Toward a Sustainable Technopolis - Technopolis: Best Practices for Science and Technology Cities - page 170

Table 3 Top reasons for failure of cluster initiatives
Absence of an explicitly formulated vision for the CI and quantified targets
Initiative framework not adapted to the cluster's own strengths
No office or an insufficient budget for significant projects
Limiting the membership scope
Isolated firms and lack of competition
Lack of advanced suppliers
Basic human capital
Lack of trust and networks
Few supporting institutions
Weak frameworks
Facilitator not having a strong network
No involvement of influential local decision makers
Lack of consensus or difficulties in achieving consensus
No brand-building objective
Source Sölvell et al. ( 2003 )

experienced a new burst of activity in security-related technologies subsequent to
the 9/11 tragedy. We can be comfortable agreeing with Linstone and
Mitroff( 1994 ), who declare, ''Crisis may be the best, if not the only, teacher of how
to create an economy that is better matched to the needs of today's world.''
These concepts allow us to pinpoint the serious risks in using cluster theory or
cluster consultants to kick-start a new technopolis:

1. Cluster theory is mechanical (''put this firm here and that company there…'' )
and ahistoric. The mechanical metaphor of cluster theory imposes a mechanical
''solution'' that ignores the constraints and opportunities implied by the

region's history.
2. The question of how the community responds to crisis is not dealt with.
3. A short-term cluster consultant is not an ongoing network facilitator/partner for
the client region, and cannot help with the long-term culture change issues that
the region almost certainly must face.

Better to call your technopolis initiative a ''regional initiative for technology
and entrepreneurship'' or RITE, than a cluster initiative (CI). Many of Sölvell
et al.'s ( 2003 ) reasons why CIs fail, however, also apply to RITEs (Table 3 ).

4 Environmental Sustainability and the Triple
Bottom Line

Sustainability, I've never seen a precise definition of it. I probably wouldn't
recognize it if I saw it. It sounds like a good thing, though.
The eminent dean of a leading school of environmental science snorted when he
was asked about sustainability. The whole notion, he replied, seems to run counter