ABSTRACT
When AnnaLee Saxenian, an expert on the Silicon Valley economy at Berkeley, wrote this in 1981, she drew attention to the urban problems that plagued the region at the time, such as skyrocketing housing costs, traffic congestion, and high levels of air and water pollution. Today, these problems still persist in the region.2 The region has also experienced a number of setbacks, most recently the biggest job losses in its history, with the collapse of the Internet boom in 2001.3
Nonetheless, Silicon Valley has repeatedly shown resilience and is still best known as the world center of innovation or the ‘Hollywood of high tech’.4 For business managers, it leads the world in being able to combine scientific invention with a robust business plan, and for policy makers it represents a model of the innovative high-tech economy to imitate.5
