Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413
www.elsevier.com/locate/geoforum
Everyday eVects, practices and causal mechanisms of  cultural
embeddedness : Learning from Utah s high tech regional economy
Al James
Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Downing Place, Cambridge CB2 3EN, England, United Kingdom
Received 2 June 2006; received in revised form 30 September 2006
Abstract
In recent years, economic geographers have drawn extensively upon notions of  cultural embeddedness to explore how spatially vari-
able sets of cultural conventions, norms, values and beliefs shape Wrms innovative performance in dynamic regional economies. However,
our understanding of these causal links remains partial, reinforced by an  over-territorialised conception of cultural embeddedness which
sidelines the role of institutional actors operating outside and across the boundaries of  the local . So motivated, this paper oVers a theo-
retically-informed  and theoretically informing  empirical analysis of the high tech regional economy in Salt Lake City, Utah to explore
the everyday causal mechanisms, practices and processes  both local and extra-local  through which Wrms cultural embedding within
the region is manifested, performed and (un)intentionally (re)produced. In so doing, this paper aims to further our understanding of the
constitutive entanglement and complex interweaving of cultural/economic practices, and to contribute to the development of an in-depth
empirical corpus of work which compliments the exciting conceptual developments that have largely dominated cultural economic geog-
raphy over the last decade.
© 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Embeddedness; Innovation; Culture/economy; Region; Mechanisms; Salt Lake City
1. Introduction ignored in conventional economic analyses but which fun-
damentally organise the workings of the space economy
Received wisdom in economic geography has long held (Wolfe and Gertler, 2001). This shift has been particularly
 economy and  culture as separate spheres, each with their apparent within the post-Fordist regional learning and
own discrete set of institutions, rationalities and conditions innovation literature in economic geography. Here, schol-
of existence. However, since the early 1990s, economic ars have drawn extensively upon the concept of  cultural
geographers have increasingly rejected these economy  ver- embeddedness to explore how Wrms production processes
sus culture dualisms in favour of a range of more Xuid and operate within, and impact on, the spatially variable sets
hybrid conceptions that emphasize the mutual constitution of social conventions, norms, attitudes, values and beliefs of
of these two spheres (see e.g. Castree, 2004; Crang, 1997; the societies within which economic decisions and practices
Gibson-Graham, 1996; Lee and Wills, 1997; McDowell, take place. Indeed there has now emerged a strong consen-
2000; Ray and Sayer, 1999). In so doing, scholars have sus that it is simply impossible to explain the continuing
brought to the centre of their analyses the so-called  soft advantage of some regional economies over others if
sociocultural aspects of economic behaviour previously we fail to take into account the ways in which Wrms activ-
ities are culturally constituted (Storper, 1997; Saxenian,
1994).
However, despite the widespread popularity of this con-
E-mail addresses: [e-mail], [e-mail] cept, the economic consequences of cultural embeddedness,
0016-7185/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2006.10.001
394 A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413
along with the causal mechanisms and practices through innovation literature, and also identiWes some important
which Wrms come to be culturally embedded, remain poorly directions for future research.
understood. The nature of this knowledge gap more
broadly has been usefully summarised by Paivi Oinas: 2. Connecting  cultural embeddedness to regional economic
development
 We need to understand the various ways in which
Wrms as collective actors and various individuals or
Over the last two decades, in the context of the widely
groups of them are embedded, and the ways in
documented (although by no means uncontested) shift to a
which these diVerent embeddednesses are related to
globalised post-Fordist knowledge economy, a major
economic outcomes, both at the level of Wrms and
research agenda within economic geography has developed
their spatial environmentsł
Empirical studies are
around the local determinants of entrepreneurship. Build-
needed, to open up the richness of  embeddedness
ing on an earlier interest in agglomeration economies and
in comprehensive studies Å‚
to reveal the processes
 traded input output linkages (e.g. Scott, 1986, 1988; Stor-
through which economic action and outcomes are
per and Walker, 1989), scholars have broadened their anal-
aVected by  embeddedness  (1997, p. 30, empha-
yses to examine how  untraded sociocultural, institutional
ses added).
and relational characteristics of regional industrial
Taking up Oinas s call, this paper aims to advance our agglomerations foster and support conditions conducive to
understanding of  cultural embeddedness by means of a knowledge creation, inventiveness, information dissemina-
theoretically informed  and theoretically informing  tion, and learning. The regional innovation and learning
empirical analysis of the regional high tech industrial literature is now extensive (see MacKinnon et al., 2002 and
agglomeration in Salt Lake City, Utah, a region widely rec- Cumbers et al., 2003 for useful recent reviews), but at the
ognized as the heartland of  Mormonism , the distinctive broadest level the advantages of agglomeration are argued
culture associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat- to emerge from: localised information Xows; technological
ter-day Saints (informally, the  Mormon Church ). Not spillovers; collective learning; and the creation of specia-
only does this regional case study oVer a particularly visible lised pools of knowledge and skill premised on formal and
(and hence measurable) instance of regional cultural econ- informal networks of collaborative interaction between
omy, but in common with many other regions around the Wrms and their employees which aid the circulation of tacit
world, economic development oYcials in Utah have them- knowledge within the region (Capello, 1999; Malmberg
selves increasingly recognised the fundamental role of cul- and Maskell, 1997, 2002). Crucially, scholars have also
tural norms, values and conventions in shaping and focused on the qualitative rules, conventions, and norms
conditioning regional economic competitiveness as they on which actors draw to combine varied skills, competen-
have sought to emulate Silicon Valley s spectacular growth cies and ideas to create new knowledge and so underpin
dynamic over the last three decades. innovation. Innovation is therefore increasingly regarded
The paper begins with a brief review of how diVerent as a fundamentally interactive, and hence unavoidably
notions of cultural embeddedness have been variously socio-cultural, process (Asheim, 2001; Malecki and Oinas,
employed by economic geographers to understand uneven 1999).
patterns of regional economic development, their concep- One of the most common approaches within this
tual divergence from Polanyi s (1944) and Granovetter s regional learning and innovation literature has involved the
(1973, 1985) original formulations, and the ongoing limits geographical application and operationalisation of the con-
to our understanding (Section 2). This is followed by an cept of  embeddedness  although of course, the regional
introduction to, and epistemic justiWcation of, the Salt Lake scale is by no means the only spatial logic of embeddedness!
case study (Section 3). Section 4 summarises the main ways (see e.g. Coe et al., 2004; Hess, 2004; Lewis et al., 2002; Liu,
in which the behaviour of Utah s high tech Wrms can be 2000; Mol and Law, 1994). Embeddedness is broadly deW-
seen as constituted through, and diVerentially shaped by, ned as the set of social relationships between economic and
the socially constructed norms, values and evaluative crite- non-economic actors (individuals as well as aggregate
ria within Mormonism, and also measures the conse- groups of individuals, i.e. organizations), which in turn cre-
quences of that  cultural embedding for Wrms abilities to ate distinctive patterns of constraints and incentives for
learn, innovate and compete (i.e. why cultural embedded- economic action and behaviour (see e.g. Hess, 2004; Jessop,
ness matters). Section 5 then unpacks the multi-scaled set of 2001; Zukin and DiMaggio, 1990). The concept was Wrst
 everyday practices, causal mechanisms and tangible put forward by Polanyi (1944) in his book  The Great
agents through which Mormon cultural values come to Transformation which explicitly rejected the then domi-
deWne Wrms systems of organisational control, rule sys- nant view of the economy as  natural , pre-given, self-regu-
tems, decision-making processes, and observed behaviour  lating and inevitable in form, instead arguing that markets
that is, it seeks to explain how cultural embeddedness is are socially constructed and governed. Polanyi also dis-
(re)constructed over time. Finally, Section 6 explores the tinguished between three types of economic exchange in
wider signiWcance of this analysis in terms of its overcoming society (reciprocal, redistributive and market) each charac-
some persistent limitations within the regional learning and terised by a distinct form of embeddedness in social and
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413 395
cultural structures.1 Polanyi s ideas were later reworked cited example of the ways in which embeddedness matters
and reintroduced to social science in the mid-1980s by in a regional context. Controlling for industrial sector,
Marc Granovetter in reaction to: (i) an undersocialised products, historical period, business cycle position, political
view of economic action represented by neoclassical eco- events, and nation-state, Saxenian highlighted the impor-
nomics which  assumes rational self-interested behaviour tance of local cultural societal determinants of industrial
minimally aVected by social relations (1985, p. 481); and adaptation, their inXuence on interWrm networks of associa-
(ii) an oversocialised view in modern sociology which con- tion, and their territorial manifestations. In Silicon Valley,
ceives of  people as obedient to the dictates of consensually Wrms embeddedness in a distinctive regional Californian
developed systems of norms and values, internalised counter culture characterized by a willingness to embrace
through socialisation, so that obedience is not perceived as risk, and loyalties to transcendent technologies over indi-
a burden (p. 483).2 Taking a route through the middle, vidual Wrms, underpinned a regional network-based indus-
Granovetter instead stressed the concrete and ongoing trial system based on blurred interWrm boundaries and
nature of the social relations in which economic actors are Xexible adjustment among producers of complex related
enmeshed, and outside of which it is impossible to under- products.3 In contrast, Wrms embeddedness in a traditional
stand fully their economic activities. In so doing, Granovet- conservative East Coast business culture in Route 128 is
ter shifted the analytical focus of embeddedness away from argued to have sustained relatively integrated corporations,
Polanyi s earlier focus on abstract economies and societies lesser interaction, and lower rates of economic growth.
onto individual people, groups, organisations and networks Scholars have subsequently built upon Saxenian s work to
of interpersonal relationships (Emirbayer and Goodwin, examine further how  cultural embeddedness shapes pat-
1994). These ideas were Wrst applied in economic geography terns of corporate behaviour, local production and employ-
in the early 1990s (see Dicken and Thrift, 1992), and have ment relations, industrial adaptation and economic
since given rise to an important research agenda within the development in other regions4 (e.g. Amin and Thrift, 1994;
sub-discipline. Malecki, 1995; Morgan, 1997; Storper, 1995, 1997).
Regional economic geographical scholars have explored However, while  cultural embeddedness has quickly
a number of diVerent dimensions of embeddedness, which become established as a conceptual lynchpin of the regional
can usefully be grouped together under three broad (albeit development literature, our understanding of the causal
highly overlapping) headings, as recently typologised by mechanisms and everyday practices through which spatially
Hess (2004, pp. 176 181). First, societal embeddedness variable sets of socio-cultural conventions, norms, attitudes,
refers to the ways in which the perceptions, strategies and values and beliefs shape and condition Wrms economic per-
actions of economic actors are inXuenced and shaped by formance remains under-speciWed. Indeed, despite its popu-
their social, cultural and political backgrounds, both at the larity, even Saxenian s (1994) study fails to outline fully the
individual level and at the aggregate level of the Wrm (e.g. causal links between the competitive culture described in
Dicken and Thrift, 1992; Harrison, 1992). Second, network Silicon Valley and the success of this regional economy 
embeddedness describes the composition, structure and and nor does Saxenian measure those causal links (Marku-
architecture of formal and informal relationships among sen, 1999). Additionally, regional learning accounts have
diVerent sets of individuals and organizations that a person tended to  dehumanise processes of cultural embedding,
or organisation is involved in, and how that in turn shapes instead misrepresenting cultural embeddedness as some-
their economic activities (e.g. Crewe, 1996; Park, 1996). thing ethereal and eternal, divorced from everyday material
Third, territorial embeddedness refers to the extent to practice, or else have misconstrued  it as a self-perpetuating
which economic actors are  anchored in local territorial inherited tradition that determines contemporary economic
networks of institutions, and to how those actors are inXu- activities (see Gertler, 1997, 2004). Critics have also argued
enced by the economic activities and social dynamics that that these problems are compounded by a tendency within
already exist in those places (e.g. Cooke, 2002; Markusen, the regional learning literature to sideline the importance of
1996; Phelps et al., 1998; Scott, 1988; Tödtling, 1994; wider extra-local structures (Lewis et al., 2002; MacKinnon
Turok, 1993). et al., 2002; Markusen, 1999; Oinas, 2002), which reinforces
Arguably, it is Saxenian s (1994) work on the divergent a partial view of the structures and forces shaping processes
economic trajectories of Silicon Valley and Boston s Route of Wrms sociocultural embedding, based on a misplaced
128 through the 1980s is one of (if not the most!) widely conception of regions as  closed systems or mere  containers
1
SpeciWcally, while non-market economies based on  reciprocal and
3
redistributive exchange were constituted on the basis of shared values and Saxenian s (1994) account has been contested by Florida and Kenney
norms that had their roots in social and cultural bonds rather than mone- (1990).
