Untitled - socium.ge

Silicon Valley and Finland 81the Finnish model of networking. Otherwise, the networks will process outgoingflows of young people and incoming flows of capital.CONCLUSION: CONTRASTING MODELSBoth Finland and Silicon Valley offer paths toward technological innovation,networking organization, and high economic productivity under the conditionsof the informational paradigm. In both cases, government and non-profit institutionalactors were critical in starting the process, and private businessbecame the key actor of production, innovation, and competition. So acomparison of the two models should not be read as opposing the private andthe public sectors as agencies of the development process. Neither is the roleof universities different: they are central sources of knowledge and talent inboth models, confirming the essential role of universities in the knowledgeeconomy. Innovation is also a common factor, and it could not be otherwisebecause without innovation there is no information-driven economy. Thereare, however, two major differences. One concerns the sources of innovation.The other concerns the relationship between the world of innovation andentrepreneurship and society at large.In Finland, the heart of the model is the welfare state and the legitimacy ofgovernment acting on behalf of the nation, a nation affirming its cultural identityin a rapidly globalizing world. Innovators come from the full supportgiven by the government to a high-quality, public education system, to universities,and to research, in close partnership with business.In Silicon Valley, in spite of the importance of the military connection at theoutset, and its enduring strategic role, the source of innovation is the individualentrepreneur, tapping into the resources of knowledge, social networks,and the supporting services and firms that have accumulated in the region overhalf a century of relentless innovation. These individuals come to the Valleyfrom all over the world. But many of them are a special kind of individual:they are innovators, this is why they come to Silicon Valley. And since theykeep coming, the culture of the region is increasingly a culture of innovation,and a culture of entrepreneurialism. This is why immigration is crucial, andthis is why Silicon Valley can thrive in the middle of the paradox of being thetechnology hub of the world while being dependent on the inferior publiceducation system of California, which, for the most part, is not at the level ofother advanced countries.Not that all innovators are foreign immigrants. Most are American immigrants,and there are also thousands of California-grown innovators who findtheir place right where they are – or a little further away, in Silicon Valley, inthe Bay Area, or in San Diego, and Los Angeles, around the various milieux