High-tech Industries In Taiwan Research Articles

The role of directors' and officers' insurance in corporate governance: evidence from the high-tech industry in Taiwan

By examining the association between board composition, managerial ownership, external shareholder control and the purchase of Directors' and Officers' (D&O) insurance, this paper examines the role of D&O insurance in corporate governance of 292 publicly listed High-Tech Companies (HTCs) in Taiwan. Holderness suggests that D&O insurance has an important governance role in publicly owned companies. O'Sullivan empirically tests Holderness's monitoring hypothesis, the results generally support the monitoring hypothesis. Although our results partly support the monitoring hypothesis, this study cannot only can be considered an important first step in attempting to understand the governance role of D&O insurance but also provide some further insights on the demands for D&O insurance in Taiwan.

Reassessment of the state role in the development of high-tech industry: A case study of Taiwan’s Hsinchu Science Park

This article reassesses the state role in the development of high-tech industries through a case study of one of the earliest science parks in Asia, Hsinchu Science Park. Taking a historical and public policy approach to this issue, the article argues that the state did play a positive role in the growth of hightech industries in Taiwan. However, not all positive outcomes were derived from rational political elites and state bureaucracy. There existed many unintended and path-dependent consequences. In addition, many planned goals have not been achieved and there were many side effects and negative outcomes neglected by previous studies, which give significant implications for the evaluation, of state's capability and limitation in pursuing economic development.

A Taiwan Research Institute as a Technology Business Incubator: ITRI and Its Spin-Offs

We explore the roles and services provided by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) for development of Taiwan's high-tech industry, and describe the technology transfer activities of this organization. Specifically, we focus on the high-tech spin-off process through which new firms are formed. The spin-off process is an important means to transfer and commercialize technological assets of the government-supported institute. Cases suggest that spin-offs are an effective means in developing economies to transfer technology capabilities from the public sector to the private sector. The spin-off mechanism functions as an approach for local firms to acquire complex new technologies. The successful and unique spin-off experiences make ITRI a model of how public research institutes can be successful incubators of world-class businesses.

Comparison of TSCS regression and neural network models for panel data forecasting: debt policy

Empirical studies of variations in debt ratios across firms have analyzed important determinants of capital structure using statistical models. Researchers, however, rarely employ nonlinear models to examine the determinants and make little effort to identify a superior prediction model among competing ones. This paper reviews the time-series cross-sectional (TSCS) regression and the predictive abilities of neural network (NN) utilizing panel data concerning debt ratio of high-tech industries in Taiwan. We built models with these two methods using the same set of measurements as determinants of debt ratio and compared the forecasting performance of five models, namely, three TSCS regression models and two NN models. Models built with neural network obtained the lowest mean square error and mean absolute error. These results reveal that the relationships between debt ratio and determinants are nonlinear and that NNs are more competent in modeling and forecasting the test panel data. We conclude that NN models can be used to solve panel data analysis and forecasting problems.

Comparison of Linear and Nonlinear Models for Panel Data Forecasting: Debt Policy in Taiwan

This paper discusses the time-series cross-sectional (TSCS) regression and the prediction ability of the artificial neural network (ANN) by examining the panel data of debt ratios of the high tech industry in Taiwan. We build models with these two methods and eight determinants of debt ratio and compare the forecast performances of five models, two ANN nonlinear models and three traditional TSCS linear models. The results show that the sign of each determinant in linear models is the same as that in ANN models. In addition, the insignificant determinants in linear models have low relative sensitivities in ANN models. It seems that these two methods show consistent results for the capital structure determinants. Researchers and practitioners can employ either ANN or traditional statistical model to analyze the important determinants of the capital structure of their firms. The results of comparing the out-of-sample forecasting capabilities of the two methods indicate that: (1) the proposed ANN with 1-year lag model shows better forecast performance than the other three linear models in spite of high or low debt ratio; (2) the debt ratios of the present year are highly related to those of the previous year; and (3) the ANN model is capable of catching sophisticated nonlinear integration effects. Consequently, the ANN method is the more appropriate one between the two methods to be applied to build a forecasting model for the high tech industry in Taiwan.

