Let’s say you’re a technology company with a novel AR platform you’d like to see firmly embedded in the culture as the “grown up” version of mixed reality, something capable of doing important work. You’re going to market the heck out of it, of course, and you’re going to incubate a developer community that can wring out as much potential as possible.
The other thing you’re going to look for is key early adopters, and there’s a specific subset of adopters that are particularly valuable in this space: Academics working in research institutions.