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A technopole, commonly referred to as a high-technology cluster or tech hub, refers to a center of high-tech manufacturing and information-based quaternary industry. [1] The term was coined by Allen J. Scott in 1990 to describe regions in Southern California which showed a rapid growth in high technology fields. [2] This term now has a broader scope to describe regions worldwide dedicated to technological innovation. [3] Such regions can be centers of rapid economic and technological growth as a result of agglomeration effects. [4]
Technopoles are one type of industry cluster. The components of a technopole usually comprise local firms, universities, financial institutions and public research organizations. [5] Technopoles may be developed by the private sector or by the co-operation or partnership between the public and private sectors. Governments of all levels promote them as a panacea for economies hurt by economic restructuring. Large corporations and small business operate within these high technology areas. Networking between companies is important and made possible by technological advances and facilitate technology transfer. Technopoles are combined technological and business centers specifically established around recognized educational and research institutes.
There are several definitions for "technopole" in an international context, whereby focus is usually placed on the existence of four factors:
Factors important to investors include:
Technopoles are also vulnerable to global trends and can dissolve quickly if they are not properly supported. Technopoles have to be flexible and willing to experiment with new ideas to be seen as a global competitor. [6] Governments and corporations tend to continue to heavily invest in technopoles in hopes of gaining economic prosperity. [7]
Technopoles in South Africa include regions of Pretoria, Johannesburg and East Rand. [8] These areas have the largest concentration of national R&D facilities.
In Japan, technopoles were planned and developed by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). [9] Since 1983, there have been over 25 technopoles in Japan as designated by MITI. [10] Some of the most successful technopoles in Japan include Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi and Kumamoto. [11]
UNIDO VietNam (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) has compiled in 2015 a list of Technopoles in the ASEAN Economic Community in a report titled "Economic Zones in the ASEAN" written by Arnault Morisson.
In Australia, technopoles include the Technology Precinct Bentley WA, La Trobe Research and Development Park, Ballarat Technology Park VIC, The Australian Technology Park NSW, Brisbane Technology Park QLD, Tasmanian Technopark and Adelaide University Research Park SA. [12]
Technopoles in Germany include the IT-Cluster Rhine-Main-Neckar, the largest IT cluster in Europe.
Technopoles in the United Kingdom include counties such as Berkshire and Hampshire in the “Western Crescent” of London, as well as Hertfordshire in the Northern section of London. In London, East London Tech City is particularly important as a center of innovation. [13] [14] The vicinity around Cambridge has been nicknamed 'Silicon Fen' in some articles due to the agglomeration of software and other tech companies based there, and the university's research output. Manchester in the North-West of England has attracted several prominent national and international companies to set up presences there, as well as a burgeoning startup scene emerging with the growth and re-invention of the city in the past 20 years.
In France, there are technopoles located near Rennes, Grenoble, Toulouse, Lyon and Paris. [9] The first french technopole is Sophia Antipolis, near the cities of Nice, Cannes and Antibes. An important technology cluster is "Paris-Saclay", consisting of universities, research centers and start-ups. [15]
Writer Joel Stratte-McClure of Time Magazine described a technopole in southern France called Sophia Antipolis which had 1,200 companies in a sprawling development twenty minutes away from the airport in Nice. [16] [17] According to the report, the technopole featured hiking trails and jogging paths and riding stables and golf courses and signs which indicate the names of various species of plants, and with street names which were "slightly pretentious" such as "Rue Dostoevski" and "Rue Albert Einstein" criss-crossing rolling hills with pine trees. [16] There are reflecting pools, although the layout was criticized as somewhat "confusing" for taxi drivers. [16]
The Technopole Program of Lower Austria is a trendsetter in implementing the linkage of education/training, research and business. Lower Austria's three Technopoles are already setting international standards: Technopole Krems in the fields of biotech and regenerative medicine, Technopole Tulln in environmental biotechnology and agrobiotechnology, Technopole Wiener Neustadt in microsystems engineering, tribology and medical systems technology.