Foreign patent rights and high-tech exports: evidence from Taiwan

This paper conducts a consecutive pooled data analysis from 1989 to 2000 to investigate the relationship between foreign patent rights (FPRs) and the exports of three high-tech industries in Taiwan: the semiconductor, the information and the communication equipment industries. Following Smith's model setup, empirical results indicate that both market expansion and market power effects do exist in Taiwan's case. In addition, this paper proposes a new hypothesis in which the importing country may exhibit a stronger R&D ability than the exporting country, a case that has not been considered in earlier empirical work. Finally, a test is made to determine if a TRIPS (Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights) agreement has any impact on the FPRs–exports relationship, and no evidence is found of a structural change after the implementation of TRIPS.

The Effects of High-Tech Companies' Strategic Alliance Announcements on the Stock Prices of the Relevant Companies: A Comparative Analysis of Indirect Benefits for Taiwan's High-Tech Industry Versus Other Industries 1998–2002

In recent years, the formation of strategic alliances has become an increasingly common trend among developing countries around the world. In spite of this, the numerous attempts to comprehensively review the research on the correlation between these strategic alliances and stock prices over the years have, by and large, limited their discussion to how the stock price of a corporation responds to its announcement that it is forming a strategic alliance. Only a few studies have, however, discussed the announcement's indirect impact on the stock prices of investing companies that have entered into such strategic alliances. It is for this reason that we conduct an event study and develop an empirical model to measure that indirect impact on the stock prices of investing companies engaging in strategic alliances with Taiwan's high-tech industry from 1998 to 2002, while also discussing the market's different responses in their stock prices according to various industrial types that have been used to classify these investing companies.

AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF A MODEL FOR MEASURING ORGANISATIONAL INNOVATION IN TAIWANESE HIGH-TECH ENTERPRISES

The objective of this research was to construct organisational innovation dimensions and the associated evaluation index for Taiwan's high-tech industries, in order to evaluate Taiwan's current level of ability in this area, and provide a guideline for businesses. In addition, an organisational innovation model was also constructed to serve as a basis for innovation theory. The research methods employed included a literature review, in-depth interviews and small group techniques, which were used as a first step towards constructing an organisational innovation measurement model. Before constructing the organisational innovation measurement model for the present study, a weighted measurement index was created by means of an analytic hierarchy process, multivariate analysis of variance and factor analysis, in order to confirm the index and the organisational innovation cause and effect relationship. After the organisational innovation model was constructed, the empirical study concluded that the most important dimensions for measuring organisational innovation included product innovation, process innovation and organisational structure and climate innovation.

A comparative performance evaluation of Taiwan's high-tech industries

This study applied Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a multiple inputs-multiple outputs evaluation tool, to analyse the comparative performances of six high-tech industries currently developed in Taiwan. These six high-tech industries are semiconductor, computer, communications, photo-electronics, precision equipment, and biotech. The results indicate that computer and semiconductor industries have the best performance. Communications, photo-electronics, and precision equipment industries perform at the middle level, while the biotech operates at a worst level. Communications and photo-electronics industries have a satisfying average scale efficiency score, but a poor pure technical efficiency score. On the contrary, the biotech industry reveals a lowest average scale efficiency score, but a highest pure technical efficiency score among the six. A slack analysis was used to analyse the gaps between the optimal and current inputs and outputs to achieve an improvement direction for each sector.

