Stanford GSB Welcomes SPRIE Program on Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Core activities of Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship include global interdisciplinary research, seminars, conferences.

September 13, 2011

The Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE) is focused on understanding the development and practice of innovation and entrepreneurship around the world. Current research focuses on the dynamics and sustainability of Silicon Valley and high-technology areas across Europe and Asia, including those in mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, India, Korea, and their collaboration and competition in the evolving global innovation network. Specific projects focus on “Silicon Valley Transforming,” the rise and implications of China’s internet industry (“China 2.0”), Japanese entrepreneurship (“STAJE”), and clean energy and urbanization (“Smart Green Cities”).

SPRIE’s core activities include global interdisciplinary research, seminars, and conferences, as well as publications and briefings for industry and government leaders. Upcoming events this month at Stanford include a panel discussion, “Re-examining the State of Japanese Entrepreneurship,” on Sept. 21 and “China 2.0: Transforming Media and Commerce in China,” SPRIE’s third in a series of highly successful forums. Keynotes for “China 2.0” on Sept. 30 will include investors, entrepreneurs, and founders or CEOs of billion-dollar Chinese internet firms, including Jack Ma of Alibaba and Joe Chen, MBA ‘99, of RenRen.

“Innovation and entrepreneurship are hallmarks of the GSB experience,” said Garth Saloner, dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business. “We are thrilled to welcome SPRIE, a catalyst for cutting-edge knowledge in this space, and a natural fit for us. SPRIE complements and augments many of our existing efforts, including the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and the Center for Global Business and the Economy.”

Previously housed at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, SPRIE is led by faculty directors William F. Miller and Henry S. Rowen, as well as Associate Director Marguerite Gong Hancock. Miller, the former provost of Stanford University and the Herbert Hoover Professor of Public and Private Management, Emeritus, at the business school, is also a professor emeritus of computer science at the engineering school. He was CEO of SRI International, where he established a spin-out and commercialization program. Rowen is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Edward P. Rust Professor of Public Policy and Management, Emeritus, at the business school, as well as former president of the RAND Corporation. He is an expert on international security, economic development, and high-tech industries in the United States and Asia.

Hancock leads research initiatives, conferences, and publications on topics ranging from “China 2.0: The Rise of a Digital Superpower” to “Smart Green Cities.” She is coeditor of books published by Stanford University Press: The Silicon Valley Edge (2000), Making IT: The Rise of Asia in High Tech (2006), and Greater China’s Quest for Innovation (2008). Hancock also codirects SPRIE executive and policymaker training programs on leading innovation and entrepreneurial regions in the global economy.

“We are very pleased to join the Graduate School of Business and look forward to collaborating on international and interdisciplinary research and conferences relevant to business students, executives, and government leaders from around the world who are focused on leading innovation and creating value,” said Miller.

SPRIE research focuses on the nexus of innovation and entrepreneurship in high-technology clusters, through questions such as:

What factors enable innovative and entrepreneurial regions to advance and be sustained? What divergent models and strategies are evident in emerging regions? Why have some regions lagged, despite strong assets such as skilled workers or capital investments? What obstacles hinder a region’s development? How do the flows of ideas, technology, people, and capital define new global linkages? How do these shape the emerging global high-technology system? With the rise of China, India, and other high-technology powerhouses, what new patterns of interaction are emerging among major players? How can companies and governments best respond to new critical challenges and opportunities?

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