Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 [Hardcover]

AnnaLee Saxenian (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1994

Silicon Valley in California and Route 128 in Massachusetts are America's centres of electronics innovation and entrepreneurship. The regions are similar in many respects: both trace their origins to unversity research and military spending, and both faced severe downturns in the early 1980s. Today, however, Silicon Valley is flourishing again while Route 128 continues to decline. Why did Silicon Valley adapt successfully to intensifying international competition, while Route 128 ceded its longstanding advantage in computer design and manufacturing to the west? The author argues that despite similar histories and technologies, Silicon Valley developed the type of decentralized industrial system that encourages experimentation, collaboration and collective learning among networks of specialist companies, whereas Route 128 came to be dominated by a few self-sufficient corporations. Saxenian demonstrates that Route 128 was slow to adjust to changing markets because skill and technology remained confined within independent firms. In contrast, companies in Silicon Valley created a regional advantage by drawing on local knowledge and relationships to create new markets, products and applications. In doing so, they blurred the traditional boundaries among customers, supplier and competitors. The result of numerous interviews with executives, entrepreneurs and policymakers, this analysis highlights the importance of local sources of competitive advantage in a volatile world economy. It also underscores the need to develop regional, as well as national and sectoral, economic policies.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

AnnaLee Saxenian is Dean of the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (March 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674753399
• ISBN-13: 978-0674753396
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #862,891 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Structural Analysis, February 21, 2000

By 

Sean Safford (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 (Paperback)

Contrary to one of the other reviewer's comments, the importance of this book is in showing precicely that it is not the "endemic" culture of Silicon Valley, but rather the innovative institutions and networked relationships in Silicon Valley that explains the region's success. A great contribution to the literature on embeddedness and network forms of organization.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great examination of the influences of business-culture, May 12, 1998

By 

Randy Burge (Santa Fe, New Mexico USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 (Paperback)

This book was recommended to me by a VP at Sun Microsystems to explain why Silicon Valley happened [open-org-networks and strong entrepreneurial initiatives] and how other communities can learn from this success. The answers to why and why-not for a community are found embedded in the local or regional business culture. How close-minded is your town?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very informative, great piece of work, July 20, 2005

By 

Juan E. Vargas "Galactico" (Columbia, SC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 (Paperback)

The book is written by a person who lived in the Route 128 area and in the Silicon Valley. Besides the great insights and fantastic scholarly work, the book reflects the experience of seeing the development of both regions, not only through the eyes of a scholar, but also through the experiences that can only be gained by "being there."