Although written in 2011, Dan Senor and Saul Singer's Start-Up Nation provides a well-researched history of how Israel has become a hotbed (the hotbed?) for high-tech start-ups in the world today.
Essentially, Senor and Singer argue that Israel is home to the perfect confluence of factors: military conscription, which provides all Israelis with an early dose of high-stakes problem solving replete with life-or-death consequences (and a built-in network of connections forged in this pressure-cooker environment); a large immigrant community, with all the benefits of risk-taking, multi-lingualism, and, potentially, overseas networks, that implies; a national history where constant external threat required agility and adaptability; and cultural norms of low power distance (with its attendant ability to question authority) and achievement orientation. Israel is also an export-driven economy, with a very small domestic market, and no possibilities of trade in the immediate neighborhood, due to tensions with surrounding countries
While the central arguments can be compressed to a handful of paragraphs, it's the examples of Israeli entrepreneurship that pepper the chapters that prove most interesting. From the technologies that drive online payment and security systems, to R&D teams for companies like HP and green technologies like electric cars, Israeli companies - and Israelis - are central actors. As Senor and Singer note, Israel has more companies on the NASDAQ than Korea, Japan, Singapore, India, and all of Europe combined (or at least that was true in 2011; I didn't verify the stats in 2020).
Obviously those with an interest in international business and trade will be most interested in Start-Up Nation, but this is a great book for anyone interested in how geography, culture, history, and the like influence the major market players today.
Five stars.
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