Studies of urban technology clusters have rarely looked at start-ups involved in manufacturing, aka 'hardware'. It is an open question whether archetypal start-up entry and growth pathways apply to these activities, and whether entrants benefit from locating in urban technology cores.
This case study combines semi-structured interviews and microdata to explore the hardware cluster in Stockholm, one of Europe’s leading tech hubs. To what extent can public policy goals for Industry 4.0-driven growth be achieved through promoting technology entrepreneurship? Can a US-style start up culture be successfully imported into the Swedish business context? How far do hardware start-ups benefit from location in the larger Stockholm technology milieu?
This case study combines secondary sources (both academic and government studies of the Swedish ICT sector and the Stockholm cluster), analysis of firm and worker microdata, plus interviews with two groups of firms and with policymakers and other ecosystem actors.
- Dr Max Nathan, Senior Birmingham Fellow, University of Birmingham
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