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Week of October 9 - 15, 2006

Coming Soon to a Bookstore Near You – The Entrepreneurial Imperative

A timely, new book, The Entrepreneurial Imperative: How America's Economic Miracle Will Reshape The World (And Change Your Life) (HarperCollins), adamantly shows how America can lead itself on a secure path for long-term expansion, primarily by supporting its number one, but underutilized, resource: entrepreneurial capitalism. Author Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, has a vision of seeing entrepreneurial capitalism reign in the United States and abroad. Not only is it his passionate goal to see a greater expansion of start-ups domestically and globally, he feels the promotion of entrepreneurial capitalism is a key formula for bringing about peace, prosperity, and stability in the world. Schramm, called the “evangelist of entrepreneurship” by The Economist, explains why America is so good at entrepreneurship and how it can increase the number of start-ups and move the economy further away from depending on the “failed trifecta” of big-government, big-business, big-union. He also argues that spreading entrepreneurship must be a pillar of US foreign policy – above military and political solutions.

The Entrepreneurial Imperative: How America's Economic Miracle Will Reshape The World (and change your life) comes out tomorrow, October 10, 2006. To order a copy, visit www.entrepreneurialimperative.com.

Measuring Tech Transfer: Revenues vs. Deal Flow

The Milken Institute has released an interesting report that tracks how various universities perform in terms of biotechnology-related technology transfer and commercialization. The massive study reviews university performance on several key metrics: biotechnology-related research publications, biotechnology-related patenting, and biotechnology-related start-ups and licensing. Overall, the Milken researchers find that for every dollar invested in technology transfer offices, a university reaps roughly $6 in licensing income.

Meanwhile, a panel at a recent National Academies event on their ‘Gathering Storm’ report took a look at how to “transition from research to product”. Several panelists, including Susan Hockfield, the president of MIT, and Lesa Mitchell of the Kauffman Foundation, cautioned against focusing too heavily on dollars alone. While the analysis of the data done on Mind to Market is excellent and provides a detailed look at the topic of technology transfer office revenue, it does not lend enough weight to a lesser understood metric of university innovation – assuring that technologies make their way into the marketplace. The bottom line? Policymakers and university leaders should focus on the need to encourage deal flow from universities, as well as the revenue generated by it.

The 2006 Milken Institute report, Mind to Market: A Global Analysis of University Biotechnology Transfer and Commercialization, by Ross DeVol and Armen Bedroussian and others, can be accessed at:
www.milkeninstitute.org/pdf/mind2mrkt_2006.pdf

To listen to the recent Convocation on Rising Above the Gathering Storm, visit the National Academies website: www.nationalacademies.org/morenews/20060928.html. 

Eroding Research Ties between Industry and Academia

A new National Science Foundation study paints a worrying picture about the state of ties between private industry and America’s leading research universities. Where has the Money Gone? depicts a new but pronounced trend of declining private sector investments in US university-based R&D partnerships. For three decades, the value of these partnerships grew at a steady pace. Between 1972 and 2001, industry support to universities and colleges was the fastest growing source of funds for academic R&D. Since 2001, however, this trend has reversed, with spending dropping 5.1% over a three-year period. Industrial R&D spending continues to grow, but less of it is being invested at universities.

The study also points to a growing concentration of research investments. While this spending has always been concentrated, the top 100 research universities are capturing a growing share (now at 76% of the total) of this industrial investment. Finally, the report highlights two other indicators: a decline in the number of academic articles co-authored by academic and industry researchers, and a decline in the number of academic citations found in US industry patent applications. The Issue Brief does not speculate on the causes of these trends.

To access the September 2006 National Science Foundation Issue Brief, Where has the Money Gone? Declining Industrial Support of Academic R&D, visit http://nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf06328/

Chinese Research Spending Booms

Chinese R&D spending is climbing at the world’s fastest pace, and Asia is becoming a key player in the international R&D market. These findings come from the annual assessment of global R&D patterns prepared by Battelle and R&D Magazine. The study finds that the US still remains the world’s R&D leader, accounting for 32.4% of global R&D. China now accounts for 13.4% of the total, and its growth rate far outpaces that of the US. Thanks to current offshoring trends, Asia is capturing more of the global R&D market. Overall, Asia now accounts for 35.6% of global R&D. Europe holds a 23.3% market share. The study researchers expect these patterns to continue over the next several years. Such trends will be the subject of future NDE activity, including a trip to Asia next month by NDE’s Jonathan Ortmans.

To access the 2007 Global R&D Report by Battelle and R&D Magazine, visit
http://www.battelle.org/news/06/09-29-06Global%20R&D.stm.

Summary of State Science and Technology Education Initiatives

While the Administration and Congress have been reviewing several plans to help improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in the US, the nation’s governors have not been sitting on their hands. Dozens of states have enacted plans to improve STEM education in the past year. A new issue brief from the Education Commission of the States summarizes this work. State governments have undertaken a number of reform initiatives. These include steps such as convening state commissions to recommend improvements in STEM education (7 states), providing grants to STEM educators for innovative education plans, or providing grants to students (Virginia) or researchers (Florida) with special expertise in STEM-related fields. The Issue Brief provides an excellent summary of the state of play in this important issue area.

To access the September 2006 Education Commission of the States report, Recent State STEM Initiatives, by Kyle Zeith, visit http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/70/72/7072.pdf.

A Snapshot of High-Growth Rural Entrepreneurs

Newspapers, magazines and other media regularly produce stories about high-growth entrepreneurs, but most of these stories tend to be about business owners based in cities or suburban locales. Rural America has lots of high-growth entrepreneurs, too, but they just don’t get the press of their urban counterparts. A new study from North Carolina’s Rural Development Center and the North Carolina Small Business and Technology Development Center seeks to counter this trend by profiling high growth companies located in rural North Carolina. The study surveyed more than 1,000 North Carolina-based firms and contains a special focus on firms that have doubled their sales and/or employment within three years. In some ways, high growth entrepreneurs are similar to other business owners. They tend to have more education than the general population, and they tend to be “do-it-yourselfers,” i.e. they build their businesses via bootstrapping. But, high growth entrepreneurs do have a few unique characteristics. They have great optimism about their business, they have been in business for a longer period (an average of 15 years), and they also have a stronger commitment to focus on clear business performance goals and measurements. The number one issue for North Carolina’s high growth entrepreneurs is one that affects all businesses: finding skilled and talented workers.

The September 2006 North Carolina Rural Development Center report, Creating Entrepreneurial Communities: Facts about High-Growth Entrepreneurs in Rural North Carolina, by Catherine Moga Bryant, Leslie Scott, Carol McLaurin, and Jeff DeBellis, is available at: http://www.ncruralcenter.org/pubs/highgrowthentrep_09_06.pdf 

The National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship, an initiative of the Public Forum Institute made possible by a grant from the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City. Through NDE-news, we bring you short summaries and analyses of various trends driving the innovation economy. Subscribe now to receive your weekly copy. Archived issues are available online. Links to the day's entrepreneurship stories from across the nation and around the world are posted each weekday on the NDE main page - bookmark it and stay informed about the latest entrepreneurship news.

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All stories © 2006 The Public Forum Institute
Content from this newsletter may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes with proper attribution to the National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship and a link to www.publicforuminstitute.org/nde. 

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