Entrepreneurial clusters in knowledge-driven economies : an essay on their evolutionary dynamics

Abstract

Technology-based entrepreneurship tends to cluster in certain regions. The most famous examples include Silicon Valley and the Route 128 area of Boston. The results of this study provide insight into why and how such entrepreneurial clusters have evolved to generate more entrepreneurial opportunities than others. With a proposed framework, the thesis first examines their evolutionary dynamics along with the System Dynamics models and the Silicon Valley case. The results show their self-reinforcing characteristics and the implication that those clusters won't start their self-reinforcing process easily at the beginning of the evolution. Subsequently, the thesis compares three case studies of Cambridge, Munich, and Tokyo, in addition to the case of Silicon Valley. The results show a similar pattern of a series of abnormal events in the history of each cluster that prompted the start of the self-reinforcing process. Throughout the study, the framework demonstrates its usefulness to streamline many factors involved, state the conditions of the entrepreneurial clusters, and extract the characteristics of the evolutionary dynamics of those clusters.