From August 19 to 20, KAIST held its first Asian Innovation and Entrepreneurship Association – National Bureau of Economic Research (AIEA-NBER) Conference. The underlying theme of this year’s conference was to explore the development and commercialization of innovation and entrepreneurship for economic prosperity between North America and Asia. The conference consisted of five sessions covering topics of entrepreneurship, innovation, regulation, and intellectual property, followed by two panel discussions involving innovation and entrepreneurship in North America and Asia.

Prominent researchers from North America and Asia were invited to discuss select topics from quantitative research on policy and practice of innovation and entrepreneurship. Researchers were from NBER, consisting of members from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, and University of British Columbia. Also, researchers from Asian universities, such as Tsinghua University, University of Tokyo, as well as a number of Korean universities including KAIST, were invited.

This conference was a pioneering effort that explores beyond the scope of geographical terrains of participating research institutes. Each researcher presented his or her paper and a discussant, after which another researcher from a different nationality than the presenter spearheaded the ensuing discussion, provided comments, and gave feedback to improve research methodologies and findings. This approach was taken to provide a multifaceted approach for the subject matter in question.

Professor Scott Stern of MIT Sloan School of Management commented that he was “particularly impressed with the degree of collaboration and interactive discussion between NBER researchers and members of top Asian science and technology research institutes, such as KAIST.” He also added, “It was a fascinating opportunity to learn about the Korean success story of economic growth and to discuss how to apply these lessons learned to the North American economic terrain.”