Sector connectors, specialists and scrappers: How cities use civic capital to compete in high-technology markets

Abstract

This article uses three cities in the same Canadian province (Ontario): Toronto, Ottawa and Waterloo, to examine how regions compete in high-technology markets. We find that regions use civic capital to leverage new, technological windows of opportunity, but they do so in very different ways. Tracing Toronto’s evolution from a marketing hub for foreign multinationals into a centre for entrepreneurship, we illustrate how weak ties and cross-sectoral buzz created a ‘super connector’, scaling high-technology firms in a wide variety of areas. In Ottawa, task-specific cooperation in R&D, education and specialised infrastructure enabled the region to overcome the disadvantages of its small size as a ‘specialist’ in a single, capital-intensive niche, telecommunications equipment. Finally, entrepreneurs in Waterloo eschewed task-specific cooperation for peer-to-peer mentoring. By diffusing generic knowledge about how to circumvent the liabilities of smallness, mentoring networks enabled this ‘scrapper’ city to support smaller start-ups in a broad range of niches.