The emergence of technopolis: Knowledge-intensive technologies and regional development.

摘要

A new kind of regional economic development emerged in advanced industrial societies after World War II. A small number of regions--the best known being Silicon Valley and Route 128--experienced rapid and propulsive growth resulting from the commercial exploitation of new, knowledge-intensive technologies. The rise of the technopolis, as these new technology regions came to be called, was part of a global geographic restructuring that also saw the decline of economic regions based on the technologies of the industrial revolution.;As the Silicon Valley and Route 128 phenomena became clear, policy-makers from all over the world devised strategies to create technopolises. Most of these strategies tried to replicate the conditions that had existed at Silicon Valley and Route 128. The most common policies were the development of science parks, venture capital funds, business incubators, physical and information infrastructure, and investments in university-based research. Although these policies sometimes helped to establish successful businesses, they usually failed to create regional economic development. A fundamental reason for this failure is that they were not grounded in any theoretical framework or model of regional development.;The framework developed in this dissertation maintains that the technopolis emerged first because of the revolution in information technology. The regions that grew and developed rapidly during this technological transformation possessed the two necessary conditions for emergence of a technopolis--a growth center capable of generating new knowledge and an environment that supports innovation. The initial knowledge centers of Silicon Valley and Route 128 were Stanford University and MIT respectively. Later, private firms became knowledge centers of the two technopolises. Both regions had highly innovative environments--a skilled labor force, access to markets, a well-developed web of local relations, and a strong knowledge infrastructure. Successful technopolis policies should begin by assessing regional resources and then strengthening both the knowledge center and the environment for innovation. Long time horizons and the development of cooperative relationships among government, business and universities are necessary for technopolis policies to succeed.