SSTI Digest

Congress isn't the only place looking at dramatic changes in January. With 11 governors and hundreds of state legislators taking office for the first time, tech-based economic developers across the country are presented with both opportunity and challenge. A change in state leadership often presents the opportunity for positive changes in direction of outdated economic development policies and programs. Sometimes, however, governors feel the need to make changes just for the sake of giving their administration something to hang its hat on – to make the state's economic development strategy the governor's own.

A handy resource for bringing new staff, board members and legislators quickly up to speed on TBED, A Resource Guide for Technology-based Economic Development targets a primary audience of existing practitioners looking to implement new or update older programs. SSTI compiled the book's recommendations after conducting extensive interviews with dozens of the countries leading TBED experts. Some TBED leaders will be familiar with many of the programs and policies highlighted in the guide, but most will find much to learn from the candid advice offered by their peers.



The resource guide provides a starting point for transferring the collective wisdom of top TBED professionals from the past two decades to current practitioners. Each of the three main sections can serve separately or together as required reading before your next staff meeting, retreat or brainstorming session to help refine your approaches to transforming regional economies.

Both the Bush Administration and incoming Congressional Democrat leadership plan to put higher education under the spotlight in 2007, stressing issues of accessibility and cost containment. While their approaches to the problems will be different, both sides agree universities will play even greater roles in maintaining U.S. economic leadership in the 21st century than they have in the past.



Accessibility and affordability are only two of the issues before the nation's universities and colleges. Increasingly, institutions of higher education are called on to support economic vitality through research and technology commercialization. States, local governments, foundations and business organizations are among those pushing academia in this direction through various TBED programs and policies.

It is unfortunate the word entrepreneurship has become as overused a buzzword as innovation because developing vibrant climates to support tech entrepreneurs remains one of the most important elements of successful state and local TBED.



Not all entrepreneurship is created equal, however. The country's standard of living will decline if it were based entirely on low-wage retail and service businesses – even if every single one of them was created by budding entrepreneurs.



The most successful regional economies in the U.S., according to the Small Business Administration, are built on a foundation of technology firms. Its tech entrepreneurship, then, that matters most.



This fact is not lost on nearly every state and local TBED program across the country. A wide variety of approaches have been implemented throughout the U.S. with equally varied degrees of success.

The public role in increasing access to capital is, perhaps, the most controversial element of TBED – if any of the public's role in the 21st century to strengthen competitiveness in a global knowledge economy is controversial.



As researchers such as Paul Gompers and Josh Lerner have shown us, the availability of equity capital runs in cycles. In fact, presently, at the macro level and in some specific markets, there is an excess of private capital available. That 'fact' does not hold, however, in most regions of the country and even in many regions or industrial sectors of those states enjoying a surplus of capital.



Maximizing the impact of public involvement in either the 'have' or 'have not' regions of the country, then, becomes of upmost importance to ensure the free market system is not negatively affected by poorly executed public policy.



The research and interviews for developing A Resource Guide for Technology-based Economic Development revealed capital-related TBED efforts can be divided into two distinct camps:

A Resource Guide for Technology-based Economic Development is available from SSTI as a free, downloadable PDF at http://www.ssti.org/Publications/Onlinepubs/resource_guide.pdf or as an inexpensive 90-page bound book (a format still more likely to be perused by most legislators or gubernatorial staff than a pile of printouts). Single print copies are $15 plus shipping and handling. SSTI members receive a 10 percent discount on each order. The guide can be ordered by calling SSTI at 614.901.1690 or ordering it online at SSTI's bookstore: http://www.ssti.org/Bookstore/merchant.mvc