Alliances Relation Change between Japanese Tech Firms and Taiwanese Ones: Alliances Cases of Sharp & Foxconn vs. Sony & TSMC

Abstract

The Sony, Denso and TSMC plan to make a joint venture called the ‘Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing (JASM)’ as a new fab by 2024. The alliance is very significant when considering the repetitive chip shortage and the geopolitical issues like the ‘Chip 4’ alliance. This study looks into the alliances relation change between Japan and Taiwan by comparing the Sony & TSMC case with the Sharp & Foxconn one. The Sharp & Foxconn case is also meaningful because Foxconn became a major shareholder of Sharp which had been Japanese pride of consumer electronics for a long time. The comparative analysis for two cases is to be made from four aspects; the alliance type & purpose, synergy type, market segmentation and government position. As a result, the Sharp & Foxconn case takes an intra-industry nature as a forward integration. Whereas, the Sony & TSMC case has both intra-industry and inter-industry nature as a backward integration. The synergy type of Sharp & Foxconn case is a reciprocal one with few government supports. But the Sony & TSMC case can expect a sequential synergy with a strong government support.