Searching for Silicon Valley in the Rust Belt: Knowledge Networks in Akron and Rochester.

Two opposing forces reshaped knowledge networks in mature industrial (a.k.a., 'rust belt') communities during the 1980s and 1990s. On the one hand, large industrial companies which stood at these places' economic social and intellectual cores restructured their innovation processes by reaching out beyond parochial boundaries of home localities to tap into global knowledge flows. But for the communities they inhabited, these actions posed a threat. Already stung by massive job losses, community leaders developed strategiesâ?”often linked to local universitiesâ?”intended to maintain and reinvigorate local processes of knowledge capture and exploitation. This paper examines university strategies for engaging local industry in two well matched places that were subject to these forces simultaneously: Akron, Ohio and Rochester, New York. Drawing on both historical matched-pair comparisons and a network analysis of co-authored scientific patents and publications, this paper explores how local economic development policies have shaped the divergent trajectories of knowledge networks and how this has shaped the possibilities for post-industrial economic change. The results suggest that an approach focused on building communityâ?”and network tiesâ?”among remaining actors produces better results that an approach centered on universities' attempting to fill the void left by exiting firms with their own research output. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]