Cyclical industrial dynamics: The case of the global semiconductor industry

In this paper, we focus on firms' cyclical behavior in the global semiconductor industry. We demonstrate that these cyclical dynamics at the industry level differ from both the business cycles at the macro-economic level and the lengthy industrial technology life cycle. We discuss a range of possible causes of those cyclical industrial dynamics, including the general business cycles as well as industry-specific factors. Our study reports three stylized facts in relation to the cyclical industrial dynamics in the global semiconductor industry: first, the industry is more concentrated during the industry cycle downturns; second, the capital investment of the industry as a whole follows a ‘pro-cyclical’ pattern; and third, firms that pursued a ‘counter-cyclical’ capital investment strategy during the industry cycle downturn have reaped rewards during the subsequent cycle period. These facts suggest that cyclical industrial dynamics, especially the industry cycle downturns, play an important role in firm rivalry, strategic positioning and industrial growth.     

Agile strategy adaptation in semiconductor wafer foundries: An example from Taiwan

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and examine how two Taiwanese firms–TSMC and UMC–who compete in the highly dynamic global semiconductor industry, are able to use their unique strategies to create a new wafer foundry sector. The birth of foundry business gave rise to the vertical disintegration of the IC industry. As the foundry industry evolved along its life cycle of embryonic, growth to shake-out stage, the focus of the foundry business migrated from manufacturing-centric to technology-centric and now to customer-centric. Various strategies were adopted at each stage by the incumbents to cope with the changes in the industry environment to sustain business growth.     

A variable P value rolling Grey forecasting model for Taiwan semiconductor industry production

The semiconductor industry plays an important role in Taiwan's economy. In this paper, we constructed a rolling Grey forecasting model (RGM) to predict Taiwan's annual semiconductor production. The univariate Grey forecasting model (GM) makes forecast of a time series of data without considering possible correlation with any leading indicators. Interestingly, within the RGM there is a constant, P value, which was customarily set to 0.5. We hypothesized that making the P value a variable of time could generate more accurate forecasts. It was expected that the annual semiconductor production in Taiwan should be closely tied with U.S. demand. Hence, we let the P value be determined by the yearly percent change in real gross domestic product (GDP) by U.S. manufacturing industry. This variable P value RGM generated better forecasts than the fixed P value RGM. Nevertheless, the yearly percent change in real GDP by U.S. manufacturing industry is reported after a year ends. It cannot serve as a leading indicator for the same year's U.S. demand. We found out that the correlation between the yearly survey of anticipated industrial production growth rates in Taiwan and the yearly percent changes in real GDP by U.S. manufacturing industry has a correlation coefficient of 0.96. Therefore, we used the former to determine the P value in the RGM, which generated very accurate forecasts.     

Effects of technical innovation on market value of the U.S. semiconductor industry

This article discusses the effects of technical innovation on the market value (MV) of the American semiconductor industry from the perspective of investors in the securities market. The study quantifies the technical innovations of the semiconductor industry and uses the proportional change of Average Process Technology (APT) as a proxy variable to measure the industrial capability of technical innovations and to act as one of the explanatory variables of a regression model for discussing the connection between technical innovation and MV. The results indicate that: 1) the degree of technical innovation and the proportional change in productivity of the semiconductor industry are the major factors that affect proportional change in the MV of the U.S. semiconductor industry; 2) regardless of the size of a company's MV or the companies' classification in terms of products and services (the Equipment & Material Sector, the Board Line Sector, the IC & Chip Sector and the Fabless & Specialist Sector), the degree of technical innovation shows a significant positive effect on MV.     

The organizational evolution of innovative activity in the US semiconductor industry: Technological specialization and diversification

This article analyzes the organizational evolution of innovative activity in the contemporary high-tech industry. It has been argued that by showing illuminating examples and proposing theoretical explanations, the innovation process has been fragmented and distributed among several organizations. In other words, ‘division of innovative labor’ emerges. However, one of the problems of this argument lies in its lack of systematic empirical analysis. Using the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent database, this article analyzes the organization of innovative activity in the US semiconductor industry. It is shown that ‘technological specialization’ has not occurred in this industry as a whole. In addition, it is also shown that there are two distinct modes of development of technology, namely, ‘specialized development of technology’ and ‘diversified development of technology’, in which the share of the latter has been steadily increasing. These results imply that contrary to the earlier conventional arguments, division of labor is not a common phenomenon in the production of technological knowledge.     

