Networks of Firms and Supporting Institutions of Sophia-Antipolis, France

프랑스 소피아 앙티폴리스의 지역혁신체제

Sophia Antipolis was planned to be developed as an innovative technopole in the southern french area near Nice, a tourist destination. from an area with very little scientific activities, it was created as a vibrant city with science and industrial and cultural activities begining from the early 1960s. A dedicated university professor, who became a politician later, Pirre Laffite, organized non governmental institutions and professional associations to designate an area with 2300 ha and planned it for environmentally clean technopole. Sophia Antipolis eventually bacame the most well known technopole in Europe, hosting 1,200 companies with 24,000 employees. In this context, this paper analyses the process of building Sophia Antipolis and the operational mechanisms of the technopole, based on the data gathered from interviews with managers of the companies and supporting institutions of Sophia Antipolis.