A late-industrial district? Learning networks in the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park, Taiwan.

摘要

This study explores the growth of Taiwan's Integrated Circuit (IC) industry. After engaging the dominant models of East Asian development, it proposes a dynamic theory of industrial learning in developing countries. Three elements constitute the theoretical framework: interactive learning, local and global networks, and dynamic institutionalism. Using this framework, the research scrutinizes the industrial organization, spatial clustering and supporting institutions of Taiwan's newly emerging IC industry, based on interviews with managers of more than twenty local IC companies in the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park, there are three key findings.;First, Taiwan's IC industry is characterized by the systematic integration of independent but connected firms specializing in different steps of the technical division of labor of the IC production process. This type of vertically disintegrated industrial system renders new firm formation possible and is open to technological learning, which emphasizes product proliferation and differentiation. The industrial system as a whole, continuously absorbs and introduces new products by means of recombinations of resources among the industrial firms and networks.;Second, the vertically disintegrated industrial organization, combined with application specific product strategies, encourages mutual adjustment and cross fertilization among firms in the IC production chains, their customers, and supporting institutions. Geographical concentration not only saves transaction costs and generates external economies for the industrial system, but more importantly, engenders opportunities for interactive learning and technology spillover. It is dynamic learning that constitutes the competitive edge of the industrial district.;Third, Taiwan's IC industry has benefitted from technology links with foreign companies and overseas talent. As a result, Taiwan's burgeoning IC firms are able to get access to new product ideas and technical skills. But global forces are not necessarily at odds with localized advantage. The case of the IC firms in the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park demonstrates that local production systems can improve their learning capacity by global technology transfer and, simultaneously, broaden and deepen the patterns of technological advance based on the rule of complementary assets and the norm of social associations.