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The place-based nature of technological innovation: the case of Sophia Antipolis

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Abstract

The article looks at the case of the French technopole known as “Sophia Antipolis”. After a brief description of the history and main dimensions of Sophia Antipolis, we look at the everyday life of social relations in the technopole. We argue that the everyday life of social relations in Sophia Antipolis, such as community life and living choices of the workers, are poorly developed and this may affect negatively the economic life of the technopole. Finally, in the conclusion, we compare Silicon Valley’s model with Sophia Antipolis and we highlight similarities and differences.

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Notes

  1. The effect of technology transfer initiatives for attracting and retaining human resources has been defined as “the most elusive metrics” to evaluate the success of these initiatives (Jackson and Audretsch 2004). On the general lack of clear metrics for measuring the impacts and successes of Parks, see Link and Scott (2007).

  2. Link and Link (2003) conclude that US science parks can be divided into three categories: (1) real estate parks, with no university affiliation; (2) university research parks with tenant criteria; (3) university research parks with no tenant criteria.

  3. Sophia was also the name of Pierre Laffitte’s ex-wife: a personal point which underlined that it played as father of the project.

  4. Born in Saint-Paul de Vence he graduated in engineering at the “Ecole nationale supérieure des mines”, becoming director of the Geological, Geophysical and mining office of France. He was elected vice-director in the two subsequent mandates (1959–1962 e 1963). In 1963 he was nominated director of the “Ecole nationale supérieure des mines” of Paris and was re-elected until 1984. In the 60’s, which were the basis for the construction of Sophia Antipolis, also thanks to the aid of Emile Hugues, his son-in-law and major of Vence. In 1985 he was elected senator of the French Republic and remained in office until September 2008.

  5. From http://www.sophia-antipolis.org, the official web-site of the Sophia Antipolis foundation.

  6. From the 2008 report on the attraction of investment to the Alpes Marittime region in 2008.

  7. From the website http://investincotedazur.com/en/newsletter/index.php?txt=act9242 (consulted June 2010).

  8. The 2005 data are shown at http://www.jceasa-asso.com/sophiaalaloupe/ (consulted in May 2010), those of 2003 can be downloaded at http://www.jceasa-asso.com/IMG/pdf/CP3_HS_21Fev04.pdf (consulted in May 2010), while those 2008 have not yet been published online. We have used data which were kindly offered by the person in charge of the poll.

  9. http://www.sophia-startup.com/.

  10. Leadership played a crucial role in other cases as well (Alshumaimri et al. 2010). For instance Link (1995, 2002) attributes both the formation of the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, as well as the growth of the entire Research Triangle region, linking Chapel Hill to Raleigh and Durham, to committed and enlightened leadership (cfr. also Alshumaimri et al. 2010). For the institutional history of Parks, see Vaidyanathan (2008). On the role of private sector more into the management of science parks, see Sofouli and Vonortas (2007).

  11. Since firms located on science parks have a significantly greater rate of survival, a deeper analysis should test the effect of “Parks daily life” on firm’s survival: see Ferguson and Olofsson (2004), Squicciarini (2008).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences, University of Torino, Turin, Italy

    Filippo Barbera & Sara Fassero

  2. Real Collegio Carlo Alberto, Moncalieri, Italy

    Filippo Barbera

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  1. Filippo Barbera
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  2. Sara Fassero
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Correspondence to Filippo Barbera.

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Barbera, F., Fassero, S. The place-based nature of technological innovation: the case of Sophia Antipolis. J Technol Transf 38, 216–234 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-011-9242-7

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