4
tary goals, societies based on market exchange reXect only those underly- Arguments have therefore aligned themselves with the earlier Xexible
ing values and norms that consider price (Hess, 2004, p. 168). specialisation school accounts of successful industrial districts in North-
2
In the undersocialised account, atomisation results from the utilitarian Eastern Italy (e.g. Becattini, 1978; Brusco, 1982; Piore and Sabel, 1984),
pursuit of self-interest; in the oversocialised account, it results from behav- which placed heavy emphases on trust, cooperation, and artisanal produc-
iour patterns having been internalised such that ongoing social relations tion, to develop a theory of economic co-operation, where social ties and
have only a peripheral eVect on the behaviour of economic actors (p. 485). community relationships shape economic behaviour.
396 A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413
of intangible assets and structures (Yeung, 2005, p. 47).5 Table 1
Utah and Wasatch Front populations and labourforce, 2003
Indeed, this restrictive focus on locally bounded economic
Population Labourforce
activities means that our currently  over-territorialised
notions of cultural embeddedness have lost sight of Pola- Utah State 2,378,696 1,184,385
Salt Lake City/Ogden MSA
nyi s original notions of  societal embeddedness (Hess,
Salt Lake County 924,826 512,293
2004, p. 173).
Davis County 255,343 124,837
In seeking to overcome these limitations, this paper
Weber County 205,802 109,497
explores the everyday mechanisms, practices and emergent
Provo/Orem MSA
eVects at the local and extra-local scales through which
Utah County 422,409 181,832
Wrms cultural embedding is manifest, performed and
Source: US Bureau of the Census (2004), Utah Department of Workforce
(un)unintentionally (re)produced.6 The paper also explores
Services (2004a,b).
the interactions between diVerent mechanisms and prac-
tices of cultural embedding and their territorial manifesta-
Church). Mormons comprise over 75% of the state s total
tions. In so doing, the paper aims to further our
population (LDS Church/Deseret News, 2000; Eliason,
understanding of the constitutive entanglement and inter-
2001), the same population from which Utah s high tech
weaving of cultural/economic practices by grounding
workforce is drawn. Indeed, for its entire history as a politi-
 cultural embeddedness in people s everyday work-life
cal entity, Utah has been  Mormon Country (Poll, 2001, p.
experiences (following e.g. Dyck, 2005; Holloway and Hub-
164). Mormon culture is conservative by popular standards
bard, 2001; Smith, 2002). The next section introduces the
with strong family and community impulses (May, 2001). It
Salt Lake City/Mormon case study and explains how  on
includes prohibitions against alcohol and drug use, a com-
the one hand  it oVers a particularly visible case for explor-
mitment to fasting and prayer, modesty in dress, an empha-
ing these culture/economy issues, yet  on the other hand 
sis on family and obedience to parents, and concerns for the
it is by no means a unique case.
elderly and the poor. The church also opposes abortion,
divorce and premarital sex, whilst also emphasizing the
3. Case Study: Salt Lake City (high tech meets Mormonism)
Protestant ethics of diligence, education and the attainment
of skills (Cornwall, 2001). Three key elements of Utah s
Salt Lake City is the main centre of population on
Mormon culture make it especially suited to this research.
Utah s Wasatch Front, an urban corridor of four counties
First, Mormonism is more than simply a creedal faith; it is
(Salt Lake, Weber, Davis and Utah) that runs north and
a whole way of life requiring an almost total commitment
south between the foot of the Wasatch Mountains to the
in customs, values, and lifestyle (see Kotkin, 1993). More-
east and Great Salt Lake to the west. High tech growth has
over, many commentators argue that Mormon culture is so
occurred here in three waves: a defense industry build-up in
strong that there also exists a Mormon ethnicity (Abram-
the 1960s; growth of software and services in the 1980s
son, 1980; May, 2001; Mitchell, 2000). Second, the demo-
(when many Silicon Valley Wrms began to move various
graphic dominance of Mormons in Utah creates a
functions to Utah); followed by a cascade of start-ups in
denomination-speciWc domination of Utah s general cul-
the 1990s. This region is now home to over three quarters of
ture7  indeed, over 90% of all church members in Utah are
Utah s total population of 2.38 million (Table 1) with over
LDS (Young, 1996). Third, Mormonism s central tenets are
3400 high tech Wrms employing over 67,000 people across a
easily articulated and well known, and its ideologies written
range of subsectors (Utah Department of Workforce Ser-
vices, 2004a; see also Table 2).  Computer software and sys-
7
tems design (formerly SIC 737) is Utah s lead high tech
While I am aware of the dangers of essentialising Mormon cultural
subsector in terms of employment and number of establish- practices and playing down the role of non-Mormon sub-cultures within
Utah, it is worth noting that the dominance of Mormon culture in Utah is
ments and therefore forms the focus of this analysis.
manifest in a range of secondary data at the state level. First, Utah has
SigniWcantly, the Wasatch Front is also the geographical
been a Republican political stronghold since the 1960s, consistent with the
heartland of Mormonism, the distinctive culture associated
time when LDS Church leaders began outspokenly to favour conservative
with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS
positions on key social issues (Burbank et al. (2001)). Indeed, studies using
public opinion data to summarise the ideological and partisan orientations
of citizens by state have identiWed Utah as the most conservative and
5
Arguably, this narrow approach results from a particular form of  clo- Republican state in the US on average (Erickson et al., 1993: 14 19;
sure by space (Massey, 1999, p. 263) in which case studies are delimited Wright et al., 2000: 41). Second, Utah s fertility rate is approximately one
and deWned according to the same administrative boundaries within which third higher than the US national rate, a function of Utah having more ba-
highly accessible contextual data is initially available (typically at the bies per woman (c.f. US average) and a higher proportion of Utah s female
county or Metropolitan Statistical Area level). Fundamentally, however, population being in child-bearing years compared with females nationally
we cannot assume that the key processes that shape and condition our case (Perlich, 1996). Both are consistent with Mormon family values which
studies similarly obey those same (often arbitrary) administrative bound- encourage marriage followed by childbearing (Cornwall, 1996; Smith and
aries. Shipman, 1996). Moreover, consistent with Mormonism s discouragement
6
Here I employ the language of Hudson (2005) whose work explores the of divorce and bearing children out of wedlock (Smith and Shipman,
production of  old industrial regions (through the case study of North 1996), male and female Utahns alike are more likely to be married than
East England). individuals in the US at any age (ibid.).
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413 397
Table 2
Utah s high tech subsectors, 2000 and 2003
NAICS Description Establishments Employment
2000 2003 2000 2003
325413 In-vitro diagnostic substance manuf. 5 5 15 25
333314 Optical instrument and lens manuf. 7 7 187 154
3341 Computer and peripheral equipment manuf. 26 23 3942 1158
3342 Communications equipment manuf. 30 29 2398 2518
3344 Semiconductor and electronics manuf. 59 51 4618 2970
3345 Navigational, measuring & electromedical manuf. 53 58 3313 3813
335991 Carbon and graphite product manuf. 4 2 371 321
3364 Aerospace product and parts manuf. 50 44 7472 6302
3391 Medial equipment supplies manuf. 184 185 7430 7512
5112 & 5415 Software and computer systems design 1512 1588 19,598 16,055
51211 Motion picture and video production 185 192 3003 2322
51219 Postproduction and related activities 15 22 45 20
5172 Wireless telecommunications carriers 87 78 1459 719
5174 Satellite telecommunications 11 13 91 87
5179 Other telecommunications 5 7 82 53
5181 Internet service providers 250 246 3779 3150
54133 Engineering services 583 641 5710 5975
54138 Testing laboratories 107 107 1187 1208
54171 R&D in physical engineering and life sciences 227 246 3060 3722
TOT 3400 3544 67,715 57,354
Source: Utah Department of Workforce Services (2004a,b).
down and easily accessible. Moreover, the Utahn regional in a strong Christian Evangelical regional culture (Gray
variant of Mormonism has been recognized as particularly and Markusen, 1999). These religious cultural examples are
visible, on the basis of the unique institutional history of linked by a high degree of visibility, which in turn has
this region (Salt Lake City was founded by the Mormons in oVered scholars an important means of analysing culture
1847 and remains the worldwide administrative centre for economy interactions feasibly, and hence facilitated the
the LDS Church) and the physical isolation of Salt Lake development of conceptual understandings which might
Valley itself (Poll, 2001). then be applied to other regions with regional cultures that
As such, Utah oVers a very visible case study to explore are less visible (and hence amenable to study) in the Wrst
the everyday causal mechanisms and practices through instance. Herein, therefore, lies the wider relevance of the
which Wrms cultural embedding within regional economies Utah case to the established regional learning and innova-
is manifested, performed and (un)intentionally (re)pro- tion literature.
duced, and hence through which we might further our
understanding of the constitutive entanglement and com- 3.1. Methodology
plex interweaving of cultural/economic practices. Crucially
however, while this is a very visible case study, it is by no This research was carried out between 2000 and 2004.
means unique. Rather, there are thousands of regional Initially, an industrial survey of the leading 105 computer
economies worldwide similarly premised on strong cohe- software Wrms by 2000 revenue (10% sample) was con-
sive regional cultures (be those based on gender, ethnicity, ducted across the four counties of the Wasatch Front.8
trade unions, or particular sectoral specializations for Firms in the survey dataset employ 7585 people in Utah,
example) which unavoidably shape and condition local pat- and in 2000 generated a combined revenue of $1031 million
terns of entrepreneurship and regional economic develop- from their Utah operations. SigniWcantly, almost three-
ment trajectories. At the same time, some of the most quarters (69%) of the Wrms in the survey sample are Mor-
celebrated examples of regional industrial economies in the mon founded; 68% have a Mormon majority management
geographical literature are themselves also based on reli- team; and 58% are Mormon founded and managed. (Argu-
gious regional cultures. These include Boston s Route 128, ably, these Wgures represent the broadest indicator of Wrms
embedded in New England s Protestant culture which has
been shown to sustain conservative business cultures in
8
local large electronics Wrms (Saxenian, 1994); the ethnic SpeciWcally, the survey focused on Wve key areas of the Wrm: (i) occupa-
tional structure and workforce composition; (ii) interWrm relationships
immigrant networks in Silicon Valley premised on Bud-
and external orientation; (iii) Wnancing histories; (iv) Wrms in-house tech-
dhist, Hindu and Shintoist culture, which connect local
nological capabilities and innovative R&D processes (v) competitive  per-
Wrms to dynamic growth regions in South East Asia (e.g.
formance and growth. I achieved an overall response rate of just over
Saxenian, 1999; Saxenian et al., 2002); and the embedded-
50%, and as such the survey dataset covers the top 20% of software Wrms
ness of the military industrial complex in Colorado Springs on the Wasatch Front by 2000 revenue.
398 A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413
cultural embedding in the region). Second, in-depth inter- ages explicitly designed to allow for the maintenance of tra-
views and group discussions were conducted with employ- ditional Mormon nuclear family units among employees
ees in 20 case study Wrms, selected in order that these Wrms (see James, 2003).11 However, the economic implications of
cover the spectrum of non/Mormon founding and manage- this cultural embedding for Wrms competitive performance
ment (Mormon majority, intermediate, and non-Mormon are best understood in terms of a series of sustained ten-
majority9), and be evenly split between Salt Lake County sions, between self-identiWed Mormon cultural traits also
and Utah County to facilitate an exploration of the role of manifest within local Wrms, versus key elements of corpo-
local demographic context in shaping Wrm behaviour: Utah rate and industrial cultures that have been consistently
County has the highest LDS population of all counties in shown in the regional learning literature as positively
Utah (90% LDS) in contrast to Salt Lake County which is underpinning Wrms abilities to innovate. Previous work has
locally regarded as the most cosmopolitan county (64% explored some of these tensions, including Mormon Wrms
LDS). In the case study sample, the survey deWnition of lesser willingness to seek venture capital growth Wnance
 Mormon Wrms (Mormon founding and management) was (within Utah and in other US states) relative to their non-
expanded to include the proportion of Wrms total Utah Mormon counterparts as a function of Mormon ethics of
employees that are active Mormons. Mormons comprise anti-debt and frugality (James, 2005) and reduced work
approximately 69% of Wrms total employees in the case hours relative to non-Mormon Wrms in respect of Mormon
study sample. In 2000 these Wrms employed 1009 people in teachings on the primacy of family (James, 2006a). In con-
Utah and their Utah operations generated a combined rev- trast, this section focuses speciWcally on the consequences
enue of over $111.3 million, and all have 20 99 employees, of this embedding for Wrms abilities to access external
the dominant size category in the survey sample. Qualita- sources of knowledge and competencies, and to use new
tive data were generated for these Wrms through semi-struc- knowledge once it enters the Wrm.
