I am a fan of AnnaLee Saxenian . . . particularly her book Regional Advantage — I have given out hundreds of copies of that book. AnnaLee is currently the Dean of the School of Information Management and Systems at Cal Berkeley . . . and seems to turn out a key book about every 10 years . . . she does research during the decade between major publications so her work is always well grounded in fact.

In Regional Advantage she identified and communicated a lot of the concepts that make new companies successful today . . . or transform old companies. Regional Advantage was a seminal books that explained why Silicon Valley survived and grew while Route 128 - in the Northeast - which was the original corridor for technology . . . even with the huge government funding they had available to them . . . did not grow and actually "sank."

I knew that AnnaLee had been doing research in Asia . . . but was not aware that she finally put all of it together into a book until our friend Ted Lucas dropped me a note. Ted writes:

I skimmed a new AnnaLee Saxenian book that was just released over the weekend called The New Argonauts ( 2006, Harvard University Press). The basic premise explores how the many Chinese, Indian, Taiwanese, etc. immigrants to Silicon Valley come and learn how the ecosystem works and companies are built and then "recirculate" back to their home region, where they help build mini "Silicon Valleys" to foster entrepreneurial ventures. She takes a positive vs. protectionist view on this — it is not a "brain drain," but a natural flow that creates economic growth in countries that need development and results in greater innovation and growth globally in aggregate. Probably worth picking up given your interest in her earlier work.

Judging by Ted’s recommendation and AnnaLee Saxenian’s body of work, I’m moving The New Argonauts to the top of my reading list. Come to think of it, now that it’s been a decade it’s time to do a quick re-read of Regional Advantage as well.