This paper uses the perspective of industrial cluster to investigate technological development and innovation in HSIP in Taiwan, ZGC in China, and DST in Koera respectively. It is found that HSIP’s development in the semiconductor industry in general and IC design in particular has been closely linked to the prosperity of PC industry in the world market, as well as to the state’s support and strong institutional networking. These factors synchronize together to push IC industry and the cluster to upgrade continuously;
whereas ZGC’s picture in technological learning is not so clear as compared to HSIP, which mainly comes from its obvious de-linkages among actors in local settings that inherited from its socialist institutional arrangements and hampered technological learning and upgrading. However, firms in ZGC can directly access the enormous Chinese domestic market that support them to grow through strategies such as entering the low end and second tier markets. These firms are able to accumulate knowledge in the process and in the end can compete directly with MNCs in major markets. Finally, DST was initially designed as a pure science town with no production facilities. However, in due course, it gradually evolved into one that combined R&D and production functions. It currently has become an innovative cluster in which national research institutes have continuously spun-off new venture firms in DST. Nevertheless, the major problems that DST has to face are
its lacking of production networks and its lacking of bigger firms that can generate supply chain to nurture a regional innovation system.
The three cases that this paper has discussed have evolved from different original designs to the current similar pattern. HSIP was designed to integrate research institutes, universities and local firms to upgrade the economy by collaborating closely with foreign firms. In the process, HSIP has changed from mainly producing PC related products to mainly focus on semiconductor sector. Nevertheless, as local PC firms become key PC suppliers to the world market, and as TSMC was established to generate the booming of IC design industry, the whole value chain of semiconductor has been established and networked in HSIP.
Together with the existing universities and ITRI, HSIP becomes an innovative cluster that can generate innovation through integrating various sources of networks. ZGC emerged spontaneously in the early days of China’s economic reform, it was however assigned the mission as an innovation center due to its high concentration of R&D institutes and elite universities. In the process, ZGC has indeed nurture many spun-off firms due to China’s continuous institutional reform that relieved the burden of institutional fragmentation and gave scientists incentives to create their own firms. The integration of R&D with production, together with the investment of MNCs, has indeed occurred, especially in the software industry. Nevertheless, the institutional legacy of low trust as well as the economic booming agitated local firms to diverge their energy in real estate and stock market than on technological innovation. Finally, DST was originally designed as a pure science town with no manufacturing activities. Nevertheless, it has evolved into a type that is similar to ZGC where many national research institutes are located to generate spun-off firms. But different from ZGC, DST does not have large firms and production networks, as well as software infrastructure to sustain its innovation.
DST’s future is still needed to be observed.
Table 3: Three clusters in comparison
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HSIP, Taiwan ZGC, China DST, Korea
Found 1978 1988 1973
Covered area 6.3 KM2 100 KM2 27.8 KM2
Type Industrial park Industrial park Science town to Industrial park Industries Mainly IT (hardware) and
others
Mainly IT (software) and others
IT, biotech, space, nuclear Main actors National research
institutes, universities, IT
weakness Weak in basic research Lack of trust; actors are more interested in real estate than in innovation
Lack of production networks
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