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SSTI Digest
People
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter selected James Ellick to head the Idaho Department of Commerce. Ellick brings a tech perspective to the department, having run four venture capital backed tech companies in Silicon Valley in his past.
People
Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher named John Hindman, retired former vice president of strategic communications and public affairs for UPS Airlines, to run the state's Economic Development Cabinet.
People
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson appointed Fred Mondragon as the director of the state's economic development department. Mondragon had been economic development director for the city of Albuquerque.
People
New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer nominated Edward Reinfurt to serve as executive director of the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation. Reinfurt has been vice president of the Business Council of New York State, a statewide 4,000-member chamber of commerce, since its founding in 1980.
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Budget Outcomes Unveiled in Several Western States
Bills have been passed and budgets approved with the close of several 2007 legislative sessions in the western states. The below article is part of the Digest's continuing coverage of the legislative outcomes of some of what governors proposed in their State of the State and budget addresses (see SSTI’s Tech Talkin’ Govs Series in the Jan. 8, Jan. 15, Jan. 29 and Feb. 19, 2007 issues of the Digest).
Washington
Recent Research I: Learning Experience: How Does Past Failure Affect Entrepreneurial Success?
Experience can be an invaluable, and sometimes irreplaceable, asset during the intense and complicated process of building a new firm. Many theorists believe that past entrepreneurial experience, whether with successful or unsuccessful firms, prepares entrepreneurs for the pressures and risks involved in starting a company. In his book, New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century, JA Timmons observes that failure is a prerequisite for entrepreneurial success and that entrepreneurs frequently fail in creating their first company only to succeed in their second. Failures teach lessons that can only be imparted through "real world" experience and firsthand exposure to what can go wrong during the tenuous early stages of venture development.
Recent Research II: How Does the Experience of Academic Entrepreneurs Impact Firms' Performance?
A popular strategy in the TBED community is the attempt to both recruit and develop academic entrepreneurs that may have a substantial effect on the growth of a region's economy. Successful efforts to attract researchers, such as the Georgia Research Alliance and Kentucky's Bucks for Brains programs, are being replicated across the country. However, if one of the hoped-for payoffs is the successful creation of innovative companies, what types of researchers are best suited for this role? A recent discussion paper by Dirk Czarnitzki and Andrew Toole released via the Centre for European Economic Research contributes to the growing collection of studies that measure the impact of the background of entrepreneurial researchers on their firms' performance.
Recent Research III: The Role of Innovation in the Urban Economy
Cities play a pivotal role in producing the technologies that sustain high-tech industries, hosting a majority of the businesses and individuals that comprise those industries. Modern urban theory, including the work of Edward Glaeser and Richard Florida, has popularized the idea of cities as key nodes in which new knowledge is created, spread and adopted by innovative businesses and entrepreneurs. Successful high-tech cities have a self-sustaining quality, according to Florida, in which a city's reputation for innovation attracts more skilled and creative workers and entrepreneurs, which in turn spurs further economic growth.
Useful Stats: Industrial R&D Performance by State, 2000-2004
Industrial R&D expenditures in the U.S. totaled $208 billion in 2004 — an increase of 2.1 percent ($4.3 billion) from 2003, according to the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Survey of Industrial Research and Development.
From 2000 to 2004, industrial R&D expenditures increased by 3.14 percent, the NSF data show. North Dakota experienced the largest increase over the five-year period, more than tripling its 2000 total with $379 million in industrial R&D expenditures in 2004. Oregon (99.4 percent), New Hampshire (84.2 percent), Connecticut (73.68 percent) and Maryland (72.87 percent) followed North Dakota, in terms of percent change.
Connecticut showed the largest dollar increase ($3.05 billion) over the five-year period. Six other states also saw an increase in industrial R&D spending of more than $1 billion from 2000-2004: Maryland ($1.61B), Oregon ($1.52B), Virginia ($1.32B), Indiana ($1.32B), Minnesota ($1.23B) and California ($1.12B).