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Shaping and Making a Future: Iranian American Business and Technology Leaders in Silicon Valley

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Urban Studies and Entrepreneurship

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Abstract

The Iranians in America is a compelling yet understudied topic area within the academic literature. Although there have been recent efforts dedicated to the lives and contributions of Iranians elsewhere within the United States (U.S.), very little academic work has focused on Iranian Americans within the San Francisco Bay area and more importantly, Silicon Valley. Despite the industrious leadership and intellectual and professional contributions that these Iranian Americans make towards the advancement of Silicon Valley, there is limited understanding of this high achieving group. Although there is special attention to highly skilled Taiwanese, Indians, and Israelis in Silicon Valley and their on-going relationship with their respective countries of origin within the recent academic literature, little work has been conducted on the role of highly skilled Iranian Americans in Silicon Valley. Thus, this chapter begins to document and explore who is this elusive, yet extremely important, highly skilled group of Iranian Americans. Drawing from 20 semi-structured interviews as a primary methodology, the study works to uncover the various types of highly skilled Iranian Americans and their entrepreneurial and/or professional contributions to Silicon Valley through two lenses; the first focuses on elements of self-motivation; the second includes a better understanding of regional conditions that may have supported such success.

Sponsored by the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute and the Persian Studies Program, San Jose State University.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Waters (2000) examined the recent emergence of Astronaut and Satellite family forms in Vancouver, British Columbia. Drawing from evidence in several cities around the Pacific Rim, Waters found that these transnational arrangements among recent economic-class immigrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan involved one or both adult members of the nuclear family returning to the country of origin to pursue a professional career or business. In the Astronaut arrangement, it is usual for the woman to remain in Vancouver - taking charge of all domestic and childcare tasks. In the Satellite situation, both parents returned to the country of origin for work for an extended period, and the minor children were usually left with a full-time or part-time caregiver in their new home of Vancouver.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. San Jose State University, San Jose, USA

    Kathrine Richardson

Authors
  1. Kathrine Richardson
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Correspondence to Kathrine Richardson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

    Muhammad Naveed Iftikhar

  2. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

    Jonathan B. Justice

  3. School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA

    David B. Audretsch

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Richardson, K. (2020). Shaping and Making a Future: Iranian American Business and Technology Leaders in Silicon Valley. In: Iftikhar, M., Justice, J., Audretsch, D. (eds) Urban Studies and Entrepreneurship. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15164-5_11

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