The Share Price Responses and Determinants of Strategic Alliances in Taiwan's High-Tech Industry: A Quantile Regression Approach

This article investigates share price responses to strategic alliances in Taiwan's high-tech industry from 1996 to 1999. We analyze the determinants of abnormal returns caused by strategic alliances using a quantile regression estimation procedure. Our empirical findings show that the wealth effect for a strategic alliance is positive, with no evidence of a wealth transfer between alliance partners. In addition, intra-industry alliances show significantly higher abnormal returns than inter-industry alliances. The horizontal and vertical alliances both have significantly positive abnormal returns, but the positive effect of vertical alliances primarily comes from downstream buyers. On the other hand, results from a quantile regression model show that the P/B ratio, director and supervisor shareholding ratios, and R&D ratio are important determinants of abnormal returns of strategic alliance announcements. Our empirical findings are consistent with the argument that the organizational flexibility offered by alliances is valuable to the high-tech industry which needs to cope with a fast-changing environment.

The study of career needs, career development programmes and job satisfaction levels of R&D personnel: the case of Taiwan

This study sets out to explore the relative gap between career development programmes and career needs, and its subsequent causal effect on job satisfaction levels among research and development (R&D) personnel. The study reveals that R&D personnel have diverse career needs at various stages of their career, and that job satisfaction levels among this group are particularly affected by the gap between career needs and career development programmes depending upon which stage of their career they have reached. It is also clear, for R&D personnel in particular, that not only is the gap between career development programmes and career needs an important determinant of job satisfaction, but that there are considerably higher turnover levels among researchers in the high-tech industry in Taiwan than the average level for industry as a whole. Thus, from a pragmatic perspective, it is of particular importance to propose effective career development programmes aimed at satisfying the career needs of R&D personnel in order to improve the level of job satisfaction in this group.

Towards a knowledge-based view of OEM relationship building: sharing of industrial experiences in Taiwan

This paper addresses issues of knowledge transfer through OEM (original equipment manufacture) sub-contracting in high-tech industries in Taiwan. Major issues explored in this paper include: how a firm in Taiwan establishes an OEM relationship with its world-class competitors, how the relationship was maintained, and how knowledge transfer was facilitated under such a relationship. Findings of our study suggest that the Taiwanese firms deliberately chose to collaborate with their world-class competitors in order to learn from them. Under OEM sub-contracting, knowledge transfer took place in a systematic fashion. The types of knowledge transferred were diverse, and the transferred knowledge influenced profoundly the firms' operations or even their ways of thinking. Such knowledge transfer enhanced the firms' absorptive capacity, and could be divided into several phases. Benign contexts in which mutual trust developed between the firms and their OEM buyers facilitated the transfer of knowledge. Propositions for further research are proposed.

Taiwan's high-tech industries shaken not stirred by quake

TOKYO Last week's earthquake in Taiwan is expected to bring substantial damage to the nation's high-tech industry. But officials at the country's main science park say that the damage is likely to be short lived.

The evaluating model for the technology needs of Taiwan high-tech industries

This paper formulates an evaluating model for the technology needs of Taiwan's high-tech industries. Since it has scarce natural resources and a limited domestic market, Taiwan's economic development strategy is lead mainly by the technology intensive industries and the expansion of an export-oriented market. However, as industry in Taiwan is composed of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs), which lack the resources to carry out independent research and development (R&D), the government has supported non-profit research institutes to develop generic or key technologies, so as to help the industries develop successfully. This evaluating model may be utilised by the government-supported research institutes, which can, during the development process, help the industries reach their production objectives. This model is based on three stages analysis of product vehicles, analysis of technology developmental targets and the planning of developmental technology. Taiwan's semiconductor industry technology selection is the case study we will use to illustrate the model.

Promoting industrial R&D and high-tech development through Science Parks: the Taiwan experience and its implications for developing countries

This paper offers a comprehensive review of the development of Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (HSIP) in the context of an overall strategy to promote industrial R&D and develop high-tech industries in Taiwan. The technical and economic background of HSIP is examined. Critical factors contributed to the success of HSIP are discussed in detail. Several salient features of HSIP and their implications for developing countries are identified and discussed. They are as follows: active involvement of the government, accumulation of knowledge and skill, and focus on manufacturing and demand-motivated R&D.