Article
ID: CBB000933572

Follow the Money: Engineering at Stanford and UC Berkeley during the Rise of Silicon Valley (2009)

unapi
Societies; institutions; academies Engineering Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship 20th century Silicon Valley (California) Stanford University University of California, Berkeley

Abstract A comparison of the engineering schools at UC Berkeley and Stanford during the 1940s and 1950s shows that having an excellent academic program is necessary but not sufficient to make a university entrepreneurial (an engine of economic development). Key factors that made Stanford more entrepreneurial than Cal during this period were superior leadership and a focused strategy. The broader institutional context mattered as well. Stanford did not have the same access to state funding as public universities (such as Cal in the period under consideration) and some private universities (such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Johns Hopkins University in their early histories). Therefore, in order to gather resources, Stanford was forced to become entrepreneurial first, developing business skills (engaging with high-tech industry) at the same time Cal was developing political skills (protecting and increasing its state appropriation). Stanford's early development of entrepreneurial business skills played a crucial role in the development of Silicon Valley.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000933572/

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Authors & Contributors
Sarkar, Suvobrata
Nan Wang
Bychkova, Olga
Adam Fisher
Droge, Abigail
Ruffin, Herbert G.
Journals
Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences
Engineering Studies
VIET: Voprosy Istorii Estestvoznaniia i Tekhniki
Technology and Culture
Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences
Nei Menggu Shifan Daxue Xuebao (Ziran Kexue Ban)
Publishers
Twelve
W. W. Norton & Co.
University of Oklahoma Press
Stanford University Press
Basic Books
Cambridge University Press
Concepts
Engineering
Societies; institutions; academies
Technology
Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship
Engineers
Electronics industry
People
Shockley, William
Terman, Frederick Emmons
Moore, Gordon E.
Low, George M.
Li, Choh Hao
Grinnell, Joseph
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
21st century
18th century
20th century, late
20th century, early
Places
Silicon Valley (California)
United States
Russia
China
California (U.S.)
South Korea
Institutions
University of California, Berkeley
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Stanford University
Chinese Academy of Engineering
Intel Corporation (firm)
Corps of Road Engineers (Russia)
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