Date of Award

Spring 5-2007

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Economic and Workforce Development

Committee Chair

Dr. Kenneth Malone

Committee Chair Department

Economic and Workforce Development

Committee Member 2

Dr. David Butler

Committee Member 2 Department

Political Science, International Development, and International Affairs

Committee Member 3

Dr. Cecil Burge

Committee Member 4

Dr. Brent Hales

Committee Member 5

Dr. D. von Herrmann

Committee Member 6

Dr. James T. Johnson

Abstract

Nations searching for a competitive edge in the global economy often focus on the promotion o f innovation and advanced technology. A common economic intervention towards this end is the formation o f university research parks. University research parks are generally intended to accelerate the transfer of technology from academia to industry.

Porter’s cluster model predicts that the core competencies of the universities should do to align with the technical and workforce needs o f the companies located in the university research parks. This study finds that this is not the case. The 504 organizations in 19 United States mid-life University Research Parks demonstrated no correlation between the fields that the companies were engaged and the amount o f research funding that the associated university received in that field. There was also no correlation between the number of companies in each field with the numbers of graduating students or faculty in each of the fields at the university. There was a small correlation o f the total research funding at a university and the number of companies found in their university research park.

The findings indicate that current economic interventions using university research parks in the USA do not reflect the Porter cluster model. While this study did not address the economic effectiveness of university research parks, other studies have demonstrated marginal or no value to the economy. Future work should address if better implementation o f the Porter model can result in a more significant impact from university research parks.