University Spin-Off Companies: Economic Development, Faculty Entrepreneurs, and Technology Transfer.

• Author: Adams, Jack E.

This provocative volume encompasses such topical areas as the university and economic development, university faculty as entrepreneurs, technology transfer pertaining to issues and initiatives, and turning university research into business opportunities. In fact, the Virginia Tech Conference was intended to provide participants with an understanding of methods for commercializing university-related technologies through spin-off corporations.

Part I relates to "The University and Economic Development" and includes Chapters 1, 2, and 3. In their analysis pertaining to "Global Economic Competitiveness and the Land-grant University," which comprises Chapter 1, John E. Cantlon and Herman E. Koenig remind the reader that there is "no such thing as a stable global economy." In essence, the basic thesis of this particular presentation is simply that the contemporary and future economic issues involve innovation, quality and cost control, entrepreneurship, and all that these imply socially, culturally, and technologically.

In the second chapter which is entitled "The Role of the Research University in Creating and Sustaining the U.S. Technopolis," David V. Gibson and Raymond W. Smilor convey the position that a high-quality research university or institute is a necessary but insufficient condition for the creation and maintenance of economic development in the technopolis |1; 2~. The essay includes a conceptual framework referred to as the "Technopolis Wheel" in order to facilitate the description of the complex nature of technological development and economic growth in the technopolis |2~. The chapter focuses on the central role of the research university in creating and sustaining a technopolis and includes investigative examples from a mature, a developing, and an emergent technopolis.

Chapter 3 pertains to "Socioeconomic Development Through Technology Transfer: Tecnopolis Novus Ortus" by Umberto Bozzo, David V. Gibson, Romualdo Sabatelli, and Raymond W. Smilor and conveys that during 1969 the University of Bari promoted the seeds of the technopolis concept in Southern Italy with the cooperation of Italian enterprises and local and national government. The creation of CSATA (Centro Studi Applicazioni in Tecnologie Avanzate) provided the initial step in forming Tecnopolis Novus Ortus.

Part II focuses on "University Faculty as Entrepreneurs" and includes Chapters 4, 5, and 6. The article by David N. Allen and Frederick Norling comprises the fourth...