This chapter synthesizes our prior work that examines the role of governance in creating place-specific advantages. We define governance as the interactive process of building consensus to solve a collective problem. Thus, governance creates social norms and institutions that may responsibly advance place-specific advantage. Through this process, conditions are created that generate interest and expertise around a local industry, putting the “secrets” of the industry into the air of public conversation.

This chapter examines the internal anatomy of regional social capital and develops a role for dealmakers – individuals who provide active regional stewardship. An empirical analysis of 12 US regions finds great variation in the presence of dealmakers. The strong local presence of dealmakers is correlated with high start-up rates. Our empirical results suggest that the local presence of dealmakers is more important for successful entrepreneurship than aggregate measures of regional entrepreneurial and investor networks. Moreover, we find that the presence of dealmakers is a better predictor of the status of the regional entrepreneurial economy.

In search of additional sources of revenue, universities and colleges have cultivated individual donors to provide support to academic projects and initiatives. Major gifts (of at least $100,000) from private donors are typically lost in an aggregation of all types of philanthropy, rather than being considered as their own separate category. This chapter provides evidence of the contributions of high net worth individuals to university programs, with a focus on donors’ support of scientific research. We have documented 4794 announced major gifts to 835 degree-granting institutions, from 4,381 donors between 1995 and 2004. Major gifts to create scientific research centers are highlighted, because these gifts are rare, understudied, and link individual donors to the economic and regional development associated with these research centers. These considerations are relevant to modern institutions seeking to leverage high net worth donors, as major sources of scientific research and development funding are currently under threat.

This article analyzes factors shaping technological capabilities in USA and European countries, and shows the differences between the two continents in this respect are much smaller that commonly assumed.