Government policies towards Israel's high-tech powerhouse

•The paper discusses how Israel could transform itself into a high-tech powerhouse.•Collaborative links among government (OCS) and industries lead to successful industrial clusters.•Effective VC financing is a result of government-led policies and Yozma program.

Israel's Silicon Wadi is second only to US Silicon Valley in terms of business start-ups. The government policies play an important role in promoting innovation and driving the country towards a high-tech powerhouse. In this study the analyses, carried out through the lens of cluster and national innovation system (NIS), have shown that the thriving high-tech clusters are the result of government-led policies in creating the venture capital (VC) industry with the impacts of Yozma program. Importantly, the government financing did not crowd out but crowd in private investments. Israel presents an interesting case of the most successful Silicon Valley-style economy. The lessons of Israel in successfully climbing the technological ladder to become a high-tech powerhouse would be useful for other countries to learn how to promote high-tech clusters.