tured interviews (following Schoenberger, 1991; Markusen,
1994), targeting employees in technical and non-technical 4.1. Consequences for Wrms external relationships
positions in a range of job positions. A range of industry
watchers and other government, church and economic Over the last decade, scholars have shown that success-
development oYcials were also interviewed, giving a total ful learning and innovation require that Wrms maintain
of 100 interviews and over 130 hours of taped material local and extra-local networks of external association (see
upon which the analysis presented here is largely based.10 e.g. Camagni, 1991; Florida, 1995; Cooke and Morgan,
Each Wrm case study was further developed using a number 1998; Maillat, 1995; Oinas and Malecki, 2002; Gertler and
of secondary data sources (annual reports, memos, etc.) as Levitte, 2005). When individuals with partially overlapping
part of a source triangulation strategy. knowledges come together and articulate their ideas collec-
tively, they are forced to derive more adequate ideas about
4. Exploring how and why Wrms cultural embedding in the the technology they are trying to develop (Lawson and
region matters Lorenz, 1999, p. 312). Additionally, interaction also pro-
vides a basis for comparison of evolving ideas with other
The most striking manifestations of how the observed practices not internally generated. SigniWcantly, Mormon-
behaviour of Mormon founded and managed software ism is itself characterized by strong ethics of unity, reciproc-
Wrms in Utah s high tech economy is constituted through ity and mutual commitment which shape the nature of
and shaped by Mormon cultural conventions and norms interaction among its members and are explicitly cultivated
include: management practices of praying over strategic by the LDS Church leadership (Arrington and Bitton,
corporate direction and fasting for the company; explicitly 1992; Dunn, 1996).12 One way to examine the extent to
aligning software products with LDS Church teachings and which local Wrms exhibit these Mormon cultural traits is to
needs (especially education, translation and internet pri- track the extent to which Mormon ownership and manage-
vacy); turning down  immoral work in non-alignment with
LDS teachings; and oVering pay and remuneration pack- 11
Prevalence of prayer acknowledged as a valid basis for decision-mak-
ing at the management level (in 5 Wrms in the case study sample, all 5 have
majority Mormon workforces and Mormon management teams); fasting
9
The case study sample of 20 Wrms was divided into four categories: 6 for the company (in 3 of the Mormon founded and managed case study
MORMON FIRMS (Mormon founded, Mormon managed and Mormon Wrms); software products aligned explicitly with LDS Church teachings (in
majority workforce); 6 NON-MORMON FIRMS (non-Mormon found- 2 of the 6 Mormon Wrms in the case study sample, no non-Mormon Wrms);
ed, non-Mormon managed and non-Mormon majority workforce (con- pay packages explicitly designed to maintain traditional Mormon nuclear
trol); 4 INTERMEDIATE I FIRMS (Mormon founded and Mormon family units (in 4 of the 6 Mormon case study Wrms, but no non-Mormon
majority workforce but non-Mormon managed); and 4 INTERMEDI- Wrms).
12
ATE II FIRMS (non-Mormon founded but Mormon managed and Mor- This group spirit is induced not only by the belief that unity is a Chris-
mon majority workforce). tian virtue, but also by the trying times that the Mormon pioneers experi-
10
The sample of research participants interviewed comprised 75 males enced (Arrington, 1992). The settlement of the barren, harsh desert
and 25 females (representative of the gender breakdown of Utah s high environment of the Salt Lake Valley necessitated a co-operative irrigation
tech workforce). The total sample of 100 research participants included 62 eVort in an environment that would not have yielded to more individualis-
active Mormons, 5 inactive Mormons, and 21 non-Mormons. tic eVorts (Toth, 1974).
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413 399
ment aVect Wrms choice of strategic partners. SigniWcantly, sis.15 Many research participants were aware of the limits of
the Mormon founded and managed Wrms in the case study such an introverted approach, consistent with previous
sample do have a higher proportion strategic partners studies which have demonstrated that where Wrms rely
within Utah who are similarly Mormon founded and man- mainly on internal resources their individual performance
aged (67.5%) than do their intermediate Mormon counter- is weakened, along with that of the entire regional system
parts (57%) and non-Mormon counterparts (50%). (see e.g. MacPherson, 1992; Wiig and Wood, 1997). Rarely
Likewise, when we examine Wrms extra-local relationships does a single Wrm have superior capabilities in all phases of
with strategic partners beyond Utah,13 the Mormon the production process, and so it is imperative that they
founded and managed Wrms again have a higher proportion take advantage of the synergies that Xow from shared
(13.5%) of partners who are similarly Mormon founded enterprise. As such, the introvertedness of particular Mor-
and managed than do their Mormon intermediate (8%) and mon founded and managed Wrms can be viewed as a second
non-Mormon (5%) counterparts.14 Subsequent interviews potential constraint on their innovative capacities.
uncovered how Mormon customs, conventions and social
norms generate a  cultural closeness between Wrms that 4.2. Consequences for Wrms absorptive capacities
aids working alliances (see James, 2006a). However, whilst
this helps sustain interaction between like Wrms, it simulta- Continuous technological learning and innovation are
neously excludes non-Mormon Wrms, constraining Mor- therefore highly dependent on Wrms abilities to access
mon founded and managed Wrms abilities to learn from external sources of information and knowledge. Funda-
these non-like companies. mentally however, they are also dependent on Wrms abili-
Additionally, interWrm alliances allow Wrms to broaden ties to assimilate, reconWgure, transform and apply new
their capacities more widely by combining their own com- information to commercial ends. DiVerent  absorptive
petencies with those of a partner to create a competitive capacities (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990) are not random.
position that neither could have achieved alone. Thus, in Rather, the ability to absorb new knowledge will always
the context of increased complexity and intersectoral depend on socio-cultural constructions of what is accept-
nature of new technologies, and shortening product life- able and desirable (Schoenberger, 1997; Westwood and
cycles, partnerships allow Wrms to speed the pace of prod- Low, 2003). The innovation and learning literature has con-
uct introduction, improve product quality, and move more sistently highlighted a set of cultural norms that, if widely
quickly into new markets (Hutt et al., 2000). In contrast, shared by the members of a Wrm, actively promote the gen-
Mormon culture is characterized by strong emphases on eration of new ideas and help in the implementation of new
individual self-suYciency, independence and self-reliance approaches. These include a climate of openness in which
(Ludlow, 1992), ethics rooted in the Mormon pioneer expe- debate and conXict are encouraged; a willingness to break
rience when Utah s hostile physical environment forced with convention; widespread support for trying new things;
Mormon families to hone the virtue of self-suYciency in the right of employees to challenge the status quo; and mul-
order to survive (Young, 1996). Interview discussions tiple advocacy, that learning requires more than one  cham-
uncovered how these Mormon traits often form the basis pion if it is to succeed (Deal and Kennedy, 2000; DiBella
for management decisions within local Wrms: while Mor- et al., 1996). Firms abilities to innovate therefore presume
mon Wrms have a higher propensity to interact with other a necessary relationship between learning and active
Mormon Wrms, their overall levels of interWrm networking employee involvement at all levels; that all employees can
are reduced relative to non-Mormon Wrms. Strikingly, the act as independent agents, take responsibility, experiment,
Mormon founded and managed Wrms in the survey and and make mistakes as they learn (Spender, 1996).
case study samples have on average around half as many However, these traits contrast with Mormonism in four
strategic partner Wrms as their non-Mormon counterparts ways. First, Mormon culture is characterized by cultural
in each Wrm size category. These patterns are apparent for emphases on unity and individual sacriWce for the com-
Wrms Utahn partners, and when their extra-local relation- mon good, which previous studies highlight as sustaining
ships with partners outside Utah are included in the analy- strong tendencies towards group conformity (Shupe, 1992).
Second, these are reinforced by a pervasive respect for
13 15
Limits on the length of the survey instrument precluded a detailed Strategic partners deWned in terms joint product development and/or
analysis of the exact location of these partner Wrms, however, subsequent R&D, or other self-identiWed formal alliances as outlined on Wrms corporate
in-depth interviews with local industry watchers and other economic websites and subsequently conWrmed by research participants working in
development oYcials suggested that the vast majority are US-based, with Utah s software industry. Utah only strategic partners for Mormon founded
a particular dominance by California. and managed Wrms compared with non-Mormon founded and managed
14
These patterns are also consistent with a lesser willingness among Wrms: (i) survey sample: Micro category: 0.8 c.f. 1.5; Medium category: 1.4 c.f.
Mormon founded and managed software Wrms to seek early-stage Wnanc- 2.3; (Medium-large category: 0.7 c.f. 3.0); (ii) case study sample: 0.2 c.f. 0.8. All
ing from sources outside Utah relative to their non-Mormon counterparts. strategic partners (Utah and beyond) for Mormon founded and managed
This is true for all three Wrm size categories: (i) survey sample: Micro cate- Wrms compared with non-Mormon founded and managed Wrms: (i) survey
gory: 38.9 c.f. 44.4%; Medium category: 57.1 c.f. 63.4%; (Medium-large cat- sample: Micro category: 4.1 c.f. 7.0; Medium category: 3.5 c.f. 7.1; (Medium-
egory: 62.5 c.f. 100%); (ii) case study sample: 33.3 c.f. 50%. large category: 4.9 c.f. 12.0); (ii) case study sample: 4.2 c.f. 7.8.
400 A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413
Table 3
Measuring the economic performance of Mormon versus non-Mormon founded and managed computer software Wrms on Utah s Wasatch Front (from
James, 2005)
Metric of Wrm competitiveness Survey sample (105 Wrms) Case study sample (20 Wrms)
Micro (1 19 emp) Medium (20 99 emp) (20 99 emp)
Mormon Non Mormon Non Mormon Non
(i) Revenue growth since start-up
(a) Linear (2000 UT revenue/age) 0.16 0.32 0.78 1.05 0.18 0.73
(b) Exponential (2000 UT revenue/Fage) 0.28 1.05 1.70 1.68 0.56 1.57
(ii) R&D intensity type I
(R&D expend as % of sales revenue) 0.23 0.24 0.22 0.53 0.29 0.59
(iii) R&D intensity type II
(R&D emp as % of total emp) 0.55 0.57 0.40 0.58 0.57 0.34
(iv) Productivity
($1000 revenue/employee) 60.47 155.71 123.69 88.82 88.74 103.83
established ideas and church operating procedures tures sustain. However, research participants also identiWed
(Ostling and Ostling, 1999). Third, the LDS Church orga- a number of disadvantages of these same corporate cul-
nizational system is also based on predominantly top- tures, in terms of Mormon cultural traits of respect for
down Xows of information, in which leadership decision established ideas, unity and top-down leadership authority
are never challenged, only supported by the wider Mor- potentially undermining the processes of creative dissent,
mon populace  that  when the Prophet speaks the thinking constant questioning and multi-directional knowledge
has been done (Ludlow, 1992). Fourth, these cultural Xows that underpin innovation in Wrms.16 Indeed many of
emphases of reverence for established ideas and leadership the Mormon industry research participants were them-
authority are in turn reinforced by wider Mormon empha- selves aware of these limits (see James, 2006a).
ses on being passive, non-confrontational and never Overall therefore, while in some cases the Mormon cul-
demeaning another person. tural constitution of Wrms individual corporate cultures
SigniWcantly, these distinctive Mormon cultural traits potentially enhances and reinforces their innovative capaci-
are also manifest in the Wrms in the case study sample. ties; in other cases it potentially constrains them. To get a
Approximately 40% of these Wrms are self-identiWed by the handle on the overall meaning and implications of these
industry research participants as having corporate cultures tensions for Wrms economic performance, Wve metrics were
that place a premium on unity within the Wrm, and a  follow employed:17 (i) linear revenue growth since start-up; (ii)
thy leader mentality. This includes two thirds of the Mor- assumed exponential revenue growth since start-up; (iii)
mon founded and managed Wrms, half of the Mormon R&D intensity I (R&D expenditure to annual revenue); (iv)
intermediate Wrms, but only one of the non-Mormon Wrms. R&D intensity II (R&D employment to total employment);
Indeed, over half of the non-Mormon industry research and (v) productivity in terms of revenue per employee. The
participants identiWed their Mormon colleagues and results are shown in Table 3.
employees as generally less willing to question ideas and The data in Table 4 show that for four of the Wve metrics
leadership authority. Additionally, almost one third of the of Wrms economic performance, the non-Mormon Wrms
(47) active Mormon industry research participants also outperform their Mormon counterparts (highlighted in
identiWed this trend among their fellow Mormon employees bold). These diVerences are not likely to be a function of
and colleagues generally, arguing that Mormon managers age (that the non-Mormon Wrms are simply older and more
and employees raised in the LDS Church simply  borrow well established) because the age distributions of the Mor-
from the models that are familiar to them. mon and non-Mormon Wrms are almost identical for each
Research participants outlined multiple ways in which of the employee size categories employed. Nor are these
these Mormon-inXected corporate cultures are advanta- diVerences a function of Mormon and non-Mormon Wrms
geous. First, they suggested that a common value base being in diVerent market niches: all Wrms are classiWed
makes it easier for the Wrm to mesh as a team, consistent under the same NAICS code. While limits of space preclude
with norms highlighted in the innovation literature as pro-
moting corporate implementation of new ideas, namely:
16
I am nevertheless aware of the debates surrounding the need for con-
teamwork, a shared vision and a common direction upon
structive confrontation in the Wrm, given the success of Japanese Wrms
which Wrms can build consensus, mutual respect and trust
based on very non-confrontational work cultures (see e.g. Ouchi, 1981; Pa-
(O Reilly, 1989). Second, there was also widespread appre-
scale and Athos, 1982; Suzuki et al., 2002).
ciation among Mormon and non-Mormon research partici- 17
Indicators used follow Gertler et al., 2000 and Williamson and Verdin
pants alike of the more friendly and less stressful work
(1992). Also see Williamson and Verdin (1992) for a discussion of the links
environments that these Mormon-informed corporate cul- between age, growth and experience as sources of business unit advantage.
