Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate Jean-Jacques Degroof has ties to both financial and academic sectors in the United States and Europe. Holding a PhD from MIT's Sloan School of Management, Jean-Jacques Degroof regularly contributes to the academic world through lectures and collaborations on various research projects, which included MIT's Local Innovation Systems Project.

1. Jean-Jacques Degroof

2. Introduction
 Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate Jean-Jacques
Degroof has ties to both financial and academic sectors in the
United States and Europe. Holding a PhD from MIT's Sloan
School of Management, Jean-Jacques Degroof regularly
contributes to the academic world through lectures and
collaborations on various research projects, which included
MIT's Local Innovation Systems Project.
Between 2002 and 2005, MIT's Industrial Performance Center
was engaged in the Local Innovation Systems Project with
researchers from the United States, Finland, Norway, and the
United Kingdom. This international research project explored
local economic communities in an attempt to understand how
they can grow and thrive in the volatile global economy.

3. Innovation Systems Project at MIT
 Case studies included the advanced polymer industry in Akron,
Ohio; the wireless industry in Helsinki, Finland; and
bioinformatics in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
MIT researchers narrowed their focus to innovation and the role
it plays in productivity at the regional level. They looked at how
products, services, and processes can evolve to produce a
competitive advantage, with a particular emphasis on the role of
universities through research, training, and serving as public
forums. They concluded that universities contribute to local
economic economies through four pathways of regional growth:
indigenous creation of a new industry, transplantation of a new
industry into a region, diversification of an existing industry into
a new one, and upgrading of an existing industry.