Silicon Valley is the most salient example of high-tech industrial clusters. Public policymakersthroughouttheworldwouldliketolearnthesecretsofSiliconValley in order to build their own high-tech economies. The existing literature on ind- trial clusters, which traces back to Marshall (1920), focuses on the way in which ? rms bene? t from locating in a cluster; it suggests that once a cluster comes into existence, it tends to reinforce itself by attracting more ? rms. However, a more important question is how to reach this critical mass in the ? rst place. In contrast to the literature, evidence suggests that entrepreneurs rarely move when they est- lish high-tech start-ups (Cooper and Folta, 2000). This contradicts the notion that location choice analyses lead entrepreneurs to a high-tech cluster. A high-tech industrial cluster such as Silicon Valley is characterized by c- centratedentrepreneurship. FollowingSchumpeter, weemphasizethefactthat"the appearance of one or a few entrepreneurs facilitates the appearance of others" (Schumpeter, 1934). Weproposeanagent-basedcomputationalmodeltoshowhow high-tech industrial clusters could emerge in a landscape in which no ? rms existed originally. The model is essentially a spatial version of the Nelson-Winter model: Boundedly rational agents are scattered over an explicitly de? ned landscape. Each agent is endowed with some technology, which determines his ? rm's productivity (if he has one). During each period of time, an agent with no ? rm would make a decision as to whether he wants to start one. This decision is mostly affected by the behavior of his social contacts, who are all his neighbors.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Editorial. - Reflections on the Schumpeter I knew well. - Schumpeter, product innovation and public policy: the case of cigarettes. - Risk, variety and volatility: growth, innovation and stock prices in early industry evolution. - Social networks and industrial geography. - Growing Silicon Valley on a landscape: an agent-based approach to high-tech industrial clusters. - The theory of the firm and the markets for strategic acquisitions. - The growth of commercialization facilitating organizations and practices: A Schumpeterian perspective. - On the macroeconomic effects of establishing tradability in weak property rights. - Capital in the new economy: A Schumpeterian perspective. - A comparative perspective on innovation and productivity in manufacturing and services. - Tracing empirical trails of Schumpeterian development. - Towards an evolutionary interpretation of aggregate labor market regularities. - An evolutionary model of international competition and growth. - Innovation and growth in Germany over the past 150 years. - Nonlinear dynamism of innovation and business cycles. - The dynamic effects of general purpose technologies on Schumpeterian growth.