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413 401
Table 4
Measuring the signiWcance of the  key individuals mechanism of cultural embedding
MORMON FIRMS NON-MORMON FIRMS
MANIFESTATION OF EMBEDDING (Mormon founders AND (Non-Mormon founders AND
Non-Mormon management)
(SELF-IDENTIFIED) Mormon management)
AN PQ IE QD EC JE UG LJ BW NN FN XH
BELIEF IN DIVINE INTERVENTION IN THE FIRM
Praying Over Corporate Strategic Direction - Firm Level
Fasting for the company  individual employees
Seeking revelation at the Temple w.r.t. the company
TURNING DOWN IMMORAL WORK
Firms unwilling to work on unwholesome content
Vocalised as Mormon cultural issue
Firm as money-making entity < firm as vehicle for good
MORMON ORIENTATED SOFTWARE PRODUCT
As deliberate corporate strategy
EXPLICIT FAMILY ORIENTATION
Pay levels to maintain Mormon family units amongst employees
Firms aware of competitors as people with families
CO-OPERATION AND TRUST
Mormon partners dominant
SELF-SUFFICIENCY
< half the mean total partners (UT and beyond)
NO Utah partners
RESPECT FOR ESTABLISHED IDEAS / AUTHORITY
High value placed on unity over creative dissent in firm
DEBT AVOIDANCE
Internal financing strategy from start-up&
& to make a MORAL decision
Reservations wr.t. non-Mormon VCist on board
FAMILY (THEN CHURCH) ABOVE ALL
Short work weeks (less than half mean average)
Above US average holiday lengths
Sunday working totally restricted
% POSSIBLE CELLS FILLED
61 12
Note: The two letter abbreviations at the head of the second and third columns (e.g. AN, PQ, IE, etc.) are the anonymised labels assigned to each of the 20
case study Wrms.
a step-by-step analytical discussion here (see James, 2005) the most striking diVerences include: linear growth rates,
the most striking diVerences in economic performance at where the non-Mormon Wrms outperform their Mormon
the survey level include: exponential growth rates, where counterparts four times over; and exponential growth rates
the non-Mormon Wrms outperform their Mormon counter- (non-Mormon Wrms three times greater). Thus while the
parts three times over (micro category); Type I R&D inten- results are not monolithic, they lend support to the thesis
sities (non-Mormon Wrms, medium size category, two times that the Mormon cultural inXection of the corporate cul-
greater): and productivity (non-Mormon Wrms, micro size tures of the Mormon founded and managed computer soft-
category, over two times greater). At the case study level, ware Wrms in the survey and case study samples (i.e. their
402 A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413
 cultural embeddedness ) has a constraining eVect on local observed behaviour, through deWnitions of what has value
corporate economic performance, consistent with the con- and what does not.
straints on Wrms innovative capacities outlined above.18 The importance of this  key individuals mechanism of
embedding is shown in Table 4. This matrix shows how the
5. Unpacking the causal mechanisms and everyday practices various manifestations of Wrms embedding in Mormonism 
of cultural embedding whose consequences for Wrms economic performance were
discussed in Section 4  are mutually reinforcing among the
The cultural embedding of Mormon-founded and man- case study sample of Wrms. Not unsurprisingly, the Wrms
aged software Wrms on Utah s Wasatch Front therefore has with Mormon founders, managers, and CEOs exhibited a
important consequences for local corporate forms, higher degree of cultural embedding than their Non-Mor-
observed patterns of behaviour, innovation activities and, mon founded and managed counterparts, as measured in
hence, competitive economic performance. In turn, this begs terms of the proportion of possible matrix cells Wlled for
the question: what are the everyday causal mechanisms and each type of Wrm (61% for the Mormon Wrms; versus 26%
practices through which Wrms cultural embedding within for the Intermediate Mormon Wrms; versus 12% for the
the region is manifested, performed and (un)intentionally Non-Mormon Wrms).
(re)produced, and how are these locally instituted in Utah s The signiWcance of this mechanism was also conWrmed
high tech regional economy? Importantly, this attribution in the interviews, the majority of research participants Wnd-
of responsibility is necessary to avoid the perpetuation of ing it impossible to draw a line between their cultural iden-
 cultural embeddedness as a fuzzy concept (see Markusen, tity and their work, instead outlining how Mormonism
1999). Five major mechanisms are identiWable in the Utah provides them with a strong core of values upon which they
case and these are detailed below. draw in the workplace:
 We try to build the company on what we feel are
5.1. Corporate decision makers and opinion leaders
good values of the [Mormon] church, because it s
only natural that the lifestyles that our key employees
The major mechanism through which Wrms behaviour is
are accustomed to inXuence the way we do business,
constituted through, and unavoidably shaped by, socially
you can t just leave them on the doorstep. Work is an
constructed cultural norms, values and evaluative criteria
opportunity for people to see you as an example of
centres on members of a particular regional culture who
what you believe in . CEO and Co-Founder, active
also occupy positions of power within local Wrms. Scholars
Mormon male
have traditionally focused on Wrms founders in this context
who have clear vision of how the Wrm should operate, and Moreover, for the majority of research participants, the
how their personal values, priorities, ideas and values are application of their religious values within the workplace
readily transmitted to new employees, becoming accepted was not only regarded as acceptable, but also a  natural
within the Wrm and often persisting over time (Deal and thing for them to do, consistent with previous studies (e.g.
Kennedy, 2000; Schein, 1992). However, the Utah case also Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, 1997) which have
highlights a range of other everyday  opinion leaders and documented how individuals setting up an organization
 culture carriers including Mormon managers, lead soft- typically borrow from models or ideals that are familiar to
ware engineers and other personnel who by virtue of their them:
strong personality or previous achievements have signiW-
 While it s not been a passive thing, it s not been an
cant inXuence on the opinions and behaviour of others.
active decision to keep the company s culture in line
Fundamentally, because what the Wrm understands itself to
with Mormon values either. It s like no-one in
be is produced through the actions of its employees, the cul-
England starts a company and say s everyone s gonna
tural identities and commitments of these key individuals
be a little reserved and stiV upper-lipped. It s just the
are closely entwined with (although not identical to) corpo-
English way of doing things. This is just the Mormon
rate identities and commitments (Schoenberger, 1994,
way of doing things . Director of Brand Manage-
1997). As such, Mormon cultural values and conventions
ment and User Experience, active Mormon male
inform decision-making processes, corporate strategy and
Thus, to understand how and why Wrms organisational
structures, workplace norms, decision making processes
18
These results for the computer software sector are consistent with con-
and observed patterns of behaviour come to be constituted
cerns raised by several local industry commentators at interview regarding
through, and diVerentially shaped by, the socially con-
the (under)performance of Utah s high tech economy more generally over
the last decade. However, the metrics used in the analysis presented here structed norms, values and evaluative criteria within a par-
are based on a narrow economic deWnition of competitiveness. In contrast,
ticular regional culture, we need to engage with the
increasingly workers and families are being challenged in new ways to
scientists, engineers, programmers and other professionals
combine the activities of production and reproduction, in an attempt to
whose personal values and commitments become trans-
achieve what has become known as  work/life balance . As such, future
formed over time into deeply-held, implicit shared values,
analyses might usefully include metrics on the social sustainability of cul-
turally-informed work practices. norms and assumptions within the Wrm concerning appro-
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413 403
priate behaviour and ways of thinking (Schoenberger, we are all on the same page religiously. But just a cou-
1997). ple of key personnel who aren t Mormon would be
enough to swing the pendulum . Director of Tech-
5.2. Strength in numbers (intra- and inter-Wrm) nology and Co-Founder, active Mormon male
Additionally, this tri-partite  strength-in-numbers mecha-
In addition to key individuals and opinion leaders, a sec-
nism also operates at the inter-Wrm level, as shown in Table
ond major mechanism through which Wrms come to be cul-
5. This matrix compares the incidence of the various mani-
turally embedded in the region  as evidenced in the Utah
festations of Wrms embedding in Mormonism discussed in
case  centres on a workforce majority who share similar
Section 4 for case study Wrms in two diVerent counties. Sig-
cultural values to the Wrm s opinion leaders. Research par-
niWcantly, the Mormon founded and managed Wrms in
ticipants highlighted three everyday workplace practices
Utah County exhibit a higher degree of cultural embedding
which can be grouped together as a  strength-in-numbers
than do their Salt Lake County counterparts (Table 5 right
mechanism. The Wrst involves conformity to group norms
hand side), with Mormon Wrms in the former Wlling 72% of
through daily associations with others, whose attitudes and
the embeddedness matrix cells, compared with 49% for their
behaviour patterns either reinforce or proscribe ( punish )
Salt Lake County counterparts. In Utah County, Mormons
one s own. On one level, conWdence in one s own attitudes
comprise 89% of the general population and average 82% of
and beliefs is bolstered when others share the same perspec-
Wrms total workforces, compared with Salt Lake County
tives (Bahr, 1994). At the same time, if we want to be
equivalent Wgures of 65% and 52% (James, 2003). As such,
accepted at work we try to live up the expectations of our
there is a higher chance that a Mormon Wrm in Utah
colleagues, pay attention to their actions and take them as
County will be surrounded by other similarly Mormon
our cue when we are uncertain of what to do (O Reilly,
founded and managed Wrms from whom its employees
1989). The greater the proportion of a workforce who share
might receive peer support and group ratiWcation of their
a set of cultural values, the greater the likelihood that those
culturally-inXected business patterns, than might a Mormon
values become the norm that newcomers take as their cue,
Wrm in Salt Lake County, along with inter-Wrm practices of
and hence that these values become dominant in the Wrm.
mutual observation and social control:
Second, this is reinforced by observation in the workplace
by other members of one s own culture. Control comes
 You see the same people turning up all over. So it
from the knowledge that someone who matters to us is pay-
would be awfully strange for me to act totally diVer-
ing close attention to what we are doing and will tell us if
ent in business than I do at Church  that visibility
our behaviour is appropriate or inappropriate (O Reilly
factor is an accountability factor; if you re Mormon
and Chatman, 1996, p. 161). The more members of a partic-
then you d better behave! Director of Technology
ular culture in a Wrm s workforce therefore, the greater that
and Co-Founder, active Mormon male
control. A third practice involves the group ratiWcation of
These data also show a similar pattern for the non-Mor-
culturally informed corporate decisions. Because culture is
mon Wrms (see Table 5 left-hand-side), with non-Mormon
Wrst and foremost a group property (Stark, 1996), what
Wrms in Utah County evidencing a higher degree of embed-
counts in terms of particular cultural values conditioning
ding (19% of embeddedness matrix cells Wlled) than their
Wrm behaviour, is not only whether the Wrm s decision-
Salt Lake County counterparts (5% of embeddedness
makers embody those values, but also whether those values
matrix cells Wlled). The pattern for the Mormon Intermedi-
are ratiWed by the wider work group as a valid basis for
ate Wrms reaYrms the signiWcance of the strength-in-num-
action. If most of the Wrm s employees do not share those
bers mechanism of embedding, with Intermediate Wrms in
values, even if individuals do bring particular cultural con-
Utah County evidencing a higher degree of embedding
siderations into corporate decision-making processes, these
than their Salt Lake County counterparts (Wgures of 33%
will rarely strike a responsive chord in most of the others
and 17% respectively).
