Role of Universities in Contributing Towards Science and Technology Park Development: A Framework of Critical Success Factors - Technopolis: Best Practices for Science and Technology Cities - page 296

or facilities, (7) access to transportation, (8) support of the local population, (9)
available support services, and (10) low entry barriers.
Each of the above factors is important. Some of them may be more critical to
one Technopolis venture than another, but all of them have a considerable role in
ensuring the Technopolis success. Proximity to universities is important in two
respects: First, in high-tech start-ups where new inventions or technologies play a
dominant role, these institutions can make significant contributions to successful
start-ups through research, problem solutions and engineering support.
Another benefit of the university is its business school and the availability of
consulting services in terms of marketing, production systems, MIS, accounting
and finance advice, etc. Kirzner ( 1984 ) has two additional factors to Gartner's list
that affect entrepreneurial success:
1. The existence of an entrepreneurial subculture. The tremendous success of
Silicon Valley, Boston, Austin and San Diego very much support the notion
that entrepreneurs feed off each other in a synergistic fashion and create their
own dynamic environment, and
2. The availability of incubator organisations, many of which are initiated by local
universities and governments as enterprise centres. The majority of the success
stories in Technopolis growth and development have been attributed to the
combined support of government leadership in education and industry and in
the case of India an actively involved diaspora that invests and develops
intellectual capital back and forth.
Zimbabwe cannot therefore run away from the Technopolis phenomenon which
is continuously characterised by increasing globalisation, heightened interdepen-
dency and the emergence of a new paradigm of regional, institutional and tech-
nological clusters, which facilitate innovation and its commercialisation.
2.5 The Innovation System in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe has 13 universities of which 9 are state and the remaining 4 are private.
It also has over 15 Polytechnics and Technical colleges excluding a number of
Teacher training colleges. Alongside these institutions are Research institutes
which are varied in terms of mandate and these cover areas such as agriculture,
veterinary, medical, engineering, fisheries, etc.
A number of Tertiary institutions have adopted an entrepreneurial approach to
their existence. The level of support to most of these institutions is insufficient,
forcing most of them to look beyond state support. This has seen a number of
income generating activities being embarked on by these institutions. Regrettably
these activities are in a number of cases not well funded and in some cases
organised, to the extent that teaching and research in some instances has suffered.