mit_impact_full_report

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Conclusions: Enhancing the Role of
Research/Technology Universities in an
Entrepreneurial Economy
Universities that are strong in research and
technology are at the forefront of knowledge
creation and potential application. When the
university is able to couple this capability with the
inclination and resources needed to connect ideas
and markets, impressive possibilities exist for
generating entrepreneurship-based economic impact
at the local, as well as national and global levels.
Most important in making this transformation is
having the institution’s leadership adopt the will to
accomplish this. Numerous changes are needed in
most universities over an extended period of time in
rules, regulations and, more important, attitudes and
institutional culture. None of these will be
accomplished without strong and committed
university leaders.
The MIT history described in this report provides
numerous and detailed examples of how one major
institution achieved significant entrepreneurial impact
over its first 150 years. Early examples of engaging
the academic with the real world, even including
entrepreneurial actions by senior and respected
faculty and university officials, did much to capture
the attention of more junior faculty members, as well
as students and alumni, to the legitimacy of
technology transfer and commercialization.
Big differences between institutional histories of
entrepreneurial output no doubt are explainable to a
great extent by this distinction alone in leadership
roles and behavior. MIT’s history suggests that the
appropriateness of rules and regulations needs to be
assessed carefully to be sure that they do not create
barriers to faculty participation in industrial consulting
and, more vitally, that they do not hinder faculty
initiatives in new companies’ formation. A shift from
barriers toward incentives will take much time to
occur in most organizations, and will be accelerated if
advocates for entrepreneurship pay strict attention to
establishing and enforcing guidelines against conflicts
of interest.
Until quite recently, MIT had followed a “handsoff”
approach toward entrepreneurial engagement,
in contrast with many other universities in the United
States and abroad. MIT has neither created an
internal incubator for ventures nor a venture capital
fund to make life easier for prospective startups.
Those facts have permitted MIT to avoid degrees of
internal conflict and occasional embarrassments that
have plagued other academic institutions that have
tried to hurry the entrepreneurship process. But MIT
has had the advantage of a surrounding community
that essentially has provided those functions, as well
as other aspects of a supportive infrastructure for
new enterprises. In less well-endowed neighboring
circumstances, a university may have to supply with
great care the active help and at least some funding
to get entrepreneurial ventures off the ground.
Instead, MIT has relied internally on growing
faculty, student, and alumni initiatives, especially
during the most recent thirty years, to build a vibrant
ecosystem that helps foster formation and growth of
new and young companies. All these have, over time,
significantly enlarged the number of interested and
involved participants, with corresponding increases in
their activities and outcomes. If an institution is
deliberately trying quickly to become more
entrepreneurial, the MIT approach would take an
amazing degree of patience and self-restraint.
Outreach to alumni is achieved easily in the form
of self-organized seminars, and faculty visits and
ENTREPRENEURIAL IMPACT: THE ROLE OF MIT