Local meets global: resilience in Dutch and Taiwanese high-tech regions

Abstract

This article analyzes the resilience of the high-tech regions Eindhoven (the Netherlands) and Hsinchu (Taiwan). In both cases understanding the challenges ahead formed a driving force for their governments, to build and strengthen the knowledge structure, stimulate regional cooperation, and boost new activities. Distinctive local capabilities, a strong network culture with local and global linkages, and a business supportive government contributed to the resilience albeit in different ways. We illustrate how actors’ decisions and strategy were affected by non-regional relations and subsequently influenced the extra-regional network structure. The added value of taking an historical as well as an agency perspective, and of comparing and connecting resilient regions in different national contexts as well as in in different phases of economic development is shown. This may contribute to the debate on the conceptualisation of regional economic resilience, regarding theoretical questions concerning the type of shocks and responses to these shocks.