试析我国森林旅游产业发展对策

本文分析了我国森林旅游产业发展的条件以及面临的问题，提出了推进我国森林旅游产业发展的主要对策。     

University-firm-government interactions in a knowledge-importing economy: implications based on the creation of the solar photovoltaic industry in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

University-firm-government interactions on industry dynamics have been widely discussed, accentuating the role of the government and universities. However, a case study of the solar photovoltaic industry in Taiwan reveals that pioneering firms play a leading role in the creation of an industry in a knowledge-importing economy, whereas government and universities stimulate further growth of the industry. This industry dynamic among university-firm-government enriches triple helix studies and is important for firms intending to initiate an industry and policy-makers in the field of science and technology in knowledge-importing economies.     

长沙县产业发展问题及对策分析

运用SWOT模型分析长沙县产业发展现状,发现长沙县产业发展既具有优势和机会,也面临不少的劣势与挑战。因此,应加快现代农业发展、推进新型工业发展和推进现代服务产业发展是促进长沙县域产业健康持续发展的关键。     

Technological change and industry structure: A case study of the petroleum industry

This paper is a case study of the impact of an exogenous improvement of a process technology on the structure of the petroleum industry. The paper examines the role of three-dimensional seismology in bringing about the 1990s oil industry consolidation. This proposition is examined in the context of evolutionary economics and in a non-cooperative game theory, concluding with a reference to Steindl's theory of industry dynamics. The significance of this contribution lies chiefly in highlighting the fact that exogenous technological change can, under appropriate conditions, play a significant role in industry dynamics. This reference to the exogenous change in technology is a departure from the traditional consideration of endogenity of industry structure in relation to technological development and, therefore, a novelty. Secondly, the documentation of 3D seismology as a significant process technology of the petroleum industry is significant.     

The semiconductor silicon industry roadmap: Epochs driven by the dynamics between disruptive technologies and core competencies

The resource-based perspective has done much to identify idiosyncratic firm attributes that may be a principal source of competitive advantages. Unfortunately, there has been little systematic industry evidence to support the strategic importance of core competence, nor has there been much work on the temporal or cumulative nature of core capabilities within an industrial setting. Further, little or no research has been performed demonstrating how the advent of technological discontinuities or disruptive technologies plays a part in creating epochs in technology competency development and the roadmap of an industry. In this study, we analyze the evolutionary and cumulative nature of core capabilities and their interactions with technological discontinuities from a market-driven perspective. We have studied the evolution of 167 firms through the 50-year history of the semiconductor silicon industry. Over time, there were several structural shifts in the necessary competencies through the advent of disruptive technologies. In the last 30 years, however, the change in the required competencies has been more cumulative in nature. We summarize this in a roadmap detailing the epochs in the semiconductor silicon industry.     

我国石化产业发展诱因分析

综合国内外的各种产业发展理论,概述产业的发展诱因.运用计量经济学方法和SPSS统计分析软件,实证分析与我国石化产业发展息息相关的众多因素中哪些是主要的,哪些是次要的,哪些是可忽略的.从影响因素出发,针对目前我国石化产业的发展方向和布局,考虑应如何对这些发展诱因加以利用和调整,从而加快我国石化产业的发展步伐.     

The industry life-cycle of the size distribution of firms

This paper analyzes the evolution of the distributions of output and employment across firms in U.S. manufacturing industries from 1963 until 1997. The firm size distribution changes significantly as an industry goes through stages of its life-cycle. The evolutions of the employment and output distributions also differ significantly, but display strong inter-industry regularities, including that the nature of the evolution depends on whether the industry is experiencing growth, shakeout, maturity, or decline. The observed patterns have implications for theories of industry dynamics and evolution.     

