The Micro-Macro Interfaces of Higher Education, Innovation, Regional Growth and Regional Development

This chapter highlights the relevance of micro-macro interfaces for the study of investment inflows in higher education, as an impulse concept, in the development of economies on a regional scale, as a response concept. The term ‘micro-macro interfaces’ refers to the systems of interactions that combine and channel the efforts made by individuals, often within collective organizations, to achieve their personal goals and the objectives set at the organizational level, and how the results from those efforts, once aggregated territorially, drive the rhythm of economic growth and the directions of regional development. The analysis brings together theory, research and practice from economics, management science, educational science and regional science in order to clarify the links among a number of connected impulse-response mechanisms at the individual, corporate and spatial levels. Since those impulse-response relationships involve concepts often measured at more than one level of aggregation, researchers have tended so far to exclude them from the models used to provide evidence on the economic and social impacts of higher education at the regional level. Particularly, the discussion focuses on the influence of local contexts and local invention and innovation systems, and the role of knowledge related spatial spillovers, on the one hand, and on the transition of individual university graduates from higher education institutions to post-graduate positions and careers within work organizations.