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Universities, industrial clusters and economic development in Egypt
- Source: International Journal of Technology Management & Sustainable Development, Volume 11, Issue 3, Sep 2012, p. 245 - 264
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- 01 Sep 2012
Abstract
This article explores the role of industrial clusters in the development of the Egyptian universities and research institutes (URIs) and economic performance. The study hypothesizes that the large industrial clusters in Egypt are old and traditional, and have weak impact on URIs and economic performance. To this end, we examine Egypt regions that contain long-existing and traditional industrial clusters and can be compared to all other regions. The analysis is conducted separately for seven industries, and by using a Mann–Whitney U test and a Spearman correlation we find that the more recent and technical industrial clusters in Egypt have a positive and significant impact on URIs, but they have a weak impact on economic performance. The Egyptian experience suggests that the most important contribution of clusters to URIs is one in which corporations provide financial support to universities or enter into informal consulting arrangements with a professor, neither of which is typically of professional patent applications or even through the mobility of university graduates.