THE LOCATION DECISIONS AND OPERATIONS OF HIGH TECHNOLOGY ORGANIZATIONS IN WASHINGTON-STATE

HAUGP. (1991) The location decisions and operations of high technology organizations in Washington State, Reg. Studies 25, 525-541. Numerous studies exist on high technology industry regional development theories, location decisions, and agglomerations in the United States, but no major research has studied Washington State, which represents a leading high technology region. This paper presents findings from a mail survey of 363 high technology establishments in Washington, and background on high technology definitions and employment comparisons confirms that Washington is a high technology concentration. High technology in the state is dominated by the aerospace industry and, in particular, the Boeing Company but Washington is experiencing growth in software and biotechnology industries. Supporting previous research on high technology regional development theories and companies, survey results on location decisions show that Washington's high technology industry has been primarily locally grown and attracted to the state by founder preferences, quality of life features, and labour agglomeration factors. Findings reveal that state government agencies and programmes have had no significant effect on establishment location and investment activities, and the major academic-establishment relationships were access to library resources, recruitment of graduates, seminars, and employee degree programmes. © 1991, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.