Synopses & Reviews
Like the Greeks who sailed with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece, the new Argonauts--foreign-born, technically skilled entrepreneurs who travel back and forth between Silicon Valley and their home countries--seek their fortune in distant lands by launching companies far from established centers of skill and technology. Their story illuminates profound transformations in the global economy.
Economic geographer AnnaLee Saxenian has followed this transformation, exploring one of its great paradoxes: how the "brain drain" has become "brain circulation," a powerful economic force for development of formerly peripheral regions. The new Argonauts--armed with Silicon Valley experience and relationships and the ability to operate in two countries simultaneously--quickly identify market opportunities, locate foreign partners, and manage cross-border business operations.
The New Argonauts extends Saxenian's pioneering research into the dynamics of competition in Silicon Valley. The book brings a fresh perspective to the way that technology entrepreneurs build regional advantage in order to compete in global markets. Scholars, policymakers, and business leaders will benefit from Saxenian's firsthand research into the investors and entrepreneurs who return home to start new companies while remaining tied to powerful economic and professional communities in the United States.
For Americans accustomed to unchallenged economic domination, the fast-growing capabilities of China and India may seem threatening. But as Saxenian convincingly displays in this pathbreaking book, the Argonauts have made America richer, not poorer.
Review
Remarkable...There is probably no more experienced and astute chronicler of the advent of the Silicon Valley ecosystem than AnnaLee Saxenian... This will be a much discussed and cited book, and deservedly so. It has focused our attention on a potentially decisive phenomenon for 21st century economic development. Michael Storper
Review
'Saxenian\'s thrilling first book, RegionalAdvantage, described how Silicon Valley became the informationtechnology center of the universe. The NewArgonautsshows how engineers who came to Silicon Valley fromChina, India, Taiwan, and Israel are creating entrepreneurial networks and seedingthose countries, transforming what was once a brain drain into brain circulation,and allowing Silicon Valley to deepen its managerial, technical and professionalknow-how. The New Argonautsis a winner.'
Review
AnnaLee Saxenian has long been the leading observer of Silicon Valley's "entrepreneurial ecosystem." She now follows her classic studies of Silicon Valley with this remarkable volume in which she employs her unique blend of economic, sociological, and business expertise to bring to life the New Argonauts--world-class engineers and entrepreneurs from newly emerging economies who are creating new centers of high-tech excellence around the globe, while also transforming Silicon Valley. This book is essential reading for all who want to understand how the global technology economy operates in the 21st century. Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director, Earth Institute at Columbia University
Review
Saxenian's thrilling first book, Regional Advantage, described how Silicon Valley became the information technology center of the universe. The New Argonauts shows how engineers who came to Silicon Valley from China, India, Taiwan, and Israel are creating entrepreneurial networks and seeding those countries, transforming what was once a brain drain into brain circulation, and allowing Silicon Valley to deepen its managerial, technical and professional know-how. The New Argonauts is a winner. Charles Perrow, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Yale University
Review
This book will change the world's perception of the global digital divide. Without denying existing patterns of inequality, it demonstrates the shift from "brain drain" to "brain circulation" in the new international division of labor based on technological innovation. It offers reasonable hope to people and countries around the world of sharing the potential of the information technology revolution rather than reproducing the traditional hierarchies. In this new perspective, Silicon Valley, China, Taiwan, Israel, and India are intertwined in the manufacturing of a new global knowledge economy. Manuel Castells Olivan, Open University of Catalonia
About the Author
AnnaLee Saxenianis Assistant Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the <ânewâ>University of California, Berkeley.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Surprising Success
2. Learning the Silicon Valley System
3. Creating Cross-Regional Communities
4. Taiwan as Silicon Sibling
5. Taiwan as Partner and Parent
6. Manufacturing in Mainland China
7. IT Enclaves in India
8. The Argonaut Advantage
Appendix A: Immigrant Professional and Networking Associations, Silicon Valley
Appendix B: Survey Results: Immigrant Professionals in Silicon Valley
Notes
References
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Index