Case Study no. 3.

The case of Sophia-Antipolis, France: Science and Technology Park

PANTILOI ANDREEA BEATRIX, M-BA student, 1st year

1. Presentation of the Economic Agglomeration Chosen as a

Typology.
Sophia Antipolis is a scientific park, more specific a technopole.
Scientific park is to be known also as university research park, technology
park, technopole. Defined as being a property-based development that
accommodates and fosters the growth of tenant firms and that is affiliated with a
university (or a government and private research bodies) based on proximity,
ownership, and/or governance.

2. Overview of the chosen Economic Agglomeration.

Sophia-Antipolis is a technological park situated in France, within the
commune of Vallbone. It was created between 1970 and 1984. Its ambition is to
promote technology through excellence, success and natural exemplary of the
projects. It operates in many areas including biotech and biocontrol, health,
sustainable mobility and smart cities. It is described as being a model of
competitiveness cluster, a professional association, in few words, a dynamic and
multicultural ecosystem, full of startups, universities, schools, companies and
research centers. Since its inception, the Sophia Antipolis has contributed to
meeting social challenges of tomorrow and carried out strategic missions of the
economic and scientific influence of the international technology.
Number of companies: 2500
Employees: 38000
Students: 5500
3. SWOT ANALYSIS.
Strengths: institutions of higher education: Universite Cote D’Azur,
IDRAC Business School, Mines ParisTech; research centers and institutes;
companies
Weakness: to be honest I found no weaknesses
Opportunities: through the bio incubator project raised for 2030 will be
promoted the emergence of business creation projects form laboratories while
strengthening the health/ digital association and the preeminence of Artificial
Intelligence.
Challenges: the big challenge is to build up Sophia 2030
(https://www.sophia-antipolis.fr/sophia-2030/). To become what they meant
through this project.
4. Impact of the Economy of the Region
The fundamental factor for a successful innovation transfer system in
Sophia Antipolis lies in the existence of a public-private partnership. Thanks to
a strong commitment of the Government or its local representatives, innovation
transfer systems can emerge. The Government is the only legitimate body to
guaranty space organization. Consequently, one of the main responsibilities of
the public authorities is to facilitate the flow of informations between different
actors, to be a network mediator, and to assist firms through the sharing of
information. Nevertheless, the successful of such a top-down strategy relies on
the ability to set up a reliable coordination between firms located in the cluster.
The French authorities pride themselves on having created in Sophia Antipolis a
"Silicon Valley" in comparison with the California's famous technopolis in the
United States. Admittedly, in terms of workforce, Sophia Antipolis is the
biggest Technological Park in The Europe but the comparison reaches its end to
that point. Concerning the famous technological park Silicon Valley in
California, even if the public authorities helped, by financial incentives or
transportation facilities, to the economic growth of this territory (top-down
approach), the innovative atmosphere which had emerged from this park is
rooted in the private dynamics of the innovative SMEs (Bottom-up approach).
Being considered the higher level of education, research, and technology,
Sophia-Antipolis has an enormous impact over the entire economy of France
not only on the region.
5. Personal opinion.
After four almost five of existence, the reliability and the sustainability of
Sophia Antipolis is still to be proven. Admittedly, the incubators, the industrial
atmosphere, the University environment and agglomeration effects are very
important for the success of the Top-down strategy that governs the
development of Sophia Antipolis but all these factors can not alone explain the
continuing growth of this park.
The world is full of spaces offering tax incentives, efficient means of
transport and a pleasant living environment. The factors of attractiveness of the
Sophia Antipolis technological park are actually to be found outside the park.
Expatriate workers who arrive in France with their families can benefit from
education and health systems virtually free. For a salary equal to their country
of origin, their disposable income is much more important. This is one of the
main reasons why France is the first home in Europe for foreign direct
investment.