Intellectual capital system interaction in Taiwan

Abstract

PurposeConfronted with the transformation of industrial economies, the Taiwanese information technology (IT) industry has to upgrade from production to innovation orientation. The paper seeks to explore what is the core competence of the Taiwanese IT industry. In brief, what kind of intellectual capital (IC) is embedded in the Taiwanese IT industry and how this IC is managed effectively. The point is to discover how the Taiwanese IT industry should start to accumulate or enhance the core resource and strategic capability for future competitive advantage.Design/methodology/approachThe study selected a relatively representative number of IT firms in Taiwan covering six industries. This study conducted a two‐stage survey to construct a measurement model and explored the IC profile of the Taiwanese IT industries.FindingsThis study was able to identify eight IC factors as a measuring model in exploring the IC profiles of four Taiwanese IT industries. The findings indicate the stronger IC in the Taiwanese IT industry as well as the weaker side.Research limitations/implicationsThe research was limited by the sample within the Taiwan information communications technology industries. It needs to be extended across further industries in the future. It should also be compared with other countries’ industrial IC under similar assessment and measurement. The significant differences between industries could be explored by case study methodology.Practical implicationsInnovation capability plays an important role in confronting the knowledge‐based economy in Taiwanese IT industries. However, there is no compelling evidence to show that investment in research and development will help to achieve the goal of establishing Taiwan as an “Asia Pacific Electronic Information Industry Resource Integration Center”.Originality/valueThis research indicates that the IC System Model developed would help us to identify the interactions among IC elements. It could help to explore whether it is true that, the higher the IC management, the higher is the influence from the input of IC to the output.