"I think most people know that North Carolina has been a leader in the tech sector. But there is something called the product cycle that is really working against us, at least in the manufacturing part of the technology sector," says Dr. Walden, a professor of agricultural and resource economics.

"The product cycle simply says that initially when you have a relatively new product, say like personal computers, the manufacturing is going to be done in the country where the product is being developed -- where you have the designers, where you have the brains sort of behind the new product. But then later when the manufacturing process gets set –- when it goes assembly line, where it’s very simple and you don't need the input of those designers and innovators -- then the manufacturing can go offshore," he continues. "And it can go, for example, to low-cost countries like as Taiwan, China and so forth.

"And I think that is what we are seeing happening in the tech sector in the U.S. as well as in North Carolina," he concludes. "We are going to have less, relatively speaking, manufacturing of technology products. And where we are going to however still be strong is in, number one, the servicing of those products and, number, two still in the innovation and design aspects."