History Matters: Path dependence and innovation in British city ...

Others point to the high house prices
(themselves a product of Cambridge’s growth
success), the problems with land availability
and costs, planning barriers, and pronounced
road congestion problems – as negative
externalities that may be holding Cambridge
back.
There is certainly some validity to these
concerns, but the slowdown is by no means
taking place across the board, and may have
other causes:
“It could be that some firms are facing
constraints and that they are losing
momentum. But I don’t think this is true
for all high-tech firms in Cambridge. We
are growing at about 15-20 per cent per
annum, are about to extend our laboratory
space, and have recently expanded in
the USA. I know of other firms that are
also showing strong growth. It is true that
housing, transport and other infrastructural
problems have got much worse, and local
government and the planning process are a
major headache, and these do need urgent
action. But I would say that part of the
problem – the slowdown that you refer to
– could be as much the lack of managerial
expertise in Cambridge and the fact the
cluster still depends on just a few – the
same few – movers and shakers. It’s unfair
to expect these same people to repeatedly
maintain high levels of entrepreneurship
and enterprise all the time. Perhaps the
key challenge for the cluster is to find more
people like them to widen the gene-pool
of serial entrepreneurial talent.” [Interview
CAMB003]
And it may be that Cambridge has not missed
the clean-tech or clean energy wave of
innovation. Though the number of such firms
in Cambridge is small, it is nevertheless one of
the UK’s most identifiable clean-tech clusters.
This illustrates one of the classic aspects of
path creation and path dependence. In the very
early stages of a new technology or industry, a
number of alternative locations may be equally
well placed to develop it – the ‘window of
locational opportunity’ (to use the jargon) is
open. But as that sector develops, it is likely
to concentrate in some locations, according
to the specific technological requirements of
the sector and the different specialisms and
capabilities of different locations. It remains to
be seen whether the hard technologies of the
Cambridge cluster can be harnessed towards
clean-tech applications.
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