Applying evolutionary perspective to analyse the TFT-LCD industry development in Taiwan

Abstract

After developing thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) technology for the past 30 years, Taiwan has become the largest LCD manufacturer globally. Even under the global financial crisis in 2008, the production value of 10-inch or larger TFT-LCD panels in Taiwan was still up to US$28.8 billion. The development of the LCD industry is dynamic and sophisticated, and the development trajectories are influenced by the strategies of internationally based parent factories supplying technology, the industry policies of the government and the interactions of TFT-LCD companies with both their technology providers and upstream and downstream companies. Based on their interactions, these factors generate a unique evolutionary pathway, manifested in both ‘incidental’ and ‘inevitable’ results. This study adopts a holistic and evolutionary perspective to present the structure of industrial development systems and the evolutionary model in Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs). The structure of industrial development systems and the evolutionary model are applied to explore the development process and structure of the Taiwanese TFT-LCD industry, and to interpret the behaviour of the self-conscious evolution. The study suggests that the Taiwanese TFT-LCD industry has experienced three stages of evolution, namely the adaptive evolution in the first two stages and changes into the still continuous self-conscious evolution stage at present to respond to the possible change of the environment in the future and to obtain the greatest competition chance. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.