미국 실리콘밸리 첨단산업지구의 형성과 발전

Abstract

This study examines how Silicon Valley, the most famous high tech industry cluster in the U.S. and the world, was formed and developed. Many countries tried to build a high tech industry cluster like Silicon Valley only to fail. It is because the formation of Silicon Valley was a unique experience which cannot be imitated easily.

At the initial phase of the development of Silicon Valley, Stanford university played the most important role. Stanford university developed quite strong university-industry relation. At the next phase, it was military spending that encouraged the development of high-tech industry, esepcially the semiconductor industry, in Silicon Valley. These process formed an agglomeration of high tech firms which has become the source of continuous technological innovation and industrual development in Silicon Valley. At that time, major driving force of the development of this area came from newly established firms who plunged into competition.

Since the middle of the 1980s, the industrial composition of Silicon Valley has been changing. New sectors like software and biotechnology is growing fast. And Silicon Valley is trying to maintain economic growth by renewing her infrastructures.