Mollie Taylor, INTA PhD Student “The Communal Roots of Entrepreneurial-Technological Growth?
Social Fragmentation and the Economic Stagnation of Atlanta’s IT Cluster”; Danny Breznitz, Mollie Taylor; May 2009. Abstract: Why do some entrepreneurial high technology industry clusters grow and prosper, while others stagnate? Even after several decades of research, we have yet to have a definitive answer. One of the main debates in the literature revolves around the importance of societal variables, such as the growth of a cohesive community, versus the importance of factor availability, such as the suppl yof highly-educated labor. Emplying a critical case study design utilizing a multi-method research strategy to analyze the IT industry in the Atlanta metropolitan area, this paper shows that while the availability of certain factors might be necessary, without the crystallization of a cohesive social structure, they are not sufficient. More specifically we argue that unless a local high technology industry develops rich multiplex locally-centered social networks, which embed compan
