The South Carolina Technology Alliance was charged by the South Carolina Legislature with the task of creating a business environment that is friendly to technology-intensive companies. The specific goals were to prepare a technology-capable workforce, to expand the sources of investment capital available to new technology companies, and to foster a world-class research environment within the universities in the state. Within this broad set of objectives, the need arose for a model to evaluate the economic impact of technology transfers from the three major state universities: the University of South Carolina, Clemson University, and the Medical University of South Carolina.

IMS Quantum was engaged to develop a model that would satisfy two major objectives: (1) The model had to be simple and transparent enough to be used as a management tool and yet capture the major types of technology transfer and compensation. (2) The model had to reflect a number of dimensions of impact that are not possible with traditional economic impact models.

Specifically the model addressed two types of technology transfers: (1) core technologies that form the basis of a manufactured product, and (2) value added technologies that enhance the value of a product currently being manufactured. In addition to these two types of transfers, there are two other kinds of impacts that often get overlooked in traditional analyses: (1) new technologies enabled by the technology under consideration, and (2) competition engendered in a new market that grows up around the technology under consideration. The fact that technologies can breed newer technologies as well as competition in new markets means that there exists a technology multiplier that is similar to an economic multiplier but which works over a longer period of time and has a much broader and possibly much greater impact.