Innovation and Enterprise: A Study of NSF's (National Science Foundation's) Innovation Centers Program

摘要

Initiated in 1973, the Innovation Centers Program was part of NSF's Experimental Research and Development Incentives program, undertaken to explore the role of applied research in stimulating the national economy. The current research was undertaken for the knowledge that could be gleaned about two major aspects of the innovation process: (1) the likelihood of establishing and sustaining an Innovation Center within a University environment; and (2) the types of interventions that can lead to the translation of university-based technology into commercially viable inventions or actual new business formations. Part I of the report examines the concept of the Innovation Center as an organizational innovation, by presenting and analyzing case histories of the nine Centers that were established. Part II presents findings concerning the nature and results of the Innovation Centers' activities.