Comment from Robyn Klingler-Vidra, lecturer in political economy, King’s College London, and Juergen Braunstein, postdoctoral fellow, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University
The recipe behind the Silicon Valley success story is more complex that a Betty Crocker cake mix – you cannot just “add water” or, in startup terms, “add money”. It was not simply American risk-taking, nor was it only the military industrial complex, or the availability of investors. Silicon Valley, which has become the posterchild of Schumpeterian innovation and entrepreneurship, is the confluence of a number of historical, cultural, industrial and governmental factors. Is it enough to throw huge sums…