Discussants: Diego C. Pomarca Jr. Karen Gay A. Milla

ACADEMIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP

INTRODUCTIONAccording to former senator Edgardo J. Angara, the world today is

seemed to be increasingly borderless because of the advent of globalization. It is true in a sense that more countries (economies) are active participants in the global economy where exchange of goods, capital, and labor is highly remarkable. This has brought about rapid technological change and competition among nations.

 At the outset, intense global competition has driven the more able

producers and entrepreneurs to expand and grow richer and bigger while the less able economies are far-off behind. It is more than just a challenge today knowing that the primary determinant to effect economic development is the knowledge base our educational system has to offer for socio-economic placement.

In addition, the former solon reiterated that it is not lower wages or unskilled labor that determines a country’s economic growth. According to World Bank (go.worldbank.org), the true key to prosperity in today’s world is a well-educated, technically-skilled workforce producing high-value added, knowledge-intensive goods and services, employed in private enterprises that have the capacity to find, adapt, and adopt modern, up-to-date technology and sell sophisticated goods and services in global markets.

 World’s big economies produced majority of scientific and

technological innovation that create wealth. On the other hand, most of the developing economies like the Philippines struggle to establish science and technology as a head start to economically develop its production possibility frontiers.

ACADEMIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP

- is defined as the leadership process of creating economic value through acts of organizational creation, renewal or innovation that occurs within or outside the academic institution that results in research and technology commercialization.Balázs (1996) viewed academic entrepreneurship essentially as behavior, which modifies behavior of research and education in the sense that it should be considered an “income- oriented” activity which could be seen as “risk-taking”, technology- and knowledge-based and causing greater stability for the university through their involvement in business activities.

ACADEMIC ENTREPRENEURS or

ENTREPRENEURIAL ACADEMICS

- individuals or groups of individuals acting independently or as part of faculty or university systems, who create new organizations or instigate renewal or innovation within or outside the academic institutions.

Three (3) Components of Academic Entrepreneurship:

1.The value it creates in the marketplace, as well as within the academic organizations. 

2.The value creation process that occurs through acts of organizational creation, renewal or innovation.

3.The results leading to research and technology commercialization.

Entrepreneurial University (Educational Institution) – an institution where academic entrepreneurship processes and activities are embedded in the university system, encultured in its academic faculties, embodied in its community of practice and “embrained” in each individual academic. This can be done by/through the following: a.Indulging in academic entrepreneurshipb.The academic inventors and entrepreneurs as agentsc.The use of available organizational resourcesd. Organizing the entrepreneurial activities

Academic or Technology Based Spin-Off - the creation and development of new organizations.Academic Technology Transfer – occurs when academic entrepreneurship does not only encompasses organizational creation but also strategic renewal, transformation and innovation within the academic institution or university systems. This means that not all academic entrepreneurship processes and activities will result in technology transfer.Entrepreneurial Activities - the process of transferring technology to the industry or the commercialization of the technology or invention through licensing agreements, research joint ventures and university-based start-ups.These activities and entrepreneurial developments will not only contribute to organizational growth, profitability and wealth creation in the institution but will also impact the external environment and economy as a whole by increasing productivity, improving best practices, creating new industries and enhancing international competitiveness and contributing to the growth and development of a knowledge-based economy and society.

For national and local governments, universities are a source of key assets for a technology-driven innovation economy because of the following:1.They provide skilled people (they attract other key

economic development resources, such as educated people, firms and venture capitalists).

2.They provide valuable researchable ideas (they can be relied upon for long-term sustainable relationships).

Through academic entrepreneurship, the university becomes the agent of industrial innovation, technological development, economic development and social development especially in the context of growing knowledge-based economies and globalization.

Roles or Functions of Universities in Realizing Academic Entrepreneurship:1.To educate people, and train skilled

undergraduates, graduates and post-doctorates.2.To contribute towards knowledge-based

innovation systems and economies through increasing the stock of codified useful knowledge such as publications, patents and prototypes.

3.To participate in problem-solving activities in industry and communities.

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

Scientific and technological innovations developed as early as the 1980s are expected to change, even accelerate, at least until the first two to three decades of the 21st century.

Robert Solow, one of the Nobel Prize winners in economics, estimated that more than 50 percent of the economic growth in the US since World War II has derived directly from technological innovation.

 Japan, for instance, identified rapid and intensive technological

innovations in the areas of environment; electronics; life sciences; marine and earth science; production and machinery; communication; information; health, medical and welfare; agriculture, forestry and fisheries; and transportation.

South Korea forecasted materials; information, electronics and communication; medical care and health; production; life science; energy; environment and safety; transportation; agriculture, forestry and fisheries; and minerals, water resources, urbanization, construction and civil engineering as areas that will experience great leaps of progress.