In Italy, a new technopole called Human Technopole and specialized in life sciences is under development in Milan. [18] [19] [20] The most important Italian technology park (International Centre for Theoretical Physics, AREA Science Park, ELETTRA) with basic research is located in Trieste. [21]
Silicon Valley is one of the most innovative technopoles in the world. It is located in the San Francisco Bay area of California. The area consists of a 70 kilometre by 15 kilometre radius stretching from Palo Alto to San Jose. [22] In the late 1950s, there were little computing and technology jobs in the region, this quickly changed in the 1970s and 1980s where in 1985 there was a reported 56,126 jobs in the high-tech field. [23] Frederick Terman, a professor at Stanford University who later became the Dean of electrical engineering, initiated many R&D initiatives in Silicon Valley. [24] Terman helped his students, such as William Hewlett and David Packard, to initiate their own companies and at times even personally invested in them. [24] In 1951, Terman also helped to establish Stanford Industrial Park.
Universities surrounding Silicon Valley have provided a constant stream of students who take interest in projects and companies within Silicon Valley. [25] With the various numbers of small companies in the area, it is common for employees to move from one company to another. Employees tend to maintain informal social connections with past coworkers which expand professional and social networks. [25] These expanded networks have enabled a rapid exchange of information resulting in the formation of new businesses, research, and development opportunities. [26] Silicon Valley remains one of the leading technopoles of the world to date with its competitive entrepreneurs, its innovative workforce and its firm base of investors. [27]
Route 128 is another technopole located in the United States. Route 128 was a stretch of highway in the Greater Boston Area with many research and industrial facilities [28] The route linked many towns in the greater Boston area and many technology firms relocated there for its proximity to universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge and Harvard. [29]
MIT played an integral role in establishing Route 128 as a technopole. MIT was established in 1861 as a technical university. [30] After the Second World War, MIT encouraged technological innovation through commercially oriented research. [30] Funding for research projects came from large corporations such as GE, Eastern Kodak, and Dupont, as well as the federal government. [31] In 1930, the Division of Industrial Cooperation and Research which solicited research contracts from companies was discontinued, although MIT maintained its capacity to solicit corporate contracts. [31] Many of research projects included electronic innovations and projects for the federal government. In 1941, the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was created. [31] During the 1940s and 1950s, MIT received one third of the OSRD's contracts, which was estimated at $330 million in contracts for research projects. [32] Harvard University and other local universities also received funding for research projects alongside MIT. This area was named “Research Row”. [32] Unlike Frederick Terman's approach of aiding start-up companies within Stanford University, MIT had a strict policy which would not invest in start-up companies of its students, as investing was considered risky and inconsistent with their policies. [33] Despite MIT choosing not to invest in start-up organizations around the region, there were many technology firms that provided funding. MIT continues to solicit contracts from corporations and is still highly regarded as an institution that is a leader in technological innovations.
Other technopoles in the United States include places such as Austin, TX; Denver-Boulder, CO; Huntsville, AL; Lafayette, IN; Madison, WI; Philadelphia-Wilmington-Trenton; Raleigh-Durham, NC; San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose and Seattle, Washington. [34]
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of Santa Clara Valley. San Jose is Silicon Valley's largest city, the third-largest in California, and the tenth-largest in the United States; other major Silicon Valley cities include Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Redwood City, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Cupertino. The San Jose Metropolitan Area has the third-highest GDP per capita in the world, according to the Brookings Institution, and, as of June 2021, has the highest percentage of homes valued at $1 million or more in the United States.
Brazilian Silicon Valley is a term commonly applied to the region of Campinas and in southern region this term is applied for Florianópolis city, Brazil because of its similarity to the 'original' Silicon Valley, located in California in the USA.
Stanford Research Park (SRP) is a technology park established in 1951 as a joint initiative between Stanford University and the City of Palo Alto. It was the world's first university research park. It has more than 150 companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Tesla Motors, TIBCO and VMware; previously, it housed high-profile companies, including Steve Jobs's NeXT Computer, Xerox PARC, and Facebook. It has been called "an engine for Silicon Valley" and "the epicenter of Silicon Valley".
Sophia Antipolis is a 2,400 hectare technology park in southeast France, and as of 2021 home to 2,500 companies, valued today at more than 5.6 billion euros and employing more than 38,000 people counting more than 80 nationalities. The park is known to be Europe's first science and technology hub. The technology park is also a platform, cluster and creation-hub for start-ups.
Silicon Fen also known as the Cambridge Cluster, is the name given to the region around Cambridge, England, which is home to a large number of high tech businesses focused on software, electronics, and biotechnology, including Arm and AstraZeneca.
Frederick Emmons Terman was an American professor and academic administrator. He was the dean of the school of engineering from 1944 to 1958 and provost from 1955 to 1965 at Stanford University. He is widely credited as being the father of Silicon Valley.