and instead be smothered by group indiVerence. Research
participants in Utah conWrmed the importance of this tri-
partite  strength in numbers mechanism of embedding, but 5.3. Labour recruitment and job search practices
also stressed the constraints upon its functioning:
The everyday practices underpinning the  key individu-
 We [Mormons] are always taught that it is an ethical
als and  strength-in-numbers mechanisms of cultural
system we are learning, not just a Sunday morning
embedding outlined above are themselves shaped by a
procedure. At the same time, the people you see on
series of labour recruitment and job search practices which,
Sunday are a lot like the people you see at work, so
in the Utah case, reinforce the Mormon cultural constitu-
it s easier to carry over that value system into the
tion of Wrms workplace conventions, decision-making pro-
workplace . Lead Programmer, active Mormon male
cesses, and observed patterns of behaviour. Previously,
 With the majority sharing the same culture, it allows scholars have suggested that Wrms founders have a clear
us to base some of our company decisions on Mor- notion, based on their own cultural history and personality,
mon values. And the decisions are pretty easy because of how things ought to be in their new Wrm, and use that as
404 A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413
Table 5
Measuring the signiWcance of the (inter-Wrm)  strength-in-numbers mechanism of cultural embedding
MORMON FIRMS NON-MORMON FIRMS
(Mormon founded MANIFESTATION OF EMBEDDING (Non-Mormon founded
AND managed) AND managed)
(SELF-IDENTIFIED)
UTAH SALT LAKE UTAH SALT LAKE
AN PQ IE QD EC JE UG LJ BW NN FN XH
BELIEF IN DIVINE INTERVENTION IN THE FIRM
Praying Over Corporate Strategic Direction - Firm Level
Fasting for the company  individual employees
Seeking revelation at the Temple w.r.t. the company
TURNING DOWN IMMORAL WORK
Firms unwilling to work on unwholesome content
Vocalised a Mormon cultural issue
Firm as money-making entity < firms as vehicle for good
MORMON ORIENTATED SOFTWARE PRODUCT
As deliberate corporate strategy
EXPLICIT FAMILY ORIENTATION
Pay levels to maintain Mormon family units
Firms aware of competitors as people with families
CO-OPERATION AND TRUST
Mormon partners dominant
SELF-SUFFICIENCY
< half the mean total partners (UT and beyond)
NO Utah partners
RESPECT FOR ESTABLISHED IDEAS / AUTHORITY
High value on unity over creative dissent within firm
DEBT AVOIDANCE
Internal financing strategy from start-up&
& to make a MORAL decision
Reservations w.r.t. non-Mormon VCist on board
FAMILY (THEN CHURCH) ABOVE ALL
Short work weeks (less than half mean average)
Above US average holiday lengths
Sunday working totally restricted
Note: the two letter abbreviations at the head of the second and third columns (e.g. AN, PQ, IE, etc.) are the anonymised labels assigned to each of the 20
case study Wrms.
the basis for their selection of group of people to create a total workforces that are Mormon is positively correlated
core management team that shares their original vision with the proportion of Mormons in their founding teams
(Schein, 1992; Furnham and Gunter, 1993). The Utah (rxyD0.687) and management teams (rxyD0.773). The
results are consistent with these ideas. On one level, the interviews highlighted three sets of practices which explain
degree to which Wrms are Mormon founded positively cor- these patterns: (i) Wrms actively seeking employees that
relates with the degree to they are Mormon managed match their own values; (ii) employees actively seeking
(rxyD0.510). At the same time, the proportion of Wrms Wrms that match their personal values; and (iii) diYculties
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413 405
Table 6
Self-identiWed Mormon cultural markers
Cultural marker (self-identiWed) Comments
 Mormon Speak A particular vocabulary, much of which is derived from Mormon religious heritage  e.g. Mormons are
forever  grateful ,  blessed ,  humble , and  take counsel with people
CTR Rings & Jewellery CTRs ( Choose the Right ) are a classiWcation of Mormon children aged 4 to 7 yrs, but the popular
terms has also given rise to a range of jewellery emblazoned with the initials for teenagers and adults
Garment Lines Garments are the special underclothing worn by Mormons who have gained special endowment
ordinances in the Temple. Seams are visible under thin clothing (e.g. business suits) halfway down
the thigh, upper arm, and around the neck
Modesty in Dress Mormons are counselled to be modest in their appearance
Not Drinking Alcohol/Smoking Mormons abstain from most forms of caVeine, alcohol and tobacco as counselled by the  Word
of Wisdom , the LDS Church s divinely-inspired health code
Availability on Sundays/ Sunday is the Sabbath within the LDS Church, and Monday evenings the church s  family home
Monday Evenings evening in which members are urged to undertake worship as a family and when all other church
activities are suspended
Utah County Residence Utah County s population is oYcially 90% Mormon
BYU Alumnus Status Brigham Young University s student body is over 99% LDS
Mission Service 2 years for males; 18 months for females. The Mormon mission system enlists 60% of Mormons age
19 26 yrs. Some explicitly state Mission on their resumes, others remove the LDS Church label
of recruiting (non-Mormon) employees from out of state. say  Oh, I wonder if these guys are Mormon or not . I
These are detailed below. just make those judgments during the course of an
Under Title VII of the US Civil Rights Act (1964) it is interview . Director of Marketing, active Mormon
illegal to discriminate in labour recruitment based on male
assumptions about the abilities, traits or performance of
 Job interviews here are a nightmare; I ve been asked
individuals of a certain religious, ethnic or cultural group.
questions like how long I ve been married, where did I
Nevertheless, results for the Utah case suggest that Wrms do
meet my husband, do I know Bishop blah from my
discriminate between Mormon versus non-Mormon
home town, which Ward I m in  things that go real
employees. On one level, there exist direct Wltering mecha-
close to the edges but without ever coming right out
nisms in the form of explicit requests on the type of candi-
and asking if you re Mormon or not . Vice Presi-
date Wrms are seeking to Wll a position, admitted by one
dent of Marketing, inactive Mormon female
quarter of the Wrms in the case study sample with varying
degrees of candidness:
Practices of Wrms actively recruiting employees who match
 It s not stated, but when I know they re Mormon, their existing cultural priorities is reinforced by potential
will I be more likely to call them for interview?  yes. employees actively doing likewise in their search for poten-
Will I feel more comfortable because I won t have to tial employers. The main preferences vocalised by Mormon
wrestle with them over issues of character?  yes. If I candidates at job interview involve not working Sundays;
was ever charged with a discrimination lawsuit, would not working on violent, sexual, or gambling software con-
they ever prove it?  probably not . Director of tent; earning a wage that is large enough for their wife to
Technology and Co-Founder, active Mormon male remain at home and so maintain a traditional Mormon
nuclear family; and working on products with obvious
There also exist indirect Wltering mechanisms, as Wrms seek
social beneWt. While these are not exclusively Mormon
to hire people who provide a  good Wt with a Wrm s exist-
preferences, research participants suggested that only
ing culture. This practice is applicable to all of the Wrms in
potential Mormon applicants vocalise these issues with
the sample, and is consistent with the notion that once we
explicit recourse to religious justiWcations. These twin prac-
develop an integrated set of cultural assumptions, we will
tices of culturally-motivated recruitment and job search are
be most comfortable with those who share the same set of
thus crucial for understanding Wrms cultural embedding
assumptions, and uncomfortable in situations where
because together they reinforce the  key individuals and
diVerent assumptions operate (Schein, 1992, pp. 22 23).
 strength-in-numbers mechanisms through which Wrms
Various  cultural markers (see Table 6) are used by
organisational structures, workplace norms, decision mak-
recruiters to evaluate the desirability of potential candi-
ing processes, and observed behaviour are culturally consti-
dates:
tuted.
 If we have someone in from Utah County, I immedi- Additionally, Utahn Wrms face signiWcant diYculties in
ately make assumptions about them; something in the recruiting non-Mormon employees from out of state due
way they act or the way they talk. But it s not overt, I to a series of lifestyle and amenities considerations which
don t ever go in and sit down in a hiring process and contrast with those increasingly recognised as attractive to
406 A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413
knowledge workers (see Florida, 2002). First, Utah is a faculty time to consult to Wrms; and developing research
racially homogenous state with over 92% of the population parks and local incubators (e.g. Rogers and Larsen, 1984;
identifying themselves as white non-Hispanic. Utah s Mor- Saxenian, 1994; Scott and Paul, 1990). But while these con-
mon population is even more homogenous: over 98% crete roles of universities have been well theorised, there has
white non-Hispanic (Heaton, 1996). The dominant image been relatively little discussion of the practices of universi-
of the LDS Church as a predominantly white church of the ties as mechanisms that reinforce Wrms cultural embedding
suburban west (Lattin and Cimino, 1998) discourages via graduates as  embodied culture . In Utah, Brigham
many potential employees from moving to Utah. Second, a Young University (located in Provo 45 miles south of Salt
legacy of the LDS Church s anti-Equal Rights Amend- Lake City) is the US s largest privately owned religious uni-
ment campaign is a widespread lack of credibility for Mor- versity, wholly Wnanced and managed by the LDS church
monism as an advocate for women (Quinn, 1997). Coupled (Bezzant and Chadwick, 1996). Three everyday practices at
with the LDS Church s active stance against homosexual- BYU are pertinent to the analysis here. First, faculty are
ity and gay liberation (May, 2001), this reinforces an ultra- encouraged to integrate secular academic learning with
conservative image of Mormon Utah that discourages LDS religious teachings, and its student body are selected
many: only from individuals who voluntarily live the principles of
the LDS Church. Thus, over 99% of BYU s current 32,000
 You talk to potential employees about coming to
students are members of the LDS Church (Davies, 1996).
Utah, and the only things they know about it is Mor-
Second, as a condition of their continuing enrolment, stu-
mons, Donnie and Marie, and ski-ing. So we don t
dents must observe the University s strict honour code,
even get up to the plate with about 90% of the poten-
which includes continuing ecclesiastical endorsement and
tial employees because they re afraid that everyone s
regular church attendance, along with speciWc policies on
gonna be Mormon and they won t talk to us, that it s
dress, grooming, and residential living. This honour code
a boring place where nobody drinks and nobody has
maintains a strong Mormon culture at BYU. Third, even in
fun. I m a transplant  I told my family I was moving
their major subject, students are urged to frame their ques-
to Utah and quite frankly they thought I was nuts!
tions in  prayerful and  faithful ways:
CEO, LEL, non-Mormon
 We encourage students to use the moral indepen-
 There s this perception of Utah as some holier-than-
dence they ve learned to help shape the way business
thou Hicksville, that the Mormons are out here in
is done. We re hoping that the students grow that
their stovepipe hats and horse and buggies, a cultural
innate spiritual character, that wherever they then go
lifestyle like in Urban cowboy you know, that we ll go
in the world they can hopefully share that point of
bull riding and after that we ll go shear some sheep!
view in decisions that are made . BYU computer
OK, so this is not the birth place of free love, but peo-
science Professor, active Mormon male
ple have just no sense of how multicultural Salt Lake
Research participants explained how Mormon-centred
City is. So that really limits our ability to grow, and I
examples are widely used to illustrate academic arguments,
don t know that we ll ever completely eliminate
even in technical subjects, and how many student meetings
that . Director of User Experience, NSO, active
are opened with prayers (traits also prevalent amongst the
Mormon
Mormon founded and managed Wrms in the case study Wrm
Almost three quarters of the Wrms in the case study sample sample19).
admitted severe diYculties of attracting appropriately qual- The strength of this mechanism of cultural embedding
iWed employees from outside Utah. These barriers therefore centres, therefore, on graduates socialized into BYU s dis-
restrict workforce diversity by discouraging non-Mormon tinctive culture taking its attendant norms, attitudes and
potential employees. At the same time, research partici- values to their subsequent Wrms on employment, via the
pants conWrmed that the majority of their non-Utah labour recruitment and job search mechanisms of cultural
employees who have moved from out of state are members embedding outlined above. SigniWcantly, around one quar-
of the LDS Church keen to move closer to the Mormon ter of BYU computer science graduates stay in Utah once
cultural heartland. This reinforces the  key individuals and they have graduated (BYU Internal Salary Survey, 1996
 strength-in-numbers mechanisms of cultural embedding 1999). Moreover, the survey showed that of Utah s lead
outlined above. 105 software Wrms, 36% of Wrms were founded by BYU
alumni (includes 55% of all the Mormon founded Wrms),
5.4. Education, socialisation and training and 33% of Wrms were headed by CEO s who are BYU
alumni. Additionally, one quarter of the Wrms in the case
Within the geographical literature, universities have study sample outlined an explicit preference for BYU
been widely theorised as central to high tech regional dyna-
mism, functioning as: sources of advanced research; supply- 19
Prevalence of meetings opened with prayers (in 5 Wrms in the case
ing skilled labour, continuing education and retraining;
study sample, all 5 have majority Mormon workforces and Mormon man-
aggressively licensing their intellectual property; granting agement teams).
