AnnaLee Saxenian is dean of the UC-Berkeley School of Information, and her new book is a deep dive into the economics of competition in a globalizing world. As she points out in the introduction, even an apparently American invention such as the iPod is the product of a “far-flung network of highly specialized enterprises located in Silicon Valley, India, Taiwan, mainland China, and elsewhere.”
The original Argonauts were Greeks who accompanied Jason on his search for the Golden Fleece, but the new Argonauts, she writes, are entrepreneurs who are similarly mobile, regularly moving between the U.S. and their home countries and establishing operations wherever the conditions are right in terms of market opportunities, capital, partnerships, and management teams.
According to Saxenian, the key is not location per se but communities of collaboration based on skills and knowledge. “It is clear that the relationships between these newly emerging technology regions are multiplying, and that the new markets opening up in China and India will further transform the dynamics of the world economy,” she writes.
Her book examines the interlocked dynamics of such specialized enterprises with both historical rigor and sound, forward-looking interpretation. Individual chapters focus on geographic regions such as Silicon Valley, Taiwan, India, and mainland China, with the final chapter summing up the “Argonaut Advantage”—access to a widening network of both personal and technological connections.