SSTI Digest

We greatly appreciate the praise and suggestions we've received from readers regarding the Tech-based Economic Development (TBED) Resource Center, a cooperative project of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of Technology Policy and SSTI. The new online library contains links to more than 1,300 research reports, strategic plans, best practices and impact analyses from state and federal government, university researchers and foundations.

Based on initial user input, we've added capability to search by author and by date entered. The year of publication also will be shown in search results.

We welcome additional suggestions for the site and recommendations of materials to include in this free resource. To browse the collection or make a suggestion, visit: http://www.tbedresourcecenter.org.

To fulfill a goal within the state's 2010 Initiative of becoming a recognized leader in research and technology development, the South Dakota Department of Tourism and State Development will operate an Office of Commercialization under the direction of Mel Ustad, current Interim Vice President for Research at the University of South Dakota.

The Office of Commercialization serves two purposes, according to Jim Hagen, secretary of the Department of Tourism and State Development. Its main function will be to coordinate technology transfer from university and private research centers to the private sector. The office also will facilitate the commercialization of that research, Hagen said.

Anyone working with an entrepreneur knows they like to write their own rules. The latest survey characterizing the world's pool of entrepreneurial talent finds a large majority of them also write their own checks to finance their businesses. It's easier to write - and change - the rules when you also control the purse strings.

Seventy-three million people are nascent entrepreneurs or own or manage a young business, according to the 2004 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) released today. Directed by Babson College and the London Business School, the report is the largest annual measure of entrepreneurial activity worldwide.

Large industrial or technology firms are often sought by economic development recruiters to serve as anchors for cluster development. Once an anchor is attracted, policymakers often nurture local industrial districts as ways to promote transmission of technical know-how and deepen industrial relationships. Does the strategy work?

Not always, according to a recent working paper by Andrea Morrison of Universita del Piemonte Orientale, Gatekeepers of Knowledge within Industrial Districts: Who They Are, How They Interact.

Many regions support local knowledge clusters in the hopes that geographic proximity will promote technology diffusion and enhance industrial competitiveness. A working paper from Italy suggests the effectiveness of such clusters or science parks depends upon the nature of the firms and institutions involved.

Roberta Capello of Politecnico of Milan and Andrea Morrison of Universita del Piemonte Orientale compare survey data from firms in two Italian regions (Pisa and Genova) where knowledge facilitators actively operate. In their working paper, An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Science Parks in Local Knowledge Creation: A Territorial Perspective, the authors evaluate innovation based on these efforts to facilitate knowledge exchange via internal and external networks.

A recent collection of weekly headlines gathered by the Montana Associated Technology Roundtables brought to our attention the annual world academic rankings compiled by the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

For the past two years, the school has identified the world's top 500 academic institutions based on a weighted scale of six indicators:

Areas working to encourage the growth of technology companies and build tech-based economies have a new resource to aid their cause. A new website, the Tech-based Economic Development (TBED) Resource Center (http://www.tbedresourcecenter.org), offers users the chance to learn from others’ experiences and benefit from the latest research on building a tech-based economy.

The TBED Resource Center categorizes and provides links to more than 1,300 research reports, strategic plans, best practices and impact analyses from state and federal government, university researchers and foundations. The website is a result of a cooperative project of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Technology Policy (OTP) and SSTI.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, State of the State Address, Jan. 10, 2005

"...I'll also ask for supplemental requests so we can become part of the e-corridor. We are one of the only Southern states that is not connected to the e-corridor, and it's vital to our long-term success and development. We'll also seek to provide more research dollars so we can see the incredible economic value that research provides for us."

Most of the nation's governors use the winter months to publicly lay out their agendas, visions and budget requests for the coming year. The text of State of the State Addresses, Budget Messages and, to a lesser extent, Inaugural Addresses, often reveals each governor's legislative priorities and new initiatives to be pursued over the coming months.

As a service to the tech-based economic development (TBED) community, SSTI provides excerpts from the various gubernatorial speeches and addresses that provide glimpses into how tech-based economic development issues are positioned in each governor's 2005 agenda. We kick off the sixth annual series of "Tech Talkin' Govs" with TBED highlights from addresses given by the governors of New York and North Dakota.

Hoping to combat and reverse job losses in the manufacturing sector, Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell outlined his blueprint for recovery last month, entitled "Manufacturing Innovation."

Nearly 165,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in Pennsylvania since 2001. Manufacturing, however, remains one of the largest sources of jobs in the state's economy, accounting for one out of every eight jobs. Gov. Rendell's blueprint targets this important sector for Pennsylvania, defining key business finance, workforce and technical support tools for manufacturers to remake themselves.

To increase business capital for manufacturing, the blueprint recommends the state undertake three steps:

Ah, the difference positive revenue figures make for some states' tech-based economic development (TBED) portfolios! In mid-December, Virginia Gov. Mark Warner introduced an amended 2004-2006 biennial budget that is the most favorable yet during the Warner term for programs to promote economic growth through strategic investments in science and technology.

“Having restored Virginia’s financial stability, we now face the challenge of maintaining it over the long term,” Gov. Warner said in his address to a joint meeting of the Senate Finance, House Finance, and House Appropriations Committees.

The opportunity to fine tune the state's TBED investments comes as 2004 revenue projections were estimated to be nearly $1 billion higher than originally forecast in 2003. In addition to cutting several taxes and shoring up the state's rainy day fund, Gov. Warner proposes the state supplement funding for dozens of initiatives and programs.

A December gathering of leaders from many of the nation's largest companies raised what could be considered a battle cry for the U.S. to take more seriously the implications of globalization.

While most of the corporate giants at the Council on Competitiveness event held last month are actively positioning their companies in the global economy - by offshoring manufacturing and back office operations, scaling up international sales divisions, and increasing R&D investments overseas - their unified alarm call was the U.S. as an economic power is seriously threatened without a more proactive and aggressive national strategy to encourage innovation.