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413 407
graduates, on the basis of the mission experience.20 The the role of political-economic institutions at multiple scales
vast majority of BYU s student body are returned mission- which structure Wrm behaviour and labour market func-
aries. Having defended the church and its doctrines for tioning (see also Whitley, 2000). Two pieces of state legisla-
two years, returned missionaries tend to be more orthodox tion play a major role in reinforcing the Mormon cultural
and active in the church than other members (Vernon, constitution of many of Utah s computer software Wrms
1980). Consequently, BYU students are also typically two internal structures and observed patterns of behaviour as
years older than the average undergraduate elsewhere and outlined. First, Utah maintains some of the toughest state
are recognised as more self-assured, polished, mature, liquor laws and anti-smoking policies in the US,21 reinforc-
and self-conWdent (Stark, 2001), which many local Wrms ing the ultraconservative image of Mormon Utah which
Wnd attractive: discourages many non-Mormon potential employees from
out of state moving to Utah, employees that would other-
 When you get a young man at the age 19, send them
wise weaken the Mormon cultural constitution of local
out to a foreign country and tell them to  sell Jesus
software Wrms workplace practices and behaviour cur-
Christ , that s a very challenging position to be in. But
rently premised on Mormon majority workforces. Second,
you learn that it s OK to be rejected, how to move on,
Utah is a  right-to-work state, which prohibits contractual
how to communicate with people, and come back
terms conditioning employment on membership in, or
more emotionally mature than your buddies who ve
Wnancial support of, a labor union.22 Research participants
been at Frat parties . CEO and Co-Founder, active
explained the implications of this legislation for reinforcing
Mormon male
the multiple ways in which the norms, values and evaluative
Two other elements of the LDS educational system further criteria within Mormonism inform the practices and behav-
reinforce the Mormon cultural embedding of Wrms in iour of local Wrms:
Utah s high tech regional economy. First, as the LDS
 Legislation in Utah is very much in favour of the
Church continues to grow in excess of 11 million members
employer. As this right-to-work state, employers can
worldwide, the result is that there are currently over
allow their religion to drive their management style,
200,000 college-aged church members in the US alone,
they can hold business meetings where prayers are
while the BYU undergraduate population remains limited
said and it s no big deal. You say a prayer at a busi-
to 32,000. Consequently, the quality of BYU students is
ness meeting in California [non right-to-work state],
much higher than would otherwise be expected for compa-
you re gonna get your butt sued oV! . President and
rable universities elsewhere in the US, further reinforcing
CEO and Founder, WSU, non-Mormon female
their attractiveness to many Utahn high tech employers,
with important consequences for Wrms cultural embedding Both pieces of legislation evidence the systemic power of
via the labour recruitment and job search mechanisms the LDS Church in Utah government (Burbank et al.,
described above. Second, in addition to BYU, the LDS 2001). Because the Mormon component of Utah s popula-
Church also operates 1407 institutes at colleges and univer- tion has grown past 70%, almost invariably most of the
sities in the US and Canada (including the University of candidates for Utah public oYce have been members of the
Utah) to provide LDS-orientated educational and social LDS Church. There is also a very strong public perception
programmes for college students in secular education (LDS in Utah that non-Mormons, women, and ethnic minorities
Church/Deseret News, 2000), and therefore exercise a high have little chance of being elected and so few stand for
degree of social control over non-BYU Mormon students oYce. These two key factors have historically combined to
(and hence graduates ) sense of identity and behaviour (see produce Mormon majorities in excess of 80% in the Utah
Bahr, 1994). Crucially, these components of the LDS legislature in recent decades (Burbank et al., 2001, p. 172;
Church educational system also increase the chances of Quinn, 1997). Thus, even though the LDS Church as a for-
young Mormons maintaining their commitment to LDS mal institution rarely gets involved in Utah politics, deci-
culture in later (work) life. sions are nevertheless made as if it had been involved. Thus,
Utah s anti-liquor and anti-smoking laws reXect the LDS
5.5. Legislative structures: local and extra-local prohibition of alcohol and tobacco use as part of its
divinely-inspired health code; and Utah s right-to-work
Finally, to understand fully the practices and mecha- status (since 1955), the LDS Church s historical opposition
nisms through which Wrms come to be culturally embedded
within regional economies, it is important also to consider 21
Utah has the toughest anti-smoking policy of any US state, and al-
though Utah s liquor laws have been relaxed as part of preparations for
the 2002 winter olympics, many restaurants still require that customers get
20
In 1999 the LDS Church supported 58,593 LDS Missionaries in the a patron who is a  member of the establishment to sponsor them in order
Weld across the US and to 119 other countries worldwide (LDS Church/ that they be allowed to buy alcohol.
22
Deseret News, 2000), approximately 75% of whom are young men between The origin of the phrase  right to work is often attributed to a 1941
the ages of 19 and 26. After 8 weeks training in Utah, Missionaries are sent Dallas Morning News editorial which urged the adoption of an amend-
out in pairs, on two year assignments (18 months for females) to teach the ment to the federal constitution protecting the right of employees to work
LDS Gospel, win converts, and participate in community service. without coercion with respect to joining a labor union.
408 A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413
to labour unions, and its doctrines on work as a God-given fold. The Wrst can be termed the  key individuals mecha-
privilege that should be available to all (Ludlow, 1992). nism, and centres on Wrms founders and management
US federal legislation is also important. Most impor- teams who exist simultaneously as members of the Wrm and
tantly, the US Workplace Religious Freedom Act (1972) of the regional culture and whose personal actions, identi-
amended Title VII of the US Civil Rights Act (1964) to ties and commitments become closely entwined with corpo-
require employers to make reasonable accommodation for rate identities and commitments. This is in turn reinforced
the religious beliefs of employees and prospective employ- by the  strength-in-numbers mechanism in which cultur-
ees, unless doing so would  impose an undue hardship , ally-informed decisions are ratiWed at the group level, rein-
deWning religion as  all aspects of religious observance and forced by processes of conformity to the group, mutual
practice, as well as belief . The Religious Freedom Restora- observance and peer pressure, and which operate at
tion Act (1997) further increased employers responsibilities both the intra- and inter-Wrm levels. These primary mecha-
to accommodate workers religious beliefs within the work- nisms are underpinned by a series of secondary reinforcing
place. These two pieces of legislation therefore reinforce mechanisms which include: (i) culturally-motivated job
Wrms obligations to accommodate Mormon workers reli- search and labour recruitment practices which reinforce
gious-cultural values at work, reinforcing the  strength-in- existing corporate cultures, as Wrms seek employees that
numbers mechanism of cultural embedding premised on match their existing corporate culture, and employees seek
practices of conformity to group norms, mutual observa- Wrms that match their own personal values; (ii) educational
tion, and group ratiWcation of culturally informed deci- and skilling mechanisms, in which graduates as embodied
sions. cul-ture take the university s cultural values, attitudes and
norms into which they have been socialised to the Wrms
5.6. Integrating the causal mechanisms of cultural embedding that subsequently employ them; (iii) programmes adminis-
tered by civic institutions that socialise their individual
Rather than the all-encompassing notions of  regional members into a particular set of values and which there-
culture often employed in the regional learning and inno- fore maintain a high degree of social control over mem-
vation literature, Paivi Oinas has instead argued for recog- bers sense of identity and behaviour patterns; and (iv)
nition of the distinction between: (i) regional culture; (ii) local, regional and national legislation that strengthens
regional industrial culture; and (iii) organisational cultures the power of the employer vis-Ä…-vis the employee, or which
(see Oinas, 1995, p. 202): increases employers responsibilities to accommodate
their employees particular cultural lifestyles in the work-
 Why are these distinctions important? Becauseł
it
place.
helps us to understand Wrms as actors in regional
Overall, therefore, cultural embeddedness is not pre-
development: as actors having to operate in  and at
given, inherited or static, but continually remade via these
least partly having to accept as a given  a preexisting
various causal mechanisms and practices which might use-
regional culture, but also as actors that within that
fully be grouped together in terms of their eVects on three
wider culture create their own internal organizational
general sets of  relations of embeddedness , namely: (i)
cultures and participate in the formation of a regional
those between individuals and individuals; (ii) those
industrial culture that, in its turn, supports their
between individuals and the Wrm; and (iii) and those
operation. (Oinas, 1995, pp. 202 203).
between the Wrm and its wider (formal and informal) insti-
Firms cultural embeddedness can therefore be understood tutional environment. In this way, the cultural values, atti-
in terms of the ways in which regional cultural systems of tudes, expectations and behaviour of employees and Wrms
collective beliefs, ideologies, understandings and conven- in the region are informed by those of its lead civic, educa-
tions (regional culture) shape local Wrms systems of organi- tional, political and labour institutions, in turn shaped by
zational control, rule systems and decision-making legislative mechanisms at the regional and national scales
processes (organisational culture). Indeed, these culturally which regulate patterns of corporate governance. These
inXected patterns of corporate behaviour are often com- spill over to workers, Wrms and industries in the region
mon to other Wrms in the region (regional industrial cul- through the course of time (see also Martin et al., 1994), in
ture) (see James, 2005). It is the various manifestations of eVect setting the social rules and deWning the norms of
these cultural inXections, their meaning and consequences behaviour across Wrms throughout the region (see Glasme-
for Wrms observed economic performances, and their ier, 2000). This is not to argue that regional culture mechan-
underlying causal mechanisms and responsible agents ically or rigidly determines worker and Wrm behaviour, but
which have formed the focus of this paper. rather that it structures the material and cultural resources
Overall, the causal mechanisms through which regional that enable and constrain the actions of individuals and the
cultural imperatives unavoidably come to inform Wrms Wrms in which they work. As such, it is imperative that we
organizational structures, workplace conventions, deci- conceptualise the Wrm as embedded in socio-cultural rela-
sion-making processes, and observed patterns of behav- tions both as a collectivity and via the embeddedness of its
iour as evidenced in the Utah case are represented individual employees (see also Oinas, 1999) articulated
graphically in Fig. 1. The primary mechanisms are two- through the three sets of relations detailed above.
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413 409
CORPORATE DECISION MAKERS & OPINION LEADERS
Simultaneous occupation of positions of corporate power and regional cultural identity
Borrowing from models are familiar with
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
INTRA-FIRM LEVEL INTER-FIRM LEVEL
Conformity to norms of the group Influence of surrounding firms
Mutual observance Visibility factor  lead firms
Group ratification of culturally-informed decisions
FOUNDING / MANAGING / STAFFING FIRMS
EDUCATIONAL
CIVIC LABOUR RECRUITMENT
INSTITUTIONS
INSTITUTIONS
Firms actively seeking employees
Universities/colleges
Socialisation
that match their own values
Graduates as
Systemic govt
Employees seeking firms that match
embodied culture
power
their own values
STATE-SCALE POLITICAL LEGISLATION
e.g. anti-smoking and liquor licensing laws; impacts on amenities and lifestyle choices
NATIONAL-SCALE POLITICAL LEGISLATION
e.g. Civil Rights Act (1964) & Workplace Religious Freedom Act (1972)
Fig. 1. Connecting the major mechanisms of Wrms cultural embedding in the region.
6. Conclusion culture (particularly Mormon ethics of unity, reciprocity,
self-suYciency, independence, self-reliance and non-con-
While the concept of  cultural embeddedness has been frontation). The paper has also explored the meaning and
drawn upon extensively to theorise and explain uneven pat- consequences of that cultural embedding for Wrms eco-
terns of regional economic development, our understanding nomic performance, as measured across a series of metrics
of the causal mechanisms and practices through which spa- of competitiveness. Second, in contrast to previous tenden-
tially variable sets of socio-cultural conventions, norms, cies within the regional learning literature to  dehumanise
attitudes, values and beliefs shape and condition the eco- cultural embeddedness as a reiWed set of inherited relations,
nomic performance of Wrms in regional industrial systems the analysis focused on the deliberative human agents,
remains under-speciWed. On the one hand, regional learning actors and bureaus whose ongoing purposive actions are
accounts tend to  dehumanise processes of cultural embed- not only constitutive of, but also themselves constrained by,
ding by divorcing them from everyday material practice as processes of cultural embedding. As part of this, the analy-
experienced by workers. On the other hand, this literature sis unpacked some important extra-regional labour market
also suVers from a tendency to underemphasise the impor- practices and national legislative structures.
tance of wider extra-local structures based on a misplaced While the analysis presented here has illustrated these
conception of regions as  closed systems or mere  contain- mechanisms with regard to the Utah case, arguably these
ers of intangible assets and sociocultural structures. In con- represent locally-instituted manifestations of more general
trast, this paper has sought to make visible the everyday mechanisms which are potentially applicable to other
practices, mechanisms and emergent eVects both locally regions with strong cultures, be those based on class, eth-
and extra-locally through which the cultural embedding of nicity, unionization, or industrial specialization. But what
Wrms within regional economies is performed and (un)unin- of empirical conWrmation of that transferability? Impor-
tentionally (re)produced. Drawing on the case study of the tantly, some recent work on the masculinist work cultures
high tech regional economy in Salt Lake City, Utah, the in Cambridge s high tech regional economy (Gray and
paper Wrst summarised how local computer software Wrms James, 2007; c.f. Massey, 1995) and on the long hours work
abilities to access external sources of knowledge and com- culture in Dublin s ICT cluster (James, 2006b) has identi-
petencies, and to use new knowledge once it enters the Wrm Wed similar mechanisms of cultural embedding in opera-
are diVerentially shaped by the socially constructed norms, tion, and hence that the analysis presented does potentially
values and evaluative criteria within this region s dominant oVer a useful framework for understanding the everyday
410 A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413
mechanisms and practices which underpin the mutual con- by the Economic and Social Research Council (Award:
stitution of culture/economy in other places. Clearly how- R00429934224).
ever, there remains considerable scope for future studies to
explore this transferability.
