December 2003 broad agency announcement by DHS' Science and Technology Directorate. Site visits were conducted for  seven finalists before selecting the two new HS-Centers. Texas A&M University and its partners are expected to receive $18 million for the study of high consequence foreign animal and zoonotic diseases. Additional university partners include the University of Texas Medical Branch, the University of California at Davis, the University of Southern California and the University of Maryland. With $15 million of DHS funding, the…

Innovations in public and private institutions could be the key to aligning governance with opportunity, according to the Center for the Study of Rural America's latest annual report. Previous focus for the center has been on how rural regions can build new economic engines, which the report's authors contend is well understood by public and private leaders. What is less understood, they explain, is the need to effectively change how regions reach economic decisions, a process they call rural governance. New governance, suggests Innovations in Rural Governance, will define how decisions will be made within a region and how key institutions of federal, state and local government, higher education and the private sector will work together. Solving jurisdictional boundary issues is vital to the process of bringing partnerships together, the authors explain. In many rural regions, institutions that were created for 19th and 20th century economies are no longer compatible with today’s technology, they say. This has resulted in old jurisdictional boundaries impeding on multi-county…

The need for tax cuts, reduced and simplified regulations, a well-trained workforce, lower employee health care costs, and a state-sponsored industry advocate are among the top concerns shared by a core group of Minnesota manufacturers. Those concerns and others are summarized in Positively Minnesota Manufacturing: Making It Great, a report released earlier this year by the state's Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). The report is a synopsis of feedback obtained during a series of roundtable meetings convened by Gov. Tim Pawlenty in October 2003. To help manufacturers, DEED identified several key areas that could warrant further consideration: Reforming corporate taxation and sales tax on capital equipment; Working with higher education institutions to build a skilled manufacturing workforce; Examining ways to help contain health care costs; and, Cutting air travel costs for manufacturers. State manufacturing proponents call for continued support for Minnesota Technology Inc. (MTI), the state's technology-based economic development organization. Since its…

With Randall Olson's resignation, Pat Dillon has become the executive director for Minnesota Project Innovation.

The University of Minnesota Duluth Center for Economic Development has named Elaine Hansen as its new permanent director.

Minnesota Technology Inc. has hired Wayne Pletcher as its new president.

Jacques Koppel, president of Minnesota Technology, Inc. since 1991, announced his resignation on July 28. Under Mr. Koppel's leadership, MTI worked with more than 5,600 manufacturing and technology companies around Minnesota, helping the state's economy realize gains of more than $700 million in the process. MTI's Board of Directors has appointed Frank Starke interim President to lead the organization during its transition from a quasi-state corporation to a private nonprofit corporation.