Northern Sydney’s Global Technology Corridor

Northern Sydney’s Global Technology Corridor
The purpose of this project was to develop a better understanding of the conditions which drive, or have the potential to drive, successful industry clustering in Australia by reference to the concentration of high technology businesses in the northern Sydney region. The project is in the first instance a scoping study to develop a methodology to identify clustering activity among geographically co-located businesses in this region, which we title Northern Sydney’s Global Technology Corridor. Secondly, the study investigates the locational attributes that are attracting (and ‘keeping’) businesses in the region, making it in Ann Markusen’s (1996) phrase ‘a sticky place in slippery space’. Thirdly, the study proceeds to an examination of the level and intensity of clustering present in two high technology sectors.

The Global Technology Corridor in Sydney Australia is a growth region of national significance that comprises the northern side of Sydney Harbour and the Parramatta River starting at North Sydney, proceeding north to Chatswood, west through Macquarie Park to Pennant Hills and south through Ermington to the Parramatta River. This region has seen the emergence of two knowledge-driven industry sectors – information and communications technologies (ICT) and bio-medical technologies – which are acknowledged by policy-makers to be critical to the future growth and prosperity of New South Wales.

Kate Hughes is a Research Associate at Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM) Sydney, Australia and a business consultant in supply chain, marketing and strategy. She is a graduate of the University of New South Wales and currently studying a PhD part-time on humanitarian supply chains at MGSM. Kate is active in local industry as a member of the Logistics Association of Australia (LAA) and the international Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP). She has managed – or been involved in – large industry studies including a study of the domestic Beef Supply Chain, Northern Sydney’s Global Technologz Corridor with Professor Roy Green (formerly at NUI Galway), and the recently completed Mapping the Connections project for the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR) in Australia.

All Welcome