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The rise of Taiwan in the TFT-LCD industry

Mayumi Tabata (Department of Sociology, National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan, Republic of China)

Journal of Technology Management in China

ISSN: 1746-8779

Article publication date: 1 July 2014

217

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to refocus the analysis of global political economies using concepts from studies on Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) to track Taiwan’s rise in the Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD) industry. Taiwanese electronics firms began to outpace their competitors from Japan in TFT-LCD industry’s competition from about the year 2000.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on depth interviews and analysis of secondary source material, newspaper and magazine.

Findings

A time factor that helps determine advantage and/or disadvantage of high-tech industry in Japan and Taiwan. Stable organizational structure and less talent mobility in the Japanese TFT-LCD firms may well have been an advantage initially in the transformation process from US firms’ experimental technologies to tacit mass production technologies, but proved to be a disadvantage in the subsequent competition with more mobile talent in Taiwanese firms eager to standardize mass production techniques. Japanese firms’ rigid organizational structure could not keep pace to the market-oriented technology strategy in the global TFT-LCD industry, lost competitive advantage in a rapid pace.

Social implications

VoC literature should be focused to highlight two insights. The first is the premise of institutional forms specific to national models of capitalism. Patterns of technology transfer appear critical in the innovation process, and differ markedly between Taiwan and Japan. Second, the VoC literature suggests comparative institutional advantage.

Originality/value

Through the comparative analyses between Taiwanese capitalism model and Japanese counterparts, we can understand the reason and process of the rise of Taiwan in global TFT-LCD market.

Keywords

Citation

Tabata, M. (2014), "The rise of Taiwan in the TFT-LCD industry", Journal of Technology Management in China, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 190-205. https://doi.org/10.1108/JTMC-12-2013-0040

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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