January 29, 2001

Media Contact: Paula Cichocka, (858) 534-1465 

NEW BOOK BY UC SAN DIEGO EXPERTS STUDIES AMERICAN DOMINANCE OF THE GLOBAL DATA STORAGE INDUSTRY

Two researchers from University of California, San Diego (UCSD), David G. McKendrick and Stephan Haggard have joined with Richard F. Doner, a Professor at Emory University, to co-author a new book examining the United States' dominance of the global hard disk drive (HDD) industry. Published by Stanford University Press, "From Silicon Valley to Singapore: Location and Competitive Advantage in the Hard Disk Drive Industry," examines an industry that has been crucial to the rapid spread of personal computers and the Internet.

In their research, McKendrick, Doner, and Haggard find that the United States' continued success in the HDD industry was due to effective globalization: the decision of new American start-up companies to split the location of HDD research and development and manufacturing. Fundamental research and product development remained in the United States, primarily California, but manufacturing migrated to Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. This business decision gave the rejuvenated U.S. disk drive industry an edge over formidable Japanese competitors such as Sony, Mitsubishi, Matsushita, NEC, and Hitachi. Start-up companies that went abroad, like Seagate, also beat out the entrenched American industry giants such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Memorex. "From Silicon Valley to Singapore," is a classic study in the importance of location in the new global economy.

McKendrick, Doner and Haggard also examine the intersection of location, policy and politics in global competition. They find that firms were not simply motivated by access to cheap labor, but increasingly exploited technical capabilities and business-government partnerships in Southeast Asia to their advantage.

The new book has drawn favorable reviews from leaders in the HDD industry and academics alike. The CEO of Seagate Technology, Steve Luczo, calls the book "a thought-provoking examination of the factors that have influenced the disk drive industry's global growth and evolution." William Barnett, professor at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, says From Silicon Valley to Singapore is "an important book [and] required reading for students of industrial and corporate evolution."

David McKendrick, lead author of the book, is the Research Director of UCSD's Information Storage Industry Center (ISIC), based at IR/PS. The mission of ISIC, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is to study the business aspects of globalization in the hard disk drive industry. Stephan Haggard is currently Interim Dean of IR/PS.

Established in 1986, UCSD's Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) is the University of California's only professional school of international affairs and the only graduate school in the United States to focus exclusively on the Pacific Rim. More information on the graduate program and its faculty can be found on its web site at: http://www-irps.ucsd.edu. For more information on ISIC please visit the web site at: http://isic.ucsd.edu.  If you are interested in receiving the book, contact Paula Cichocka at (858) 534-1465 or pcichocka@ucsd.edu