Knowledge commercialization and valorization in regional economic development

Abstract

In many Western countries, universities are strengthening connections with their local business and policy communities, spurred on in part by internal pressures from academics who want to make a difference through their work and in part by external pressures from stakeholders who want to see universities deliver returns to taxpayer funding. This is a hot topic for regional science. At the December 2013 conference of the Australia and New Zealand Regional Science Association International, for example, there was a special session devoted to this issue sponsored by Regional Science Policy and Practice and chaired by its editor, Professor Michael C. Carroll. In 2011, Tuzin Baycan (Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at Istanbul Technical University) was on sabbatical in the Office for Research and Economic Development at George Mason University in the United States. There, she was able to observe at close hand how that university was deliberately transforming itself into a more entrepreneurial organization. In particular, she participated in several meetings and discussions as the technology transfer program was shifted from an internally focused “patent centric” design to an externally focused “company-centric” orientation (p. xiv). With strong support and encouragement from Professor Roger R. Stough, that experience has led to this collection of 12 essays by 23 authors on Knowledge Commercialization and Valorization in Regional Economic Development