Taiwan's Entrepreneurs and International Coordination: Evolution of Global Production Network in Electronics and IT Industries

Abstract

This study applies the concept of coordinating entrepreneurship to explain the emergence of global production network. More specifically, this study explains and illustrates how Taiwan-born technopreneurs move between Silicon Valley and Taiwan's Hsinchu, thereby promoting Taiwan's computer and information technology (IT) industries. With their entrepreneurial spirit and social network, Taiwan-born technopreneurs even turn Dongguan, a farming village in south China, into a modern IT industrial city. This paper concludes that as a result of the coordinating efforts of these entrepreneurs, electronics and computer plants scattered around the globe are integrated into a global production network, as illustrated by IT firms in Silicon Valley, Hsinchu and Dongguan.

Keywords:

• International entrepreneurship
• global production network
• electronics and IT industries
• Silicon Valley
• Hsinchu (Taiwan)
• Dongguan (Pearl River Delta)

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Diana Kwan for proof reading an earlier draft of this article.

Notes

1. Mainstream neo-classical school assumes market participants, firms and products in the market are homogeneous.

2. For an account of the development of Taiwan's electronics industries, see Hobday (1995) and Mathews (2004).

3. Furthermore, “about 17% of Silicon Valley startups from 1980–1998 had a Chinese founder. … Immigrant founders from China and Taiwan started companies in a broader range of industries, and were more likely to start computers or communications (with 25% and 27% respectively) and software companies (19% and 17%). In addition, they were more likely to be founders of semiconductor companies (8% and 7%) than their Indian or U.K. counterparts” (Wadhwa et al., 2007, pp. 5, 22).

4. People from mainland China in general could only leave the country for the US after Deng Xiao-Ping's Open Door Policy in 1978.

5. For an account of the contribution of Li Kuo-Ting to Taiwan's economic development, see Yu (2007).

6. For a detail account on other government programmes designated overseas Taiwanese to return to the island, see Tsay and Dai (2001) and Chang (1992).

7. Receiving funds from the government and private sectors, ITRI serves as a bridge between academic institutions and industry, and also performs R&D in industrial technologies.

8. With their families in California, many Taiwan-born Americans fly between Silicon Valley and Hsinchu as much as twice a month. They serve as middlemen, bridging opportunities between two regions.

9. Knowing that their jobs depend largely on how well they promote economic development in the areas, some county officials even seek advice from Taiwanese entrepreneurs on how to make their cities more attractive to foreign enterprises. In Dongguan, Taiwanese entrepreneurs have helped these officials learn how to respond rapidly to the needs of the private sector. They meet county government officials every two weeks to discuss the problems arising from regulations.

10. Materials obtained from http://www.cables.com.tw/yuefeng/en/main/default.asp (accessed 22 February 2008).