Biotechnology - refers to the use of microorganisms such as bacteria or biological substances such as enzymes, to perform industrial or manufacturing processes. It focuses on gene manipulation and transfer, DNA typing and cloning and the much-debated genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Biotechnology in agriculture and food can increase production and productivity and improve the quality of products, and is especially critical now.

  In medicine, biotechnology will enable us to better diagnose

diseases, promote the use of gene therapy, stem cell therapy and xenotransplantation to prolong human life.

 Xenotransplantation is a process which improves the chances of

acceptance of an animal organ to human transplant. ICT - is an umbrella term that includes any communication device

or application, encompassing radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning.

ICT (Information and Communication Technology)

- is an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning.

Since the 1990s, there has been a steady ICT diffusion. More economies invest in ICT as they move towards a knowledge society. ICT will continue to grow, that by 2020 it will be worth US$7 trillion.

Nanotechnology is the science and technology of devices and materials constructed on extremely small scales, as small as individual atoms and molecules.

Nanotechnology has several important applications in agriculture, farming, public health, and the environment. For instance, with nanotechnology, precision farming through computers, global satellite positions systems, and remote sensing devices, determine if crops are growing at maximum efficiency.

 Neurotechnology is a set of tools that can influence the

human central nervous system, especially the brain. It will be used for therapeutic ends such as cures for Alzheimer’s and will enable people to consciously improve emotional stability, enhance cognitive clarity, and extend sensory experiences.

 

Developed countries have made rapid advancements in the electronics and information field by creatively drawing from the physical sciences and engineering. They are now building on these innovations and working on the wide-ranging and life-changing possibilities of convergence between the life-sciences and engineering.

While these countries have boldly forged ahead in such new, exciting, and dynamic ventures, efforts in the Philippines seem to have stalled on the lower-end side of technology. This is not to belittle such efforts but rather to explore the reasons why the Philippines has not advanced as fast as Malaysia, Singapore, or Thailand and how this country can move ahead.  

COUNTRY EXPERIENCES IN DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY and INNOVATION

Robert Reich, author of Super Capitalism, argued that technological advances led to innovations that heightened competition and created new sources of wealth.

 These technological advances skyrocketed during the US-Soviet

arms race, which propelled the two countries to step up public financing of infrastructures, education and research, all in the name of national defense. In the 1970s, the US underwrites 70% of the country’s research, many of which involve defense technology.

 These technological discoveries have found their way to

commercial markets through defense contractors, universities, and entrepreneurs.

 

Economic development of this sort, however, requires massive investments in infrastructure, human resources, as well as time. Poor countries do not have enough of these to start with. While they continue to work for economic growth through building their human capabilities and physical infrastructure, poor countries could leapfrog or adopt a new technology directly and skip over earlier, inferior versions of it that came before.

FIVE COMMON FACTORS FOR DEVELOPMENT UNDERLYING THE STI EFFORTS:

Governments invested heavily in the provision of basic public

goods and services, road and ports, energy and communications, clean water, health and education services which raise the productive potential of firms and people. These investments served as the foundation for technological learning.

  Governments nurtured the development of small and medium-

sized enterprises. Building these enterprises requires developing local operational, repair and maintenance expertise, and a pool of local technicians;

Governments supported, funded and nurtured higher education institutions, as well as academies of engineering and technological sciences, professional engineering and technological associations, and industrial and trade associations;

  Governments established inter-institutional linkages among

universities, industries, government agencies, and not-for-profit organizations. Further, they fostered inter-disciplinary collaboration that includes not only the sciences and engineering but also business, law, and ethics; and

  Governments adopted good governance: transparency and

accountability in the use of public resources, fairness and the rule of law in social and business transactions, a level playing field for investment and competition, and reward for risk takers and entrepreneurs.

In conclusion, to nurture the academic entrepreneurial paradigm and mindset across the university organization and system, a shift from a focus on (basic) research and teaching to the development of a collective, innovative, entrepreneurial and sustainable source of S&T needs to be made. There has to be facilitation from inside the university system to accelerate technology diffusion. Conflicts arising from creative tension between teaching and research, applied and basic, entrepreneurial and scholastic interests are inevitable and expected.But, for the academic entrepreneurial paradigm to be sustainable, compromise, normative change and reconciliation of different and seemingly opposed ideological elements, such as entrepreneurship and the extension of knowledge, need to be facilitated and embedded in the university system. This should be the way forward.

But, for the academic entrepreneurial paradigm to be sustainable; compromise, normative change and reconciliation of different and seemingly opposed ideological elements, such as entrepreneurship and the extension of knowledge, need to be facilitated and embedded in the university system. This should be the way forward.(The Edge Daily)

REFERENCES: Balázs, K.  1996.  Academic entrepreneurs and their role in knowledge transfer.  November.  Steep Discussion Paper No. 37.  University of Sussex: Brighton.http://nextbillion.net/news/the-need-for-academic-entrepreneurship-0/

THANK YOU!!!