Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Significant attention has been paid to geographic growth patterns in emerging industries. In this scholarship, narrow differences in initial asset allocations across regions are shown to create divergent outcomes and result in the clustering of new industries within certain regions. However, we lack sufficient understanding of how specialized assets that support emergence and shape spatial trajectories are created. Specialized skill sets, materials, equipment, and institutions develop through an endogenous process that can lead to emergence of industries in unexpected, peripheral regions. We demonstrate this process through the case of wide band-gap semiconductors, an emerging industry with few clear technological antecedents. Most theories of spatial emergence would predict this industry to emerge in Silicon Valley, the epicenter of entrepreneurial semiconductor activity. Instead, the serendipitous location of initial, exploratory research and the subsequent process of asset creation and development led to emergence in more peripheral regions. This paper uses in-depth qualitative data from interviews and archives as well as federal funding, patent, and scientific publication data to document this process. Initial assets and resources created by early research in the 1970s and 1980s gradually built on themselves and created the foundation for regional advantage in the 21^st century. Findings highlight the importance of federal funding in the development of the industry, which lacked early private interest, and inform roles for public involvement in fostering innovation outside of traditional growth poles.