The entrepreneurial university: Linking endowed chairs to regional economic development

Abstract

Endowed chairs and foundation professorships are considered essential bridges between industry and science as they represent a form of knowledge transfer and thus presumably a contribution to regional development. Literature reports a definite impact of knowledge transfer and University-Business Cooperation to companies’ success. This chapter links the concept of endowed chairs to regional development. The majority of endowed chairs are located in economically strong regions. This leads to the thesis that there is a relationship between established endowed chairs and regional economic power. In turn endowed chairs can also accelerate scientific innovation in university departments by incorporating input from industry. Amongst other, these arguments support the strategic implementation of endowed chairs. The paper examines this connection between endowed chairs and regional economy by comparing the relative performance of two regions in Germany and one region in the US. Key regional development factors are identified and related to the kind and number of endowed chairs. Building on this information, the findings reveal, that there is clearly a connection-yet not evidence on a statistical correlation level.