Building High-Tech Clusters: Silicon Valley and Beyond

The contributions to this study of the origins of centers of industrial and technological innovation (such as Silicon Valley) reveal that these concentrated "clusters" of entrepreneurial high tech firms are characterized by rapid economic growth. No other analysts have examined how such clusters start, although many earlier works have studied Silicon Valley. The study's contributors conclude that the key public and business policy elements of starting a cluster are common to many regions, countries, and time periods.

Review of the hardback: 'By covering a wide range of cases around the world they can make meaningful comparisons and contrasts ... a collection of essays with a clear purpose and in a coherent manner ... is certainly a book worth reading and recommending.' Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy

Examines how clusters of industrial and technological innovation such as Silicon Valley get started.

Preface; List of contributors; 1. Introduction Timothy Bresnahan and Alfonso Gambardella; 2. Learning the Silicon Valley way Gordon Moore and Kevin Davis; 3. Israel's Silicon Wadi: the forces behind cluster formation Catherine de Fontenay and Erran Carmel; 4. In the footsteps of Silicon Valley? Indian and Irish software in the international division of labor Ashish Arora, Alfonso Gambardella and Salvatore Torrisi; 5. Agglomeration and growth: a study of the Cambridge hi-tech cluster Suma Athreye; 6. Clusters, competition, and 'global players' in ICT markets: the case of Scandinavia John E. Richards; 7. Taiwan's Hsinchu region: imitator and partner for Silicon Valley AnnaLee Saxenian; 8. The role of government in regional technology development: the effects of public venture capital and science parks Scott Wallsten; 9. Imitating Silicon Valley: regional comparisons of innovation activity based on venture capital flows Michael Horvath; 10. Old economy inputs for new-economy outcomes: what have we learned? Timothy Bresnahan and Alfonso Gambardella; Index.