ABSTRACT
Double helix university-industry and government-university interactions that converged into a triple helix of university-industry-government relationships, supported Silicon Valley's rise. Stanford played a key role in the development of Silicon Valley, reinforced by government support that made it possible for the region to become a world innovation hub, attracting and circulating talent and technology, internationally. However, an ideological model of heroic entrepreneurship is fostered in Silicon Valley that elides some of the collective drivers of regional innovation, while masking its triple helix dynamics. Human-capital development and attraction is the most important factor for Silicon Valley's success. Silicon Valley developed in a successive triple helix format, each helix building upon and reinforcing the other. A single helix university development model morphed into a dual helix university–industry symbiotic relationship that became a triple helix university–industry–government format through the provision of government funding, sporadically in the pre-war and consistently in the post-war eras, expanding the innovation dynamic and fostering growth firms.