AnnaLee Saxenian is a professor and the former Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Information, known widely for her work on technology clusters and social networks in Silicon Valley. She received her BA from Williams College in 1976 and her PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1989.
Business incubator is an organization that helps startup companies and individual entrepreneurs to develop their businesses by providing a fullscale range of services starting with management training and office space and ending with venture capital financing. The National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) defines business incubators as a catalyst tool for either regional or national economic development. NBIA categorizes its members' incubators by the following five incubator types: academic institutions; non-profit development corporations; for-profit property development ventures; venture capital firms, and a combination of the above.
Charles Vincent Litton Sr. (1904–1972) was an engineer and inventor from the area now known as Silicon Valley.
A business cluster is a geographic concentration of interconnected businesses, suppliers, and associated institutions in a particular field. Clusters are considered to increase the productivity with which companies can compete, nationally and globally. Accounting is a part of the business cluster. In urban studies, the term agglomeration is used. Clusters are also important aspects of strategic management.
Silicon Wadi is a region in Israel that serves as one of the global centres for advanced technology. It spans the Israeli coastal plain, and is cited as among the reasons why the country has become known as the world's "start-up nation". The highest concentrations of high-tech industry in the region can be found around Tel Aviv, including small clusters around the cities of Raʽanana, Petah Tikva, Herzliya, Netanya, Rehovot, and Ness Ziona. Additional clusters of high-tech industry can be found in Haifa and Caesarea. More recent high-tech establishments have been raised in cities such as Jerusalem and Beersheba, in towns such as Yokneam Illit, and in Airport City.
The URBAN AND REGIONAL INNOVATION Research (URENIO) is a university lab in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, School of Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. URENIO is a non-profit research organization that started its operation in 1995. URENIO is mainly involved in competitive projects from the European R&D Framework Programs (FP), the Competitiveness and Innovation Program (CIP), the territorial cooperation programs, the OECD, and the United Nations.
Medicon Valley is a leading international life-sciences cluster in Europe, spanning the Greater Copenhagen region of eastern Denmark and southern Sweden. It is one of Europe's strongest life science clusters, with many life science companies and research institutions located within a relatively small geographical area. The name has officially been in use since 1997.
Cluster theory is a theory of strategy.
The Skolkovo Innovation Center is a high technology business area at Mozhaysky District in Moscow, Russia. Although historically Russia has been successful with development of science and technology, its lack of entrepreneurial spirit led to government intervention in patents and the limitation of Russian tech companies within regional operations.
East London Tech City is a technology cluster of high-tech companies located in East London, United Kingdom. Its main area lies broadly between St Luke's and Hackney Road, with an accelerator space for spinout companies at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Innovation districts are urban geographies of innovation where R&D strong institutions, companies, and other private actors develop integrated strategies and solutions to develop thriving innovation ecosystems–areas that attract entrepreneurs, startups, and business incubators. Unlike science parks, innovation districts are physically compact, leverage density and high levels of accessibility, and provide a “mash up” of activities including housing, office, and neighborhood-serving amenities. Districts signify the collapse back of innovation into cities and is increasingly used as a way to revitalize the economies of cities and their broader regions. As of 2019, there are more than 100 districts worldwide.
Clusters of Innovations (COI) have been defined in 2015 as "global economic hot spots where new technologies germinate at an astounding rate and where pools of capital, expertise, and talent foster the development of new industries and new ways of doing business."
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has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)The 1,200 companies located in the sprawling development, which gets its name from the Greek words for wisdom and the nearby town of Antibes, are just a 20-minute drive from the Nice-Côte d'Azur airport and the Mediterranean Sea. Nice-based taxi drivers often have trouble — sometimes legitimately, sometimes intentionally — locating both start-ups and multinationals. To be fair, the technopole's confusing layout can present a challenge. The maze of roads — many with slightly pretentious names like Rue Dostoevski and Rue Albert Einstein — crisscross 2,300 hectares of rolling, pine-covered hills.
Once in Sophia, it's easy to take a break from mind-numbing high-tech conferences, meetings and PowerPoint presentations. The environs boast scores of well-maintained hiking trails and jogging paths as well as two riding stables and 10 golf courses. You can stroll a well-marked 13-km path along the Brague, a stream that runs between Valbonne and Biot, two villages on the park's periphery. The municipal authorities have put up French-language signs identifying local flora and fauna and the walk features zen-like reflection pools.