Promoting Regional Entrepreneurship through University, Government, and Industry Alliances: Initiatives from Florida's High Tech Corridor

Universities, industry and governments have shared interests that provide incentives for actively managed, mutually beneficial, economic development alliances. Benefits from these alliances include enriched entrepreneurship capital and support for knowledge-based startups and high-impact firms. Regions realizing these outcomes can expect enhanced economic outcomes like job creation, better wages, and higher innovation rates. Aside from prior research demonstrating how tech transfer processes promote innovation and high-tech business formation, little is known about other types of university alliance initiatives and how they contribute to economic development. We seek to describe several university alliances linking partners in academia, industry and government aimed at promoting entrepreneurship capital and high-impact firms. First, we describe research that provides justification for university alliances as a means of promoting regional economic development. We then describe five university alliance initiatives, and provide examples of how each has enriched the region encompassed within the Florida High Tech Corridor