SSTI Digest

For the third year, the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) has been named the nations most active source of early-stage or angel capital. TEDCO leads the list of the 100 top venture capital firms, based on the quarterly MoneyTree survey published by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Thomson Venture Economics and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). The 2005 list appears in the July issue of Entrepreneur magazine.



Each venture capital firm on the list reported at least three deals in 2005. Because of ties, this years ranking includes 120 firms. Maryland TEDCO improved on its figure of 15 deals in 2004 to fund 23 early-stage firms.



TEDCO bucked the national trend, which showed the number of initial venture capital deals dropping significantly. Entrepreneur reports the total number of companies that won initial capital fell from 654 in 2004 to 608 last year. On average, these companies received $4.8 million, for a total of $2.9 billion. Both figures are at their highest point in four years.

The rate of R&D investment by U.S. majority-owned affiliates performed outside of the U.S. increased twice as much as R&D performed within the U.S. from 1998 to 2003, as more countries around the world increased their R&D tax credits relative to those offered by the U.S. In a recent paper by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), The Research and Experimentation Tax Credit: A Critical Policy Tool for Boosting Research and Enhancing U.S. Economic Competitiveness, Dr. Robert Atkinson makes the case for why the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit should be extended and expanded by the U.S. Congress.

 

When the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit was created in 1981, it was the most generous credit offered by any nation in the OECD. Over the years, additional countries offered more and more financial incentives to attract R&D activities. As a result, in 2004 the U.S. dropped to the 17th most generous OECD nation to offer R&D tax credits.

 

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has awarded its second Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship to Professor Toby Stuart of the Harvard Business School. The medal is given every two years to a scholar under the age of 40 whose research has made a significant contribution to the study of entrepreneurship and innovation. Stuart accepted the medal last month, along with a cash award of $50,000, at the Academy of Management's annual meeting in Atlanta.



At the ceremony, the Kauffman Foundation cited Professor Stuart's pioneering research on social networks and their effect on entrepreneurship as an example of outstanding contribution to the field. Stuart's latest research suggests that entrepreneurs must be perceived positively within their local entrepreneurship community in order to create successful new firms.



As a service to those Digest readers who do not regularly review the latest academic research in the field, SSTI offers the follow summaries of a selected set of Professor Stuart's most recent articles:

SSTI is pleased to announce four new appointments to our board of trustees:

The Maine Department of Economic and Community Development is seeking a qualified, energetic, collaborative person to serve as director of its Office of Innovation. The Office of Innovation seeks to advance Maine's economic well-being and to expand employment opportunities by encouraging and coordinating the state's R&D activities and fostering collaboration among its higher educational and nonprofit research institutions and the business community. A four-year degree; experience in science, engineering, technology and/or business; and experience in the management of organizations that innovate, commercialize and deploy technology are among this position's minimum requirements. More information on this opportunity is available through the SSTI Job Corner at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.