Accelerating economic development through innovation : university cases in research, education and catalyzing innovation

The primary role of universities in strengthening economic development is in accelerating innovation and entrepreneurship. The framework Universities as Engines of Economic Development codifies a set of practices that collectively illustrate how universities can more effectively accelerate innovation, and contribute to sustainable economic development. This qualitative interdisciplinary study complements this systemic framework by illustrating with eleven case studies how these practices of knowledge exchange in research, education, and catalyzing innovation, are applied across different types of universities and circumstances. Results show how universities invigorate discoveries, enhance the training of future researchers, and improve direct diffusion of knowledge exchange by supporting investigator-driven mechanisms that solve societal challenges through interdisciplinary collaborations--among scholars, industry, and government--while influencing education, science policy and practice. Students are educated through integrated curriculum, real-world projects and independent learning to scale up tech ventures by leveraging the resources of local ecosystems and providing access to university intellectual property, tangible research products, incubators, labs, funding and professional entrepreneurial networks. These case studies reveal how universities can accelerate sustainable prosperity through innovation and help stakeholders reach their full potential.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering and Management Program

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• García Sánchez, Juan Cristóbal.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Edward F. Crawley.

• Engineering and Management Program.
• System Design and Management Program.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132819

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/132819