References
Second, in order to avoid a static view of embedded-
ness, future work should explore further how the meaning
Abramson, H., 1980. Religion. In: Thernstrom, S., Orlov, A., Handlin, O.
and consequences of these diVerent mechanisms and prac- (Eds.), Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups. Belknap
Press/Harvard University Press, Boston, MA, pp. 869 875.
tices of cultural embedding for Wrms observed behaviour
Amin, A., Thrift, N.J., 1994. Living in the global. In: Amin, A., Thrift, N.
and economic performance evolve over time, as Wrms
(Eds.), Globalization. In: Institutions and Regional Development in
grow in size, set up subsidiaries in other regions, or else
Europe Oxford University Press, Oxford.
merge with other Wrms. Preliminary results from the Utah
Arrington, L.J., 1992. Economic history of the Church. In: Ludlow, D.H.
case suggest that as Wrms grow from small cohesive (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mormonism. Macmillan, New York, NY, pp.
435 441.
groups of people committed to similar culturally-
Arrington, L.J., Bitton, D., 1992. The Mormon Experience: A History of
informed goals and objectives to larger, more bureau-
the Latter-day Saints. University of Illinois Press, Chicago IL.
cratic and segmented type corporate environments, the
Asheim, B.T., 2001. The learning Wrm in the learning region: broad partici-
values of the founders and the original group often
pation as social capital building. Paper presented at the Annual Con-
became lost ( key individuals mechanism weakened), in ference of the Association of American Geographers, New York, NY,
27 February 3 March.
turn reinforced by new employees joining a company with
Bahr, S.J., 1994. Religion and adolescent drug use: a comparison of Mor-
a greater diversity of skill sets and cultural backgrounds,
mons and other religions. In: Cornwall, M., Heaton, T.B., Young, L.A.
resulting in a lesser ratiWcation of regionally-culturally-
(Eds.), Contemporary Mormonism: Social Science Perspectives. Uni-
informed decisions within the Wrm ( strength-in-numbers
versity of Illinois Press, Illinois, pp. 118 137.
mechanism weakened): Becattini, G., 1978. The development of light industry in Tuscany: an
interpretation. Economic Notes 2/3, 107 123.
 So last year in particular we went through a lot of
Bezzant, E.M., Chadwick, B.A., 1996. Education. In: Heaton, T.B., Hirschl,
political in-Wghting with this new batch of employees, T.A., Chadwick, B.A. (Eds.), Utah in the 1990s: A Demographic Per-
spective. Signature Books, Salt Lake City, UT, pp. 119 138.
with the traditional LDS structure really Wghting up
Brusco, S., 1982. The Emilian model: productive decentralisation and
against the people who came in from the outside. And
social integration. Cambridge Journal of Economics 6, 167 184.
the outside won, they usually always do . Director
Burbank, M.J., Andranovich, G.D., Heying, C.H., 2001. Olympic Dreams:
of Marketing, FQY, active Mormon
The Impact of Mega-Events on Local Politics. Lynne Riener Publish-
ers, Boulder, CO.
And Wnally, given the negative impacts of some mecha-
Camagni, R., 1991. Local  milieu , uncertainty and innovation networks:
nisms and practices of cultural embedding on Wrms eco-
towards a new dynamic theory of economic space. In: Camagni, R.
nomic performance as illustrated in the Utah case, future (Ed.), Innovation Networks: Spatial Perspectives. Belhaven Press, Lon-
don, pp. 21 44.
work might also explore the amenability of these various
Capello, R., 1999. Spatial transfers of knowledge in high technology
mechanisms to deliberate programmes of targeted change
milieux: learning versus collective learning processes. Regional Studies
in pursuit of new patterns of Wrm behaviour and hence
33 (4), 353 365.
regional economic development (for example, in line with
Castree, N., 2004. Economy and culture are dead! Long live economy and
the myriad cluster policy proscriptions in the UK, US and culture!. Progress in Human Geography 28 (2), 204 226.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints/Deseret News, The, 2000.
beyond that have simply exhorted Wrms to become more
2001 2002 Church Almanac. Deseret News, Salt Lake City, UT.
cooperative or embracing of risk). In so doing, cultural eco-
Coe, N., Hess, M., Yeung, H.W., Dicken, P., Henderson, J., 2004.  Globaliz-
nomic geographers can further their development of a pow-
ing regional development: a global production networks perspective.
erful, in-depth empirical corpus of work commensurate
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers NS 29 (4), 468
with the exciting conceptual developments that have largely 484.
Cohen, W.M., Levinthal, D.A., 1990. Absorptive capacity: a new perspec-
dominated cultural economic geography over the last
tive on learning and innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly 35
decade, and hence circumvent the critiques of  thin empir-
(1), 128 152.
ics and  scanty evidence recently leveled at the sub-disci-
Cooke, P., 2002. Knowledge Economies, Clusters, Learning and Co-opera-
pline (Markusen, 1999; Martin, 2001).
tive Advantage. Routledge, London.
Cooke, P., Morgan, K., 1998. The Associational Economy: Firms, Regions
and Innovation. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Acknowledgements
Cornwall, M., 1996. Beyond fertility: what we don t know about Mormon
women. In: Heaton, T.B., Hirschl, T.A., Chadwick, B.A. (Eds.), Utah in
I am grateful for comments on earlier versions of this
the 1990s: A Demographic Perspective. Signature Books, Salt Lake
paper by Mia Gray, Jane Pollard, Sarah Damery, three
City, UT, pp. 193 212.
anonymous referees, and audiences at invited seminars to Cornwall, M., 2001. Toward a sociological analysis of Mormonism. In:
Cornwall, M., Heaton, T.B., Young, L.A. (Eds.), Contemporary Mor-
the Departments of Geography at the Universities of New-
monism: Social Science Perspectives. University of Illiois Press,
castle Upon Tyne, Oxford and Lund. Thanks also to all of
Urbana IL, pp. 1 9.
my research participants in Utah who kindly took time out
Crang, P., 1997. Introduction: cultural turns and the (re)constitution of
from their busy work schedules to be interviewed, and espe-
economic geography. In: Lee, R., Wills, J. (Eds.), Geographies of Econ-
cially those who bought me lunch. The research was funded omies. Arnold, London, pp. 3 15.
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413 411
Crewe, L., 1996. Material culture: embedded Wrms, organisational net- Heaton, T.B., 1996. Birth capital of the nation. In: Heaton, T.B., Hirschl,
works, and the local economic development of a fashion quarter. T.A., Chadwick, B.A. (Eds.), Utah in the 1990s: A Demographic Per-
Regional Studies 30 (3), 257 272. spective. Signature Books, Salt Lake City, UT, pp. 31 40.
Cumbers, A., MacKinnon, D., McMaster, R., 2003. Institutions, power Hess, M., 2004.  Spatial relationships? Towards a reconceptualization of
and space: assessing the limits to institutionalism in economic geogra- embeddedness. Progress in Human Geography 28 (2), 165 186.
phy. European Urban and Regional Studies 10 (4), 325 342. Holloway, L., Hubbard, P., 2001. People and Place: The Extraordinary
Davies, D.J. (Ed.), 1996. Mormon Identities in Transition. Casell, London. Geographies of Everyday Life. Prentice Hall, Harlow.
Deal, T.E., Kennedy, A.A., 2000. Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Ritu- Hudson, R., 2005. Rethinking change in old industrial regions: reXecting
als of Corporate Life. Perseus Publishing, Cambridge MA. on the experiences of North East England. Environment and Planning
DiBella, A.J., Nevis, E.C., Gould, J.M., 1996. Organisational learning style A 37, 581 596.
as a core capability. In: Moingeon, B., Edmondson, A. (Eds.), Organi- Hutt, M.D., StaVord, E.R., Walker, B.A., Reingen, P.H., 2000. Case study:
sational Learning and Competitive Advantage. Sage, London, pp. 38 deWning the social network of a strategic alliance. Sloan Management
55. Review 41 (2), 51 65.
Dicken, P., Thrift, N.J., 1992. The organization of production and the pro- James, A., 2003. Regional culture, corporate strategy, and high tech inno-
duction of organization: why business enterprises matter in the study vation: Salt Lake City. Unpublished thesis, Department of Geography,
of geographical industrialization. Transactions of the Institute of Brit- University of Cambridge.
ish Geographers NS 17, 279 291. James, A., 2005. Demystifying the role of culture in innovative regional
Dunn, E., 1996. Money, morality and modes of civil society among Ameri- economies. Regional Studies 39 (9), 1197 1216.
can Mormons. In: Hann, C., Dunn, E. (Eds.), Civil Society: Challenging James, A., 2006a. On the spatial limits of culture in high tech regional eco-
Western Models. Routledge, London, pp. 27 49. nomic development. In: RadcliVe, S. (Ed.), Culture and Development
Dyck, I., 2005. Feminist geography, the  everyday , and local global rela- in a Globalising World: Geographies. In: Actors and Paradigms Routl-
tions: hidden spaces of place-making. The Canadian Geographer 49 edge, London, pp. 176 202.
(3), 233 243. James, A., 2006b. Connecting work-life (im)balance to learning and inno-
Eliason, E.A. (Ed.), 2001. Mormons and Mormonism: An Introduction vation in regional economies: comparing Dublin and Cambridge s IT
to an American World Religion. University of Illinois Press, Urbana clusters. Paper presented to the Conference of Irish Geographers 2006,
IL. University College Dublin, 6 7 May 2006.
Emirbayer, M., Goodwin, J., 1994. Network analysis, culture, and the Jessop, R., 2001. Regulationist and autopoieticist reXections on Polanyi s
problem of agency. American Journal of Sociology 99, 1411 1454. account of market economies and the market society. New Political
Erickson, R.S., Wright, G.C., McIver, J.P., 1993. Statehouse Democracy: Economy 6, 213 232.
Public Opinion and Policy in the American States. Cambridge Univer- Kotkin, J., 1993. Tribes: How Race, Religion and Identity Determine Suc-
sity Press, New York, NY; Cambridge. cess in the New Global Economy. Random House, New York NY.
Florida, R., 1995. Towards the learning region. Futures 27, 527 536. Lattin, D., Cimino, R., 1998. Shopping for Faith: American Religion in the
Florida, R., 2002. The economic geography of talent. Annals of the Associ- New Millennium. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.
ation of American Geographers 92, 743 755. Lawson, C., Lorenz, E., 1999. Collective learning, tacit knowledge and
Florida, R., Kenney, M., 1990. Why Silicon Valley and Route 128 Won t regional innovative capacity. Regional Studies 33 (4), 305 317.
Save Us. California Management Review 33 (1), 68 88. Lee, R., Wills, J. (Eds.), 1997. Geographies of Economies. Arnold, London.
Furnham, A., Gunter, B., 1993. Corporate culture: deWnition, diagnosis Lewis, N., Moran, W., Perrier-Cornet, P., Barker, J., 2002. Territoriality,
and change. In: Cooper, C.L., Robertson, I.T. (Eds.), International enterprise and réglementation in industry governance. Progress in
Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, vol. 8, pp. 233 Human Geography 26, 433 462.
262. Liu, W., 2000. Geography of China s auto industry: globalisation and
Gertler, M.S., 1997. The invention of regional culture. In: Lee, R., Wills, J. embeddedness. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Department of Geography,
(Eds.), Geographies of Economies. Arnold, London, pp. 47 58. University of Hong Kong.
Gertler, M.S., 2004. Manufacturing Culture: The Institutional Geography Ludlow, D.H., 1992. The Encyclopaedia of Mormonism: The History,
of Industrial Practice. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Scripture, Doctrine and Procedures of the Church of Latter-day Saints.
