22 Copyright © 2010, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Chapter 2 Leveraging University Research to Assist SMEs in Legacy Industrial Era Regions: The Case of I-99 Corridor Arvind Karunakaran The Pennsylvania State University, USA Sandeep Purao The Pennsylvania State University, USA Brian Cameron The Pennsylvania State University, USA introduction An enduring debate within the Information Systems (IS) community focuses on the ‘rigor’ of research, in terms of the methodological strength and sound- ness, versus its ‘relevance’ to practice. Oftentimes, there have been many concerns raised about the minor impact IS research has towards guiding practice (Baskerville & Myers, 2004; Benbasat & Zmud, 1999; Davenport & Markus, 1999; Lyytinen & King, 2004). Benbasat and Zmud argue that the abStract Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in legacy industrial era regions face unique challenges that vary from the challenges faced by SMEs in other regions. Especially, SMEs in legacy industrial regions face problems with respect to the access to knowledge networks. The authors discuss an approach that focuses on enabling the SMEs in legacy regions towards accessing these knowledge networks. The authors base their discussion upon the ongoing debate within the IS community regarding ‘rigor-relevance’ gap, and they take the specifc case of SME’s in I-99 corridor to illustrate this. The chapter highlights the chal- lenges faced by SMEs in legacy industrial era regions, and briefy describe the ongoing research project called LAIR (Leveraging Advanced IT Research), aimed at understanding the risks that SMEs in the I-99 Corridor are likely to face as they grow, with a specifc focus on risks associated with upgrading, implementing and integrating their existing and new Information Systems. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61520-627-8.ch002