Unlike most studies that offer post-hoc, why-it-happened explanations of Taiwan's remarkable economic growth, Dr. Poon's examines how it happened. Using the Global Commodity Chains perspective and applying it to Taiwan's information technology industry, she illuminates not only the outcomes of development processes but the processes themselves. Her book is the first systematic study so far of inter-firm networks in Taiwan, how they operate, and how they contributed so much to the country's industrial upgrading. The result is a penetrating examination of how various forms of inter-firm networks are created and leveraged by governments and private businesses working together, and the affect this can have on both the local and global dynamics of an economically developing nation.