Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park Research Articles

Urban stratification: Hsinchu city as an inclusive archive

ABSTRACT The establishment of the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (HSIP) in 1980 created a site for high-tech success in Taiwan and increased the political, cultural and economic significance of the city of Hsinchu. In the intervening four decades, Hsinchu City has moved between the identities of being an historic city and a science city. While most research on HSIP focuses on its economic benefits, the resulting social and economic segregation between the natives of Hsinchu and newcomers to the city has evolved. Although current city development often causes the alienation of old timers and indifference by newcomers, the center of Hsinchu remains the locus in which to transform the dichotic city into a place to be enjoyed by everyday residents. This paper uses an ethnographic approach to examine the value of historic sites interpreted by both groups. The discussion focuses on how opinions held by preservationists/officials/elites (re)shape the value of historic environments yet create conflicts among stakeholders with different interests, and how narratives of “city as archive” (re)shape the connections between people, place, and the past.

An Empirical Study of R&D Investment Patterns, Effects, and Critical Factors in High-Tech Industries in Taiwan : The Case of the Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park

This research is an empirical analysis of high-tech firms at the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (HSIP) in Taiwan. In this study, three main areas were systematically evaluated: the patterns of R&D intensity along the company's attributes of capital source, industrial category, and age; the relationships between firms' R&D investment and performance; and the critical factors of successful R&D management.

Hsinchu Technopolis: A Sociotechnical Imaginary of Modernity in Taiwan?

The Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (HSIP) – a special zone established by the Taiwanese government to attract overseas talented engineers back to Taiwan – has been referred to as ‘a Silicon Valley of the East’. As a dreamscape of Taiwan’s modernity, the HSIP aimed to exhibit futuristic ways of organizing employment and living a modern lifestyle. However, the success of the HSIP has created and deepened social and urban contradictions with its neighboring, mostly rural, areas. The government subsequently proposed the Hsinchu Science City (HSC) plan and the Unpolished Jade Project (UJP) to ‘harmonize’ the contradictions between these areas. Consequently, it led the HSIP to turn from an industrial enclave to an urban megaproject, or zone-city. The zone-city has shaped fantasies of modernity in the local people and inspired in them a will to improve. At the same time, it has raised suspicions of land grabbing and dispossession. This article argues that the production of space through zone-cities, an urban form that has been phenomenal in the East Asian context, revolves around a dialectic between the desire for regional improvement and the greed of land speculation. The inherent tension between both sides of this dialectic thus poses an ethical and practical challenge for critical approaches in urban studies.

Facilitators of national innovation policy in a SME-dominated country: A case study of Taiwan

Twenty years ago, Taiwan faced the common constraints of most SME-dominated developing countries in build up scientific and technological capabilities. To facilitate the implementation of national innovation policy, Taiwan government has over time generously supported non-profit R&D institutions which embedded themselves into the triple helix model. Among the institutes, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (HSIP) are the most visible. This paper aims to illustrate a case study discussing how ITRI and HSIP have helped SMEs in Taiwan overcome the challenges of technology, human resources, and new business venture when developing a high-tech sector. For other countries seeking to build up innovation capabilities and currently reliant on SMEs, it is worth studying the case of Taiwan.

Knowledge intensive business services and client innovation

Innovative activities, driven by a knowledge economy era, globalization, and pressure of global competition, have profoundly impacted local economies since the late 1980s. Relevant studies in the recent decade have gradually emphasized the increasing importance and continuous expansion of knowledge intensive business services in current economic development. This topic represents a major trend impacting industrialized economies. Therefore, this study elucidates the roles and functions of knowledge intensive business services as an area innovation system evolves. Exactly how technology-based firms and knowledge intensive business services interact with each other, as well as the roles of knowledge intensive business services, is also analyzed by examining how the area innovation system centered in Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park in Taiwan has evolved. Results of this study demonstrate that knowledge intensive business services function in an intermediary role in the innovation system. These services enhance their customers’ capacity for specialization, subsequently improving their evolutionary capabilities and producing tangible innovative cycles.

Technopolis and Regional Development : A Review of Development Experience in Hsinchu, Taiwan

The Hsin-Chu Science-Based Industrial Park (HSIP), established in 1980, has made significant contribution to the development of Hsinchu technopolis. In the past three decades, not only the population structure and industrial patterns have changed significantly, but also a special knowledge-based industrial network has been developed. The 30 years experience of HSIP development provides an excellent opportunity for planners to review the long term impacts of science park development. This paper will review the evolution Hsinchu technopolis in areas of socioeconomic transformation and knowledge interactions between technology community and industrial clustering. In addition to the interpretation of its development by prevailing theories, critical factors influencing the future development of HSIP technopolis will also be discussed in this paper.

Competitiveness of East Asian science cities: discourse on their status as global or local innovative clusters

In a knowledge-based economy of the globalizing economic order, the role of regions is very significant in order to create and to disperse knowledge. Particularly, geographical clusters of firms in a single sub-national region may contribute to transmitting certain kinds of knowledge between and among firms. In addition, markets prefer to favor specialized firms with a coherent body of knowledge when knowledge creation and the use of new knowledge become increasingly important for maintaining and improving a firm’s competitiveness. Therefore, regional policy makers may not interfere directly with markets and firms when the process of globalization pushes national economies into a world of learning and innovation. The reason is that the institutional framework for market exchange favors knowledge exchange in a globalizing economic system. This paper argues how East Asian science cities such as Tsukuba Science City in Japan, Daedeok Innopolis in South Korea, Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park in Taiwan, and Zhongguancun Science Park in China have been developed in order to create technology innovation as well to contribute to national and regional economic growth. Moreover, it also focuses on their competitiveness and the further development strategy that aims to become global science cities. Finally, it also discusses whether their competitiveness as innovative clusters is based on global or local levels.

