Origins of a technopole: The case of Austin, Texas

his study discusses the following four questions. First, this study identifies the causes of Austin, Texas's sharp rise as a new high-tech hub in the early 1980s. Secondly, it investigates socio-economic impacts caused by the winning of the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) by Austin. Thirdly, this study discusses the responses of varying groups within the Austin community to economic depression and deterioration of livability between the mid-1980s and the late 1980s. Finally, it identifies the inducements that the area employed to recruit the investment of ;Descriptions based on documentation are the basic analytical method of this study. This study's findings are as follows. The crucial reason that Austin emerged as a technopole was that the city recruited MCC in 1983. To win the consortium, the State of Texas and the city's business community offered enormous amounts of financial incentives. The winning of MCC generated "boom-town fever" in Austin in the mid-1980s. However, Austinites overestimated the actual meaning of winning MCC. The overestimation was expressed in bubble economy symptoms such as overbuilding. The bubble economy seriously jeopardized Austin's livability, and the city attempted to manage the frantic growth with restrictive growth management strategies in the mid-1980s. Austinites supported the growth management regime through the vote, and these efforts to preserve livability in the area contributed to the economic revival of the city in the early 1990s.;In late 1986, the bubble burst, and a severe economic recession smashed Austin, continuing to 1988. The depression brought about the rise of the pro-growth regime supported by statewide power and the panic of the community. The symbolic image of the pro-growth regime contributed to the economic revival of the area in the early-1990s.;Since 1993, the Greater Austin area has been enjoying a solid economic expansion. In 1996, Samsung Electronics decided to invest...