"This book shows clearly what can be done and what has yet to be done. It is an important contribution to what must be a vital new phase in the history of higher education". - Sir Geoffrey Holland

It is becoming increasingly recognized that universities can and should play a role as positive economic engines for change, as significant partners with all the other participants in economic and social development. This book provides a basic insight into what universities currently do in terms of the creation of wealth, and into what kind of organizations they might usefully become. It explores how universities benefit their local and regional communities, and what more they might do. The first part of the book contextualizes the economic role of universities in terms, for instance, of the knowledge society, the global economy, small and medium-sized enterprises, and different countries (Canada and the ASEAN countries); the second part provides case studies of universities working with their hinterlands.