Gertler, M.S., Levitte, Y.M., 2005. Local nodes in global networks: the Macmillan, New York.
geography of knowledge Xows in biotechnology innovation. Industry MacKinnon, D., Cumbers, A., Chapman, K., 2002. Learning, innovation
and Innovation 12 (4), 487 507. and regional development: a critical appraisal of recent debates. Pro-
Gertler, M.S., Wolfe, D.A., Garkut, D., 2000. No place like home? The gress in Human Geography 26 (3), 293 311.
embeddedness of innovation in a regional economy. Review of Inter- MacPherson, A., 1992. Innovation, external technical linkages and small-
national Political Economy 7 (4), 688 718. Wrm commercial performance: an empirical analysis from western New
Gibson-Graham, J.K., 1996. The End of Capitalism (As We Knew It). York. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 4, 165 183.
Blackwell, Cambridge, MA. Maillat, D., 1995. Territorial dynamic, innovative milieus and regional pol-
Glasmeier, A.K., 2000. Manufacturing Time: Global Competition in the icy. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 7, 157 165.
Watch Industry, 1795 2000. Guilford Press, New York. Malecki, E.J., 1995. Culture as a mediator of global and local forces. In:
Granovetter, M., 1973. The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Van der Knaap, B., Le Heron, R. (Eds.), Human Resources and Indus-
Sociology 78, 1360 1381. trial Spaces: A Perspective on Globalization and Localization. John
Granovetter, M., 1985. Economic action and social structure: the problem Wiley and Sons, Chichester, pp. 105 128.
of embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology 91, 481 510. Malecki, E.J., Oinas, P. (Eds.), 1999. Making Connections: Technological
Gray, M., James, A., 2007. Connecting gender and economic competitive- Learning and Regional Economic Change. Ashgate Publishing, Alder-
ness: lessons from Cambridge s high tech regional economy. Environ- shot.
ment and Planning A 39, in press. Malmberg, A., Maskell, P., 1997. Towards an explanation of regional spe-
Gray, M., Markusen, A., 1999. Colorado Springs: a military anchored city cialisation and industry agglomeration. European Planning Studies 5,
in transition. In: Markusen, A., Lee, Y.S., Di Giovanna, S. (Eds.), Sec- 25 41.
ond Tier Cities: Rapid Growth Outside the Metropole in Brazil, South Malmberg, A., Maskell, P., 2002. The elusive concept of localization econ-
Korea, Japan and the United States. University of Minnesota Press, omies: towards a knowledge-based theory of spatial clustering. Envi-
Minneapolis, pp. 311 332. ronment and Planning A 34, 429 449.
Harrison, B., 1992. Industrial districts: old wine in new bottles? Regional Markusen, A., 1994. Studying regions by studying Wrms. Professional
Studies 26, 469 484. Geographer 46, 477 490.
412 A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413
Markusen, A., 1996. Sticky places in slippery space: a typology of indus- Quinn, D.M., 1997. The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power. Signa-
trial districts. Economic Geography 72 (3), 293 313. ture Books, Salt Lake City, UT.
Markusen, A., 1999. Fuzzy concepts, scanty evidence, policy distance: the Ray, L., Sayer, A. (Eds.), 1999. Culture and Economy After the Cultural
case for rigour and policy relevance in critical regional studies. Turn. Sage, London.
Regional Studies 33 (9), 869 884. Rogers, E.M., Larsen, J.K., 1984. Silicon Valley Fever: Growth of High
Martin, R.L., 2001. Geography and public policy: the case of the missing Technology Culture. Allen and Unwin, London.
agenda. Progress in Human Geography 25 (2), 189 210. Saxenian, A., 1994. Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Sili-
Martin, R., Sunley, P., Wills, J., 1994. Unions and the politics of deindustri- con Valley and Route 128. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.
alization: some comments on how geography complicates class analy- Saxenian, A., 1999. Silicon Valley s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs. Public
sis. Antipode 26 (1), 59 76. Policy Institute, California.
Massey, D., 1995. Masculinity, dualisms and high technology. Transac- Saxenian, A., Motoyama, Y., Quan, X., 2002. Local and Global Networks
tions of the Institute of British Geographers NS 20, 487 499. of Immigrant Professionals in Silicon Valley. Public Policy Institute,
Massey, D., 1999. Space-time,  science and the relationship between physi- California.
cal and human geography. Transactions of the Institute of British Schein, E.H., 1992. Organizational Culture and Leadership. Jossey-Bass,
Geographers NS 24, 261 276. San Francisco, CA.
May, D.L., 2001. Mormons. In: Eliason, E.A. (Ed.), Mormons and Mor- Schoenberger, E., 1991. The corporate interview as research method in
monism: An Introduction to an American World Religion. University economic geography. Professional Geographer 43, 183 189.
of Illinois Press, Urbana IL, pp. 47 75. Schoenberger, E., 1994. Corporate strategy and corporate strategists:
McDowell, L.M., 2000. Economy, culture, diVerence and justice. In: Cook, power, identity, and knowledge within the Wrm. Environment and
I., Crouch, D., Naylor, S., Ryan, J. (Eds.), Cultural Turns/Geographical Planning A 26, 435 451.
Turns: Perspectives on Cultural Geography. Prentice Hall, London, pp. Schoenberger, E., 1997. The Cultural Crisis of the Firm. Blackwell, Oxford.
82 95. Scott, A.J., 1986. Industrial organization and location: division of labour,
Mitchell, L., 2000. Leavitt Markets Utah to Silicon Valley. The Salt Lake the Wrm, and social process. Economic Geography 62, 215 231.
Tribune, September 13, 2000. Scott, A.J., 1988. New Industrial Spaces: Flexible Production, Organisa-
Mol, A., Law, J., 1994. Regions, networks and Xuids: anaemia and social tion and Regional Development in North America and Western
typology. Social Studies of Science 24, 641 671. Europe. Pion, London.
Morgan, K., 1997. The learning region: institutions, innovation and Scott, A.J., Paul, A.S., 1990. Collective order and economic coordination in
regional renewal. Regional Studies 31, 491 504. industrial agglomerations: the technopoles of Southern California.
Oinas, O., 1995. Discussion of  Regional advantage: culture and competi- Environment and Planning C 8, 179 193.
tion in Silicon Valley and Route 128 by AnnaLee Saxenian. Economic Shupe, A., 1992. Wealth and Power in American Zion. Mellen Press, Lewiston.
Geography 71, 202 204. Smith, A., 2002. Culture/economy and spaces of economic practice: posi-
Oinas, P., 1997. On the socio-spatial embeddedness of business Wrms. tioning households in post-communism. Transactions of the Institute
Erdkunde 51, 23 32. of British Geographers 27, 232 250.
Oinas, P., 1999. Voices and silences: the problem of access to embedded- Smith, K.R., Shipman, J.K., 1996. Marriage and family life. In: Heaton,
ness. Geoforum 30, 351 361. T.B., Hirschl, T.A., Chadwick, B.A. (Eds.), Utah in the 1990s: A Demo-
Oinas, P., 2002. Competition and collaboration in interconnected places: graphic Perspective. Signature Books, Salt Lake City, UT, pp. 91 104.
towards a research agenda. GeograWska Annaler B 84 (2), 65 76. Spender, J.C., 1996. Making knowledge the basis for a dynamic theory of
Oinas, P., Malecki, E.J., 2002. The evolution of technologies in time and the Wrm. Strategic Management Journal 17, 45 62.
space: from national and regional to spatial innovation systems. Inter- Stark, R., 1996. Religion as context: hellWre and delinquency one more
national Regional Science Review 25 (1), 102 131. time. Sociology of Religion 57, 163 173.
O Reilly, C.A., 1989. Corporations, culture and commitment: motivation Stark, R., 2001. The basis of Mormon success: a theoretical application. In:
and social control in organizations. California Management Review Eliason, E.A. (Ed.), Mormons and Mormonism: An Introduction to an
(summer), 9 25. American World Religion. University of Illinois Press, Urbana IL, pp.
O Reilly, C.A., Chatman, J.A., 1996. Culture as social control: corpora- 207 242.
tions, cults and commitment. Research in Organizational Behaviour Storper, M., 1995. The resurgence of regional economies, ten years later:
18, 157 200. the region as a nexus of untraded interdependencies. European Urban
Ostling, R., Ostling, J., 1999. Mormon America: The Power and the Prom- and Regional Studies 2, 191 222.
ise. Harper Collins, San Francisco, CA. Storper, M., 1997. The Regional World: Territorial Development in a Glo-
Ouchi, W.G., 1981. Theory Z: How American Business Can Meet the Jap- bal Economy. Guilford Press, London.
anese Challenge. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. Storper, M., Walker, R., 1989. The Capitalist Imperative: Territory, Tech-
Park, S.O., 1996. Networks and embeddedness in the dynamic types of nology and Industrial Growth. Blackwell, Oxford.
industrial districts. Progress in Human Geography 20 (4), 476 493. Suzuki, K., Kim, S.H., Bae, Z.T., 2002. Entrepreneurship in Japan and Sili-
Pascale, R.T., Athos, A.G., 1982. The Art of Japanese Management: Appli- con Valley: a comparative study. Technovation 22 (10), 595 606.
cations for American Executives. Warner Books, New York. Tödtling, F., 1994. The uneven landscape of innovation poles: local
Perlich, P.S., 1996. Population growth 1970 95. In: Heaton, T.B., Hirschl, embeddedness and global networks. In: Globalization, Institutions,
T.A., Chadwick, B.A. (Eds.), Utah in the 1990s: A Demographic Per- and Regional Development in Europe. Oxford University Press,
spective. Signature Books, Utah, pp. 3 18. Oxford, pp. 68 90.
Phelps, N.A., Lovering, J., Morgan, K., 1998. Tying the Wrm to the region Toth, M.A., 1974. Mormon society and the united order: an analysis of suc-
or tying the region to the Wrm? Early observations on the case of LG in cess and failure. In: Vernon, G.M. (Ed.), Research on Mormonism. The
South Wales. European Urban and Regional Studies 5, 119 137. Association for the Study of Religion, Salt Lake City, UT, pp. 174 191.
Piore, M., Sabel, C., 1984. The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Trompenaars, F., Hampden-Turner, C., 1997. Riding the Waves of Culture:
Prosperity. Basic Books, New York NY. Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business. Nicholas Brealey, London.
Polanyi, K., 1944. The great transformation: the political and economic Turok, I., 1993. Inward investment and local linkages: how deeply embed-
origins of our time. Beacon Press, Boston. ded is Silicon Glen? Regional Studies 27, 401 418.
Poll, R.D., 2001. Utah and the Mormons: a symbiotic relationship. In: US Bureau of the Census, 2004. Statistical Abstract of the United States,
Eliason, E.A. (Ed.), Mormons and Mormonism: An Introduction to an 2004. US Bureau of the Census, Washington DC.
American World Religion. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, pp. Utah Department of Workforce Services, 2004. Annual Report of Labor
164 179. Market Information, 2003. Utah DWS, Salt Lake City, UT.
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393 413 413
Utah Department of Workforce Services, 2004. High Technology Down- Wolfe, D.A., Gertler, M.S., 2001. Innovation and social learning: an intro-
turn in Utah. Utah DWS, Salt Lake City, UT. duction. In: Gertler, M.S., Wolfe, D.A. (Eds.), Innovation and Social
Vernon, G.M., 1980. Mormonism: A Sociological Perspective. University Learning: Institutional Adaptation in an Era of Technological Change
of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT. Palgrave, Basingstoke, pp. 1 24.
Westwood, R., Low, D.D., 2003. The multicultural muse: culture, creativ- Wright, G.C., McIver, J.C., Erikson, R.S., Holian, D.P., 2000. Stability and
ity and innovation. International Journal of Cross Cultural Manage- change in state electorates: Carter through Clinton. Paper presented to
ment 3 (2), 235 259. the Midwestern Political Science Association Meeting, Chicago, 2000.
Whitley, R., 2000. Divergent Capitalisms: The Social Structuring and Yeung, H.W., 2005. Rethinking relational economic geography. Transac-
Change of Business Systems. Oxford University Press, Oxford. tions of the Institute of British Geographers 30, 37 51.
Wiig, H., Wood, M., 1997. What comprises a regional innovation system? Young, L.A., 1996. The religious landscape. In: Heaton, T.B., Hirschl, T.A.,
Theoretical base and indicators. In: Simmie, J. (Ed.), Innovation, Net- Chadwick, B.A. (Eds.), Utah in the 1990s: A Demographic Perspective.
works and Learning Regions. Jessica Kingsley, London, pp. 66 98. Signature Books, Salt Lake City, UT, pp. 155 166.
Williamson, P.J., Verdin, P.J., 1992. Age, experience and corporate syn- Zukin, S., DiMaggio, P. (Eds.), 1990. Structures of Capital: The Social
ergy: when are they sources of business unit advantage? British Journal Organization of the Economy. Cambridge University Press, Cam-
of Management 3, 221 235. bridge, pp. 1 36.