Local-Global Partnerships for High-Tech Development: Integrating Top-Down and Bottom-Up Models

Advocates of high-tech development use conflicting top-down and bottom-up models to respond to the challenge of the increasing knowledge intensity of the global economy. The trend for policies in the United States, Canada, and Australia is to shift the emphasis from federal government and external resources to increased state and local responsibility. The competing top-down and bottom-up approaches are reviewed and then illustrated with case studies. Canada’s Technology Triangle and Australia’s Multi-Function Polis were both initiated in 1987 and then transformed in 1997. The evaluation of these case studies identifies weaknesses in the original models and calls for the integration of the two development approaches into a model of local-global partnership for high-tech development based on the building of local capacity through partnerships with local and external actors.