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

This book considers a fascinating aspect of new technology businesses and the network economies that support their development. Essentially, it is about the movement of technically skilled professionals who have been drawn into the commercial environment of Silicon Valley and their subsequent technology transfer relationship with the part of the world from which they were originally drawn. To use the phraseology of the book, this is about "brain circulation" as opposed to "brain drain."

The book is concerned with the circulation of knowledge and know-how. It is about globally mobile entrepreneurs and technicians who are able to transfer understanding from the hub of activity, Silicon Valley, to regions of the world that initially may have limited infrastructure to support the new businesses that are subsequently developed. In this, the book treads carefully, perhaps even warily, between the notion that this "circulation" is bad for the U.S. technology industry and the notion that a completely dominant U.S.-based industry is not good for the rest of the world. Therefore, the book contends that this type of circulatory activity is not only good for regions outside the United States but also good for the U.S. economy itself.

In this, the book is about insider knowledge, human interaction, and ultimately the impetus to take an understanding of how an industry works to a new region that is a culturally familiar environment for the entrepreneurs responsible for the transfer of knowledge. This is where the book has a much wider relevance. The book is talking about the new technology industries, but it is also talking about an important aspect of commercial and professional activity within the contemporary environment. It would be very difficult for any academic to read this book and not see the very strong actual or potential parallels with their own "industry."

Herein lie the strength and ultimately the weakness of the book. It is about social networks and the transfer of knowing what a particular business is about and how it works. The language of the book, particularly in the early chapters, is predicated on a uniqueness and importance of the industry-specific process under consideration. Yes, this is an important industry, and yes, this is a good example of social networking in a professional environment, but it is part, and only part, of an international global system. Likewise, the international flow of knowledge is evident at other times and in other industries.

The development of the thesis at the heart of this book is primarily concerned with the experiences of Taiwan, mainland China, and India. In this, the book is primarily concerned with the successful transfer of knowledge and the establishment of operations to new regional bases. Of the eight chapters in the book, four are specifically devoted to these markets. The other four chapters are devoted to developing the book's general thesis. Undoubtedly, the problems of setting up operations in these three markets are considered to be good and, at times, ironically amusing affect. However, as appendix A of the book shows the "immigrant" professional networking associations in Silicon Valley considered by the research that underpins this book exist to support professionals from a much wider range of markets.

It would have been very interesting to see the other markets considered in greater depth, that is, by comparing the conditions under which transplantation of knowledge does or does not occur. Consideration of why and where innovation has happened with why and where it has not happened would have been very illuminating. It would have been useful to hear more about those markets with very different characteristics to those in Taiwan, China, and India. For example, there are references to Ireland throughout the book, which suggest that in-depth consideration of that market would have provided an instructive comparison with the "new" economies in Asia.

However, within the logic of the book, it is understandable why these other regions have not been...