Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 (Paperback)

by AnnaLee Saxenian (Author)
Key Phrases: minicomputer firms, autarkic structures, local industrial systems, Silicon Valley, East Coast, Palo Alto (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
A welcome addition to the growing literature on American high technology, offering fresh insights in a thorough...account of the economic and technological evolution of America's premier high-technology regions.
--Richard Florida (Science )

Regional Advantage is an impressive demonstration of why new technologies and new markets both create and are driven by new business models and corporate structures.
--Michael Stern (San Francisco Chronicle )

Saxenian's findings are important because they highlight the fundamental organizational practices behind California's economic successes in several key sectors, a reality dangerously ignored by many of the state's political and business leaders.
--David Friedman (Los Angeles Times )

The best book I've seen at analyzing the secrets of Silicon Valley's success. And it shows why the valley's future remains bright even though costs are high.
--James J. Mitchell (San Jose Mercury News )

This is scholarship at its best-thoroughly researched, elegantly written, a compelling story that's relevant to business executives and policymakers everywhere.
--John Case (Boston Globe )

Over the past decade however there has been a growing interest in the role which territory (in the form of regions, industrial districts or innovative milieux)plays in fostering technical change and industrialinnovation…One of the many virtues of this book is the way it penetrates beneath these superficial similarities, exposing a more complex, more telling set of differences which help to explain the very different fortunes of these regions in recent years…what we have here is a well-researched, elegantly written and provocative book on a subject which should engage a wide array of disciplines, especially those with an interest in innovation and regional development.
--Kevin Morgan (Research Review )

Product Description
Why is it that business in Silicon Valley is again flourishing while along Route 128 in Massachusetts it continues to decline? The answer, Sexanian suggests, has to do with the fact that despite similar histories and technologies, Silicon Valley developed a decentralized but co-operative industrial system while Route 128 came to be dominated by independent, self-sufficient corporations. The result of more than 100 interviews, this analysis highlights the importance of local sources of competitive advantage in a volatile world economy.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (March 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674753402
• ISBN-13: 978-0674753402
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #364,801 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 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

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.

8 of 8 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 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?

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb analysis of the phenomenal success of Silicon Valley., July 16, 1999

By A Customer

A brilliant and thought-provoking analysis of the subtle factors which created the phenomenal economic success of Silicon Valley. While Stanford and Berkeley are acknowledged as obvious contributors, Professor Saxenian builds a compelling case for the critical role of ethnic diversity, a taste for risk and an endemic disrespect for authority. If you care about your economic future, read this.