生产性服务业集群化发展动因研究

对生产性服务业概念及其特征进行了界定,分析了生产性服务业集群化的原因,总结归纳了生产性服务业集群的5种模式。同时对上海和北京的生产性服务业集群进行了调研,并给出了政府促进集群发展的政策建议。     

Power in the multinational corporation in industry equilibrium

Recent theories of the multinational corporation introduce the property rights model of the firm and examine whether to integrate or outsource firm activities locally or to a foreign country. This paper focuses instead on the internal organization of the multinational corporation by examining the power allocation between headquarters and subsidiaries. We provide a framework to analyse the interaction between the decision to serve the local market by exporting or FDI, market access and the optimal mode of organization of the multinational corporation. We find that subsidiary managers are given decision power to run the firm at intermediate levels of host country competition. We then provide comparative statics on the optimal organization of the multinational corporation for changes in fixed FDI entry costs, trade costs, as well as changes in information technology.      

基于集群知识网络的技术学习路径研究——以柳市低压电器产业集群为例

近年来,伴随着产业集群的发展,集群知识网络的作用日益突显。在对知识网络系统进行研究的基础上,探讨了知识网络的构筑对产业集群技术学习的推动作用和作用机理。并以柳市低压电器产业集群为例,剖析了基于集群知识网络的技术学习路径,从而为产业集群提升技术创新能力提供理论指导。     

Co-creation as a risk-sharing strategy for the development of innovative EUV lithography technology in the semiconductor industry

Co-creation is becoming an innovative way for new technology development (NTD). We propose a four-staged co-creation model drawn upon a backdrop of ‘knowledge cloud’ for value creation and long-term customer commitment resulting in risk-sharing associated with NTD. The model is elaborated through the case of a leading semiconductor lithography equipment manufacturer (ASML) developing a new extreme ultraviolet lithography technology by engaging the major stakeholders in customer co-investment programme. The model is generic and applicable to any technology-driven industry and may include more stakeholders of same or allied technology.     

光伏产业发展模式研究:以浙江为例

借鉴德、关、日、韩国家的光伏产业发展模式,通过对浙江十大光伏龙头企业及其它307家光伏企业的数据分析,总结了浙江光伏产业现有发展模式的主要特点与问题,提出了基于市场、技术与产业链协同的浙江光伏产业发展新模式.     

发展竹产业实现生态经济可持续发展

竹产业是云南很有希望的潜在优势产业。竹子在保护和发展森林资源、改善生态环境、促进经济持续发展和农民脱贫致富等方面都具有重要的作用。云南应制定有力的政策措施，引导竹产业开发，变资源优势为经济优势，走生态经济建设带动产业开发的路子，实现绿山富民的目标。     

中国风险投资业本土化发展策略探讨

风险投资作为一种行之有效的、新型的、支持创新及科技产业化的融资机制,为知识创新提供了一个理想的平台,也为建设创新型国家注入了强大的活力。但由于风险投资在筹资、运作、退出机制、法律等方面存在着问题,直接制约了我国风险投资的进一步发展。就我国风险投资业今后的发展,文章从中国风险投资业的发展现状与存在的问题、风险投资业的环境分析以及本土风险投资机构的发展战略三方面进行了阐述,同时就如何促进中国风险投资事业的发展提出建议,并展望了中国风险投资的未来。     

Product variety and price strategy in the ski manufacturing industry

The present paper aims at examining the role of variety in the ski manufacturing industry and its relevance in firms’ price setting strategies. In particular, it intends to investigate and to empirically test three hypotheses concerning the relations between: product quality and prices; variety in technical characteristics and prices; variety in service characteristics and prices. Our empirical investigation finds that prices are positively affected by product quality and positively affected by variety in service characteristics. This means that a high degree of product variety allows firms to charge a premium price on consumers, who are able to find the product that best meets their needs and are therefore willing to pay a higher price. By contrast, variety in technical characteristics negatively impacts prices. In a context where a dominant design has emerged and new varieties are not radically different from each other, the gains in economies of scale and scope outweigh the costs of the increased flexibility in the equipment required to produce variety.