Dr. Norman Borlaug, known as the “Father of the Green Revolution,” would have turned 100 on March 25 this year. He dedicated his life to feeding the world by improving the health and yields of cereal crops. To honor his legacy a Borlaug Summit on Wheat for Food Security set out to continue his work throughout the world.

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In a forthcoming article in the Journal of Business Venturing, EMAC researchers Kolympiris, Kalaitzandonakes and Miller examine where university-employed scientists start their firms.

The authors find that proximity to venture capital firms and key research infrastructure, such as medical schools, may help to attract new firms and create entrepreneurial environments that can boost local employment and encourage economic growth at large.

Nevertheless, the personal characteristics of academic entrepreneurs dominate the choice of location. For instance, academic entrepreneurs at later stages of their career are considerably more likely to start their firm away from their academic homes. These findings, therefore, suggest that a deeper understanding of the location choice of firms spawned by universities may require more attention to the characteristics and incentives of the academic entrepreneurs that establish them.

EMAC fellow, Christos Kolympiris, presented joint-work with Ken Zahringer and Nicholas Kalaitzandonakes at the Copenhagen Conferences on Innovation and Entrepreneurship on Jan. 19. Their research examines factors that influence the amount of time it takes for patents of entrepreneurial biotech firms to issue. The volume of patent applications that are in the queue for the United States Patent and Trademark Office to process have drastically increased, and similarly the time from application to grant date has more than doubled in the last 15 years. EMAC researchers analyzed the factors that cause such delays including the strategic incentives of emerging entrepreneurial life sciences firms.

The conference focused on entrepreneurial firm strategy, the drivers of innovation and the role of the public sector in fostering economic development. Other presenters in the conference included Professor Scott Stern (MIT), Alfonso Gambardella (Bocconi University) and Maryann Feldman (University of North Carolina).

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