Entrepreneurship involves innovation and uncertainty. We outline a theory of entrepreneurship, which highlights the importance of social networks in promoting innovation and reducing uncertainty. Our findings suggest that this “social” aspect of entrepreneurship increases the probability of...

This paper argues that a linear model of technology transfer is no longer sufficient, or perhaps even no longer relevant, to account for the nuances and complexities of the technology transfer process that characterizes the ongoing commercialization activities of universities. Shortcomings of...

This paper presents a systematic analysis of the net economic benefits associated with the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. We offer a derivation of producer and consumer surplus to estimate economic benefits. Fundamental to the implementation of these models is a specific...

We investigate the impacts of the U.S. publicly-funded Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program’s funding on the overall employment growth of SBIR-award recipient firms. This paper is motivated by the U.S. Congress’ continued emphasis of employment growth during its deliberations on...

Research, science, and technology parks are increasingly seen as a means to create dynamic clusters that accelerate economic growth and international competitiveness through the transfer of knowledge and technology. As such, it is important to understand the academic literature related to...

Economic development practitioners and scholars recognize the link between universities and regional economic development. It is predicated on the spillover of knowledge from universities to commercialization. The literature has focused on the supply side, which involves university research and...

The purpose of this paper is to identify and unravel the disparate views toward innovation prevalent within the economic community and to link them to the various public policy approaches. These various schools of thought, or ways of thinking about the economy in general and the role of...

In this paper we identify the population of 32 U.S. university-related Proof of Concept Centers (PoCCs), and we present a model of technology development that identifies the economic role of PoCCs within that model. We examine the broad technology transfer challenges that PoCCs have been...

Our descriptive analysis of a random sample of businesses that received Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program awards shows that female-owned businesses are disadvantaged, compared to male-owned businesses, in their ability to attract alternative investment funding to...

The role of gender in entrepreneurship has been thoroughly investigated. However, less is known about gender differences in access to private investment when attempting to develop a new technology. In this paper we use data collected by the National Research Council of the National Academies to...