Silicon Valley at risk? Sustainability of a global innovation icon: An introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

The increasing dependence of Silicon Valley on external sources of human capital and technological innovation is a potential Achilles’ heel if competitive regions achieve ‘stickiness’ and retain these assets. 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. In the early 2000s, a patient advocate-driven social movement provided an alternative engine for stem-cell development in the face of federal government opposition, creating a new model for S&T financing and innovation. Bond issues that treat science as infrastructure, if diffused and replicated, have the potential to revivify the original pro bono venture model. A counter-cyclical innovation dynamic, originated during the great depression of the 1930s, may yet fulfill the promise of the triple helix model as a driver of economic and social development by providing an antidote for its successor economic crisis.