From the Jan 17 2002 edition of Financial Times.

Names of high-technology clusters around the world taking inspiration from America's Silicon Valley range from the geographically obscure to the truly unlikely. ... "Countries that have any pretence of joining (or for that matter remaining in) the ranks of the world's most advanced economies have no choice but to imitate (the Valley)."

Yet if non-US clusters had been more successful in "cloning" the Valley, they would arguably now be in worse shape than they currently are. For nowhere has the boom and bust been as dramatic as in northern California. ...