recent research

In September 2010, the Obama administration launched Challenge.gov– an online portal for federal agencies to engage the public to offer solutions that address issues of national priority in return for monetary and non-monetary prizes. Since its launch in 2010, more than 80 federal agencies have run nearly 500 competitions and awarded upwards of $150 million in prizes. Challenge.gov is one of the most well-known examples of this growing trend in government and foundation funding. In addition to Challenge.gov, U.S. states, local governments, and foundations have announced similar prize competitions to help address important societal and S&T issues.

Around the world, entrepreneurship education continues to permeate schools, nonprofits, economic development organizations, and college campuses. At the root of this momentum is a belief that entrepreneurship can be taught to anybody, regardless of their innate skills. This Recent Research article presents new conclusions that suggest individuals can learn entrepreneurship by being exposed to other entrepreneurs. In other words, both nature and nurture contribute to the likelihood one becomes an entrepreneur.

Bank or venture capital (VC) financing? This is one of the toughest questions that aspiring entrepreneurs and small firms must answer. A recent academic study contends that VC financing may be the superior financing structure for early stage capital. However, several other studies contend that both bank and VC financing can help create and grow successful startups. For potential entrepreneurs, each provides strengths and weaknesses that are highlighted in the studies.

Across the globe, the proliferation of innovation-led economic development is typically viewed in an urban context. Despite cities receiving the bulk of the attention, researchers have begun to focus on how to leverage best practices in rural economic development. Just as is the case in nearly all economic development scenarios, practitioners and policymakers working in rural areas benefit from a better understanding of local strengths and opportunities, according to new research from the United States, Canada, and the European Union.

Although immigrants account for approximately one-fourth of U.S. science and engineering (S&E) employment, there have been relatively few academic studies published that discuss the link between these immigrants, who represent an increasing share of the U.S. workforce, and innovation in the United States. Through a broad investment from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, guest editors William Kerr and Sarah Turner curated a special volume of the Journal of Labor Economics to highlight recent research specifically focused on the impacts of high-skilled immigration.

Over the past 40 years, the number of women across the globe filing patents has risen fastest within academia compared to all other sectors of the innovation economy, according to a new study from researchers at Indiana University (IU). The researchers found that the overall percentage of patents with women's names attached rose from an average of 2 percent to 3 percent across all areas in 1976 to 18 percent in 2013 for female academics. In comparison, the overall percentage of patents with women's names attached grew to 10 percent in industry and 12 percent for individuals. The study tracked female patent filers across 185 countries, all of whom filed their patents with the U.S. patent office.

In recent years, academic researchers have focused on trying to identify the characteristics that could make someone a potentially successful founder of a startup. However, there has been limited research on the characteristic of the individuals who join these founders as early employees to help them develop and commercialize innovative new products and services. These “joiners” are skilled laborers who want to work for tech startups, but don’t want to be founders – mostly because they are less interested in management and more interested in technical roles. Two studies have been released that look at the characteristics of joiners and the role they play in a startup’s success.

SBIR projects are less likely to fail if research teams are smaller, have more experience and include women investigators, according to a new working paper by Albert N. Link and Mike Wright. The authors also found that larger SBIR awards lower the chances that a project will be discontinued before completion. While the study focuses on projects supported through federal SBIR programs, the findings could have implications for other kinds of public R&D support.

As the federal and state governments look for methods to support the creation and retention of well-paying science and tech (S&T) and manufacturing jobs, two recent reports have found that R&D tax credits play a vital role in helping keep domestic R&D-intensive firms resilient from economic downtowns and competition from emerging economics. These studies confirm the importance of R&D-intensive firms, which have taken advantage of R&D tax credits, are more likely to report a higher percentage of corporate liquidity; are less likely to cut capital expenditures and employment; and, downsize considerably less than the average firm.

As competition increases within the venture capital industry to fund the next Google or Uber, the most highly desirable startups often have multiple investment offers and must decide upon the best. There are several factors that can affect evaluation of potential equity investors. For many startups, the decision may focus solely on the terms of the deal. However, there may be many more factors – outside of financial considerations – that impact the startup’s evaluation process.