The Cascadia Innovation Corridor: The Making of a North American High Tech Cross Border Region?

Keywords: International Borders, Firms, Theory
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

This study focuses on how a high technology/biotechnology innovative cross border region may be emerging between the bi-national Vancouver, Canada and Seattle, Washington area, namely the Cascadia region. Specifically, this presentation examines the unique role of the corporate firm and special interest business groups in the cross border region’s development, and how this may inform relevant theory.

For Vancouver, B.C. and Seattle, Washington, the two city-regions are separated by approximately 150 miles. In fact, both have developed successfully over the past 100 years into modern settlements, both lauded internationally for their quality of life and globally competitive advanced industries (Richardson, 2006). Despite all of these similarities, both Vancouver’s and Seattle’s high-technology and biotechnology clusters have historically operated independently of one another (Richardson, 2017). Now, with Seattle based Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com’s new and significant R&D facilities being established in Vancouver, there is anticipation that a more robust high-technology cross-border region and eventual cluster may emerge between Seattle and Vancouver over the next 10 years. In fact, Microsoft Corp., in 2016, launched a multimillion-dollar Cascadia Innovation Corridor initiative in an effort to garner support with key regional business and federal and provincial/state governmental interests regarding the advancement of a cross border innovation economy (Capellano, Richardson, and Trautman, 2020). Thus, this study explores and analyzes the efforts to date put forth by Microsoft and special interest business groups to manufacture, promote, and advance the notion of a high tech cross border region, and how might this inform relevant theory.