Issues in modelling innovation intense environments: The importance of the historical and cultural context

Abstract

Since the 1970s the number of developments labelled as innovation intense environments has increased at an exponential rate. Innovation intense environments are defined here as those spaces that are purported to accelerate the rate of innovation and the proliferation of high technology industries. A number of academic fields now study existing innovation intense environments like Silicon Valley, in order to explain how they are constituted and how they can be replicated.

 Over the years a wide variety of model innovation intense environments has been proposed including: science park, technopolis, information city, milieu, industry cluster and regional innovation system. These different models are compared and analysed in terms of their portrayal of appropriate form, core innovation dynamics and policy recommendations. The discussion of models is then placed within the post-war history of the most famous innovation intense environment—Silicon Valley. It is concluded that such models must be well grounded within a specific historic and cultural context in order to function as useful analytic tools.

Notes

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