The Gulf Coast is facing significant challenges in rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. Post disaster perceptions of blight and crime have severely harmed the bread-and-butter industry of the area: tourism. As a result, the region must take inventory of its intellectual assets in order to determine new areas for economic development. This chapter first discusses the importance of absorptive capacity in economic development. It then presents from a technology mining study conducted on the intellectual assets (publications and patents) along what is known as the I-10 Corridor in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. These results reveal indicators of the economic development struggle of the region. More importantly, they reveal the technology areas, largely economically untapped, where the region exhibits strong research capabilities and educational focus, indicating high levels of absorptive capacity and thus, are areas prime for economic development. In addition, the paper demonstrates how technology mining can be used as a tool to aid in economic development decision-making.
http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/6716
Author(s): Cherie Courseault Trumbach, Sandra Hartman and Olof Lundberg
Organization(s): University of New Orleans
Source: Management of Technology Innovation and Value Creation: Selected Papers from the 16th International Conference on Management of Technology; World Scientific
Year: 2015