Territorial assetsHuman capital, organizations and institutions

Jorge Niosi

Professor

Department of management and technology

UQAM

Canada Research Chair on MOT

Old assets Mainly static factors such as

- Good soil

- Easy transportation ways (I.e. rivers)

- Mineral resources

- Hydroelectric sites

New assetsThe assets of the new economy are more

difficult to produce and assess. They include- Human capital

- Efficient and effective organizations- Institutions that create incentives for firms, universities and public labs to conduct R&D and transfer the results to industry and society

Human capital It can be created, through the education

system and imported

- However, the education system may be at different levels of funding by public authorities (I.e. European Union versus North America) and it may have different levels of efficiency and effectiveness

Human capital (cont.) Human capital may also be imported

but then, again institutions and organizations designed to select and integrate these immigrants may be more or less suited to the goal

Ex France or Italy versus Canada

Organizations Organizations bearing the same name

have very different design. I.,e. Universities. They may or not provide research libraries, sabbatical years, transparent and open hiring rules, grants to students, etc.

Public labs may or not have budgets for technology transfer, spin-offs etc.

Organizations (Cont.) Some organizations are more important

than others: they are to be called anchor tenants. The create labor pools of human capital. These include large firms (such as IBM Canada Toronto Software Lab), research universities and public labs.

Institutions Again, institutions providing incentives

for firms to conduct R&D may or not exist. Ex. in 1993 Canada had some 349 incentives -- federal and provincial--to conduct R&D starting with tax credits initiated in 1942; Argentina had three, launched for the first time in 1997. Similarly, provinces, states or regions may or not have such incentives.

Institutions (cont.) Such institutions may or not have the

appropriate design. Examples are one NRC lab versus spin-offs, provincial lab that is ignored by manufacturing firms, or tax credits that are too complex for SMEs to claim.

Institutions Finally, public policy, institutions and

organizations in science and technology are supermodular: many of them need to be applied at the same time for results to be obtained.

Conclusions Territorial assets in the new economy

are far more complex, ethereal and sophisticated than those of the old economy. They need to be evaluated and finetuned constantly in order to benchmark them against competitors, and improve their efficiency and effectiveness.