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The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy

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The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy (Hardcover)

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5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Argonauts, Saxenian's mythic term for global commuters employed in the high tech sector, are not the ominous invaders American economic isolationists fear-stealing jobs and ideas from Americans and spiriting them abroad. Rather, Saxenian argues, such global entrepreneurs have created domestic and foreign jobs and reduced the cost of technology for businesses and consumers. Saxenian is at her best when describing the relatively short history of the international entrepreneur-commuter: the Argonauts, though equipped with Ph.D.s from American universities, hit ethnicity-based glass ceilings in the States and chose entrepreneurship over floundering in middle-management. Bright, young, foreign-born entrepreneurs formed technology companies (with the help of western venture capital and management theory) in their home countries and succeeded where traditional development initiatives failed. However, when Saxenian projects the implications of Argonaut activity or their future, she sounds prematurely optimistic; some readers may have a hard time envisioning, as Saxenian does, widespread future interglobal cooperation aimed at solving humanity's problems.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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 (Journal of Economic Geography )

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Product Details

Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher: Harvard University Press; annotated edition edition (April 30, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0674022017
ISBN-13: 978-0674022010
Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6 x 1.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds

Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #900,843 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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	1% buy Silicon Valley's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs $10.00

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The power of networks within and between hi-tech regions, January 26, 2007

By	Petra Sonderegger (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

AnnaLee Saxenian has long been a follower of localized firm and professional networks in the hi-tech industry, highlighting their superiority over corporate hierarchies in her book "Regional Advantage." More recently, in "The New Argonauts," she has turned to ethnic professional networks in Silicon Valley, especially in the Indian, Chinese and Israeli communities. These networks, originally founded for social purposes, evolved to become professional networks for advice, capital and know-how for immigrant entrepreneurs. As immigrant entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley identified business opportunities in their home countries, the networks extended to support these new ventures. They also tied into their home-countries' networks through alumni associations and family ties.

Thus, organizations that were once highly localized began to reach across continents - and their benefits with them. Access to tacit knowledge (technical and managerial), a common understanding of entrepreneurship, shared language and culture have all been considered factors that are bound by geography and contribute to the success of regional economies. Now, they are transcending vast distances thanks to the kinds of networks described by Saxenian. New "Argonauts" (people who work in two or more regions, shuttling back and forth several times per month) literally carry market and technological knowledge, contacts, business models and capital around the world.

As a result, "Silicon Valley, once the uncontested technology leader, is now integrated into a dynamic network of specialized and complementary regional economies. These new technology regions are not replicas of Silicon Valley, nor are they becoming new Silicon Valleys [...] Even as the returnees seek to use their experience in Silicon Valley to reshape these institutions, distinctive regional and national histories ensure that the identities and technology trajectories of these regions are unlikely to converge."

Saxenian emphasizes the role of entrepreneurial networks over multinational enterprises. Multinationals have traditionally been seen as the prime diffusers of new technologies to "following" economies. In Saxenian's view, they will be supplanted here, as they were in the U.S. hi-tech industry.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Regional Advantage in a Global Economy, July 30, 2008

By	InsideWork Book Review (Irvine, CA USA) - See all my reviews

AnnaLee Saxenian has a clear vision of how the global economy is being transformed. Like Jason's mythic quest for the Golden Fleece, the new economic landscape is being conquered less by policy makers, global investors, and multinational corporate behemoths than by legions of modern day Argonauts - technically skilled entrepreneurs from many nations who "sail" back and forth between their home countries and their other home in Silicon Valley.

Traditional economic worldviews assumed that the success of companies and countries from peripheral 20th century economies - Taiwan, China, India, Israel - were destined to build on the successes and advancements of leading edge G8 economies (U.S., Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia). These worldviews anticipated a constant brain drain from the trailing economies to the leading economies, assuming talent would aggregate and then remain where the opportunity was. And, until recently, there was plenty of evidence for this view.

Not anymore.

Today's global economic reality has turned this worldview on its ear - or at the very least forced a serious revision. The percentage of talent who come to the U.S. to be educated and then remain here to work has reversed - to spell it out: More people are returning to their homes to seek opportunity, even after many years in the U.S.

One current worry is that the U.S. now faces a brain drain as these technologically astute entrepreneurs exit our economy. Saxenian discovered that what we're experiencing is not a brain drain but a "brain circulation." Many, often two or more from the same country, are founding companies that think globally from day one. Rather than just competing on low cost - the traditional assumption of competitive advantage - they have mainly pursued strategic, innovative, value added trajectories all the while maintaining close ties to Silicon Valley relationships, technology and markets. Instead of attempting to reproduce Silicon Valley back home, these Argonauts are establishing complementary versions of Silicon Valley, each with its specialization. This has effectively given rise to a global technology business ecosystem. Within this system, the Argonauts are able to locate foreign partners as needed, manage complex organizations across cultures and languages, circulate know-how, and attract talent and capital. On top of which they make significant contributions to world-class education and research.

Read the entire review at http://insidework.net/resources/readinglist/entry-0000013647

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5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent view of Silicon Valley's now and future in the Flat world!, August 24, 2006

By	Papageno "Papageno" (CA USA) - See all my reviews

Excellent view of Silicon Valley's now and future in the Flat world! This author is excel in comparing Silicon Valley with new 'Want be Silicon Valley' regions. Especially her comments on the differentiators that are based on lot of interviews are extremely valuable for these challengers. In summery, openness, strong wishes to keep in the leading edge that the author viewed as Silicon Valley excel are the true differentiators of the region from many others.

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