ABSTRACT
My research started in the midst of experiences and events, which made more sense in retrospect than they did at the time. It is important for me to acknowledge some unevenness in the case studies in terms of their timing, the volume of data, and my access to key informants. As explained in Chapter 1, my work role brought me into the regional policy arena and made me aware of the ambitious policy to develop three geographically defined high-technology corridors (HTCs) in the West Midlands in the UK. The policy concept was borrowed from the USA and mirrored the success stories of Silicon Valley and the clustering of high-technology companies around Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Route 128 in Boston. The HTC policy concept, created multi-agency partnerships to catalyse three sub-regional knowledge economies. With hindsight it seems that in the UK case study, I had unique access to people collaborating at various policy levels in the full range of private and public sector organizations. I was able to develop my theoretical insights over a period of more than four years and to extrapolate and validate these insights in my case studies in the USA and Japan.
