Taiwan’s Entrepreneurs and International Coordination: Evolution of Global Production Network in Electronics and IT Industries

Abstract

Globalization is rapidly changing the pace of world development. Research into the evolution of global production network has emerged in recent years (for example, see Tzeng 2002; Saxenian 2001, 2002, 2003; Wadhwa et al. 2007). In Chap. 3, we look into Taiwanese entrepreneurs in mainland China. In this chapter, we deal with Taiwan’s entrepreneurs and their international coordination. In ground breaking studies, Saxenian (2002) explores the evolution of global production network in Taiwan, China and India. Saxenian (2003) also examines dynamic global network in Silicon Valley, Hsinchu (Taiwan) and Shanghai. This study differs from previous research in that it introduces the international entrepreneur as a global coordinator to explain the world’s information technology (IT) development. Moreover, it focuses on Taiwan-born entrepreneurs. Hence, the arguments developed in this chapter are closely related to economic development and government policies in Taiwan’s electronics and IT industries. I shall argue that top elites from Taiwan, after graduating from American top universities in engineering, seek valuable practical experiences from the employment in Silicon Valley. These professionals later become technopreneurs and help Taiwan build up its IT industry. With sophisticated IT and business knowledge, Taiwan’s technopreneurs transform Dongguan, a little town in Pearl River Delta regions, into a world’s IT industrial cluster. This chapter concludes that world development in general, and global production network in IT in particular, cannot be fully understood without incorporating the role of technopreneurs. In what follows, a theoretical framework based on entrepreneurs as coordinators will be presented. An empirical analysis examining the role of Taiwanese technopreneurs in the evolution of the global network of Silicon Valley, Hsinchu and Dongguan in IT industry will be presented.