دانشگاه ها و توسعه اقتصادی منطقه ای: کارآفرینی دانشگاه واترلو

This paper argues that the contribution of some universities to local and regional economic dynamism is much richer than overly mechanistic depictions suggest. Beyond generating commercializable knowledge and qualified research scientists, universities produce other mechanisms of knowledge transfer, such as generating and attracting talent to the local economy, and collaborating with local industry by providing formal and informal technical support. A detailed case study of the University of Waterloo, in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, with its progressive Coop and Entrepreneurial education programs, and innovative Intellectual Property policy, illustrates the way in which the university has contributed to growth and innovation in the local and regional economy.

Universities have emerged as central actors in the knowledge-based economy, expected to play an active role in promoting technological change and innovation. However, the nature of their role in regional economic development is less well understood than is often presumed. While the presence of a leading research university is a critical asset for urban and regional economies, it is not sufficient in itself to stimulate strong regional economic growth because universities tend to be ‘catalysts’ of technological innovation rather than ‘drivers’ (Doutriaux, 2003 and Wolfe, 2005a). Yet many policymakers still view research universities as potential ‘knowledge factories’ for the new economy (David, 1997), with untapped reservoirs of commercializable knowledge waiting to be taken up by firms and applied. This mechanistic view of the way in which basic scientific research is transformed into commercial products demonstrates a misconception of the commercialization process itself, as well as the role that universities can and should be expected to play in that process. The flow of knowledge does drive innovation, but knowledge transfer from universities to industry is a fluid, complex and iterative process involving many different actors. As a consequence, the role of universities in technology transfer and commercialization is much more nuanced than traditional linear conceptions of the innovation process assume (Stokes, 1997 and Branscomb, 1997).

There are many variations on the theme of entrepreneurial universities, of which the University of Waterloo is but one manifestation. The potential for universities to contribute to local and regional economic development is being explored across the industrialized countries. In the UK, an alliance between Cambridge University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI) – is a joint government and industry-funded initiative, intended to improve productivity, competitiveness and entrepreneurialism through the design and testing of innovative mechanisms that promote university–industry knowledge exchange. The primary knowledge exchange mechanisms are Knowledge Integration Communities (KICs) comprising academic researchers, industry participants, government policymakers and educators, who collaborate on “multifaceted solutions” to address technological, economic, and social issues (Acworth, 2008). The University of Twente, a new, poorly endowed university in a peripheral region in the Netherlands, like the University of Waterloo, also developed a “strong entrepreneurial vision” and was able to facilitate entrepreneurial academic spin-off activity and generate and employ talent on a local level, as well as develop research excellence in several emerging areas of science and engineering (Lazzeretti and Tavoletti, 2005). In response to policy directions begun in the 1990s, Sweden has experimented with different modes of university–industry linkages, and Chalmers University of Technology was transformed into an “entrepreneurial” university. However, in this case, an emphasis on commercialization without the appropriate macro-institutional supports and micro-institutional, or university level, flexibility, has made the experience comparatively problematic and lackluster, substantiating the assertion that the presence of a strong research university in itself is no guarantee of regional economic growth (Jacob et al., 2003).