Transnational Communities and the Evolution of Global Production Networks: The Cases of Taiwan, China and India

Abstract

Transnational entrepreneurs--US-educated immigrant engineers whose activities span national borders--are creating new economic opportunities for formerly peripheral economies around the world. As talented immigrants who have studied and worked in the USA return to their home countries to take advantage of promising new economic opportunities they are building technical communities that link regions in the developing world to the leading centers of information and communications technologies in the USA. This paper examines the cases of Taiwan, India and China to suggest that these transnational entrepreneurs and their communities provide a significant mechanism for the international diffusion of knowledge and the creation and upgrading of local capabilities--one that is distinct from, but complementary to, global production networks.