Winner of the American Political Science Association's 2008 Don K. Price
Award for the Best Book in Science and Technology Politics Finalist for
the 2007 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award in the Political
Science category. The 1990s brought surprising industrial development in
emerging economies around the globe: firms in countries not previously
known for their high-technology industries moved to the forefront in new
Information Technologies (IT) by using different business models and
carving out unique positions in the global IT production networks. In
this book Dan Breznitz asks why economies of different countries develop
in different ways, and his answer relies on his exhaustive research into
the comparative experiences of Israel, Taiwan, and Ireland-states that
made different choices to nurture the growth of their IT industries. The
role of the state in economic development has changed, Breznitz
concludes, but it has by no means disappeared. He offers a new way of
thinking about state-led rapid-innovation-based industrial development
that takes into account the ways production and innovation are now
conducted globally. And he offers specific guidelines to help states
make advantageous decisions about research and development,
relationships with foreign firms and investors, and other critical
issues.
