Reasons for the genesis of high-tech regions - Theoretical explanation and empirical evidence

Since the beginning of the eighties, regional technology and development policies in industrialized countries have pursued, among other things, the goal of attracting and supporting high-tech industries. Very often high-tech regions, such as legendary Silicon Valley, Calif., or Route 128, Mass., served as models. But there are high-tech regions in other industrialized countries, too. This paper analyses the reasons for the genesis of seven high-tech regions in Germany (Munich), France (Grenoble); Great Britain ('Western Crescent' west oi London, Cambridgeshire), Japan (Kyushu) and the U.S.A. ('Silicon Valley', 'Research Triangle'). These reasons will be set against some of the most popular theories claiming to explain technology-based regional growth. None of the theoretical approaches are suitable to help explain unambiguously the causes of the development of individuals, let alone all of the high-tech regions discussed here. Each one has specific strengths and weaknesses. An 'eclectic' theory, which combines convincing aspects of the above-mentioned theories, may offer the best approach to the problem. One element of such an eclectic approach should be governments' (implicit or explicit) influence on high-tech regions, which was not sufficiently considered by the theories discussed above. The applicability of a revised version of Porter's (1990) system of determinants of national competitiveness to high-tech regions is stressed. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd