Troy N.Y. — As part of an ongoing effort to foster international education partnerships, entrepreneurship, and technological innovation in developing countries, a team of professors from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lally School of Management and Technology and the Institut des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (IHEC) — The Institute of Advanced Business Studies in Tunisia, Africa — are working to develop a road map for sustained high economic growth in the Maghreb countries (Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco). Rensselaer, in conjunction with IHEC, will host a symposium, “Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Economic Development in the Maghreb,” from Dec. 15-17 in Tunis, Tunisia.

The symposium, designed to build a foundation to stimulate business in the region, will feature presentations and workshops by U.S. and Tunisian government, business, banking, academic leaders, and venture capitalists. Lazhar Bououni, Tunisian Minister of Higher Education, will deliver opening remarks. The program will address a range of topics including — financing the economic development of emerging countries, the status and challenges of innovative small and medium start-up enterprises (SMEs), the role of women entrepreneurs in the Maghreb, technology transfer from developed countries to developing countries, and the role of technology parks.

The symposium is jointly organized by Pier Abetti, professor of management at Rensselaer’s Lally School, with IHEC professors, Marouane El Abassi, professor and director of the master’s program in technology management, and Naoufel Ben Rayana, assistant professor of marketing and entrepreneurship. Other partners involved in the development of the symposium include the Tunisian Venture Capital Association, the El Ghazala Technology Park, and Ecole Polytechnique of 7 Novembre University.

Abetti is leading a delegation from Rensselaer to participate in the symposium. The Rensselaer participants are Iftekhar Hasan, co-director of the Ph.D. program and director of the Center for Financial Technology in Rensselaer’s Lally School, economist and consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank, World Bank, the Bank of Italy, and the Bank of Finland; Nobel Laureate Ivar Giaever ’64 Institute Professor of Science, professor of physics, co-founder and president of Applied Biophysics located in Rensselaer’s Technology Park; Michael Ensley, associate professor of entrepreneurship; and Douglas Cumming, associate professor of finance and director of Rensselaer’s Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship. Robert Sands, clinical professor of management at the Lally School, is teaching at IHEC as part of a 10-month Fulbright Scholar lecturing/research award, and will also participate.

The symposium is the next step of this U.S. Department of Commerce-funded collaboration between the two universities. The partners are working on a long-term study on global innovation, faculty/student exchanges, the development of an entrepreneurship manual for North African countries that will be published in English, French, and Arabic, and a research project focused on women entrepreneurs. The findings will reveal the conditions and key success factors for economic development in Tunisia with future extensions in Algeria and Morocco.

The Lally School and IHEC recognize the challenges that these developing countries face in trying to expand into new markets. Some of the challenges include dealing with different economic, technical, and business conditions; cultural differences; lack of financing; and shortage of experienced managers and specialists, according to Professor Abetti. The road map will focus on nurturing new technology ventures as a means of commercializing discovery and innovation, and developing SMEs that serve as a source of employment and economic growth, he says.

“Technological innovation and entrepreneurship can promote regional economic development through the creation of new business ventures,” said Abetti. “The main critical factor of success is the presence of the infrastructure for entrepreneurial innovation, including the development of venture capital and new business incubators and technology parks.”

“The goal of this partnership between Rensselaer’s Lally School and IHEC is to create an environment that fosters technological entrepreneurship and innovation in the global economy,” said David Gautschi, dean of the Lally School. “Changing times demand a new way to teach business leaders, and through this international collaboration, faculty and students are working shoulder-to-shoulder to advance thought and practice in the areas of commercialization of technology with global reach and global impact. Entrepreneurship is ingrained in our culture, and this is an opportunity to prepare business leaders with the skills and thinking that are so essential for successful managers to meet the day-to-day challenges of running a business in today’s rapidly changing global marketplace.”  

This Rensselaer Lally School initiative is funded through the U.S. Department of Commerce — Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) titled “Assistance for Capacity Building of Innovative SMEs in Tunisia.” The financing was provided by the Middle East Program Initiative of the U.S. Department of State.

About Rensselaer’s Lally School
Rensselaer’s Lally School of Management and Technology was founded in 1963 as an integral part of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the nation’s oldest degree-granting technological university. Building on Rensselaer’s heritage of more than 180 years of leadership in science and engineering, the Lally School is dedicated to advancing business through innovation. The Lally School’s curriculum is designed to produce leaders who combine creative passion with the ability to integrate technology across business functions. The faculty emphasizes the value of hands-on experience available through campus resources such as the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship and the nation’s first on-campus business incubator. Rensselaer’s Lally School offers graduate and undergraduate degree programs in management, doctoral programs in management and technology, an Executive MBA program, and a joint Sino-U.S. MBA for companies operating in China. For more information on the Lally School, go to www.lallyschool.rpi.edu.

Contact: Jessica Otitigbe
Phone: (518) 276-6050
E-mail: otitij@rpi.edu