cameron county/matamoros - blue - The University of Texas at ...

UTB-CBIRD Report: “At the Crossroads” Introduction 4
Civic entrepreneurship is most concerned with the networking regional
academic, government, and business leaders to identify and solve community
challenges. Civic Entrepreneurship utilizes innovative approaches and
partnerships in the pursuit of institutional excellence as well as for leveraging
regional, national, and global resources to solve challenges and to create new
infrastructures for accelerated and sustainable development.
Social entrepreneurship focuses on finding creative and innovative ways to
improve society through shared prosperity and social inclusion. Social
entrepreneurs network and link public and private sectors including non-profit
and non-government organizations (NGOs) and foundations to solve challenges
and to provide new opportunities for an accessible and improved quality of life
for all residents.
Knowledge-Base Benchmarking
The foundation for a new economic world order has been laid – one based
upon knowledge, innovation and international collaboration. This is a new
landscape where ….the world is experiencing unprecedented change in
applications of knowledge in every dimension of development, growth,
revitalization, and organization. The demands and opportunities of an
interdependent global economy have implications for private and public
decision making by enterprises and communities…
Debra M. Amidon,
The Innovation SuperHighway:
Harnessing Intellectual Capital for Collaborative Advantage, 2002
This report uses Knowledge-Base Benchmarking at the regional level to provide
an assessment of key assets and challenges to:
⇒ Foster the development of technology entrepreneurship and globally
competitive industry clusters for 21 st century wealth creation and
increased availability of well-funded, career oriented jobs to grow, retain,
and attract talent
⇒ Increase regionally-based financial, social, and intellectual capital (civic
and social entrepreneurship) for meeting regional challenges including
improving the quality and availability education and training (K-12,
college, and university) for the 21 st Century
⇒ Develop the Lower Rio Grande Valley border region as a model of
binational collaboration and cooperation for an enhanced quality of life
This report focuses on Cameron County (including the cities of Brownsville,
Harlingen, San Benito, Los Fresnos, Port Isabel, and South Padre Island) and the
border city of Matamoros, Mexico. 1 Key assets and challenges are assessed in
terms of:
⇒ Regional demographics
⇒ Binational Community leaders’ opinions on the importance of regional
industries, factors and strategies for economic development
⇒ Education and training
1 For another Lower Rio Grande Valley regional assessment please refer to Assets and Challenges for
Accelerated Technology-Based Growth in Hidalgo County: Knowledge-Based Benchmarking, by Gerald
D. Brazier, The University of Texas Pan American and David Gibson, IC² Institute, The University of
Texas at Austin. A CBIRD (Cross Border Institute for Regional Development) Core Program Report,
implemented under a partnership agreement between CBIRD and the University of Texas Pan-
American and funded by The Economic Development Administration, Texas - see www.cbird.org.
Una Region -- Un Futuro
Regional Knowledge-
Base Benchmarking
entails a comparison
of actuals to
possibles…
to articulate how
specific assets may be
leveraged to overcome
specific challenges for
accelerated growth in
the knowledge
economy of the 21 st
Century.