Consideration of Proximity in Selection of Residential Location by Science and Technology Workers: Case Study of Hsinchu, Taiwan

The Hsinchu district has been one of the most rapidly developing areas of Taiwan during the past decade. The rise of the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (HSIP) has significantly influenced population growth and living environment in the Hsinchu district. To obtain new knowledge via knowledge proliferation activities that occur following knowledge innovation, science and technology workers have been established based on the proximity of informal social network interactions and the existence of a common culture. Based on social, identified and cognitive proximities, this investigation examines whether science and technology workers directly assess their living environment while considering housing purchases, seeking information and making residential location decisions. This investigation employs regression analysis to examine the correlation between individual proximity factors and spatial proximity, based on the hypothesis that individual proximity influences residential location choices of science and technology communities. The study results indicate that the housing choice behaviours of the science and technology community follow two proximity paths, that is, internal and external proximity factors. Consequently, the pull created by individual proximity has slowed the spatial expansion of the Hsinchu region.

Measuring e-business dependability: The employee perspective

Electronic business (e-business) enables employees in organizations to complete jobs more efficiently if they can rely on the dependable functions and services delivered by e-business. Unfortunately, only a limited amount of research has explored the topic of employee perceived dependability of e-business, and the concept lacks measurement tools. Hence, this research develops a validated instrument for measuring e-business dependability (EBD) from an employee perspective. Based on a survey of 152 employees in six large semiconductor manufacturing companies in the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park in Taiwan, this research conceptualizes and operationalizes the construct of EBD, and then creates and refines an e-business dependability instrument (EBDI). After rigorous purification procedures, the 22-item EBD instrument with good reliability and validity is presented. Finally, this paper concludes with a discussion of potential applications of this EBD instrument. The e-business dependability instrument and its potential implications will not only aid researchers interested in designing and testing related e-business theories, but also provide direction for managers in improving the quality and performance of e-business.

The influence of geographical knowledge networks on innovative performance: evidences from the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park, Taiwan

This paper examines how geographically inter-organisational networks affect innovative performance of firms located in industrial clusters, especially the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (HSIP) in Taiwan. Based on an exhaustive manual search of the United Daily News Group database, 1445 inter-organisational alliances were identified in the period from 1991 to 2002. This research revealed that the innovation performances of firms in industrial clusters may benefit not only from networking in industrial clusters but also from national and international networking. Policies should encourage industrial clusters to establish symbiotic innovation networks between local, national and global partners.

How knowledge map fit and personalization affect success of KMS in high-tech firms

The shift from a product-based to a knowledge-based economy has resulted in an increasing demand for organizations to implement knowledge management systems (KMS) at an accelerating pace. However, factors influencing success of KMS have seldom been empirically examined by prior research, particularly how knowledge map fit and personalization influence employee satisfaction with KMS, which is a surrogate measure of the success/effectiveness of information systems (IS). Results from a sample of 133 employees, mostly from four international high-tech companies in the Hsin-Chu Science-based Industrial Park in Taiwan, help us better understand what factors affect employee satisfaction with KMS. The result shows that KMS with a higher level of knowledge map fit and personalization will satisfy employees directly or indirectly through the mediation effects of increased perceptions of ease of use and usefulness of KMS. Our findings could serve as useful references for researchers and practitioners interested in investigating issues related to the successful implementation of KMS.

Making IT: The Rise of Asia in High Tech (review)

Reviewed by: Making IT: The Rise of Asia in High Tech Rudi Volti (bio) Making IT: The Rise of Asia in High Tech. Edited by Henry S. Rowen, Marguerite Gong Hancock, and William F. Miller. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2007. Pp. xviii+388. $30. The early twenty-first century is awash with IT (information technology) products manufactured in Asia. My situation is typical; without leaving my desk I was able to note that my cell phone had been made in Korea and the CD player originated in China, as did the keyboard and flat-panel display of my computer. I refrained from disassembling the computer, but it is likely that the disc drive came from Singapore and that the majority of its innards were produced in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea, while its operating system and applications probably were developed in part by Indian programmers. How all of this came about is detailed in Making IT: The Rise of Asia in High Tech. In narrating the causes of Asia's accomplishments,Making IT includes chapters covering Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, China, and India, while Japan gets two chapters and two appendixes. There is also an introductory chapter and separate chapters discussing the role of government, universities, and venture capital. The chapters covering individual countries pack in a lot of detail—more perhaps than many readers need or want to absorb. These can be slow going in places because, as with academic and business-press literature on IT, readers have to put up with a vast array of acronyms. Also, for those not intimately familiar with the international IT industry, the large number of individual firms cited in various parts of the text can be a distraction from the main narrative. After perhaps feeling a bit dazed by the plethora of information contained in these chapters, readers will appreciate the following ones that synthesize the country-by-country narratives. As these make evident, there has been a great deal of variation in the policies, strategies, and historical experiences of the countries, confirming a caution presented early in the book that "Those looking for an explicit model that accounts for how Asia rose will be disappointed" (p. x). Not only has a single model been absent, there have been marked divergences in the basic components of each country's IT strategies. For example, direct foreign investment was actively blocked for many years in India, Korea, and Japan, yet it has been an essential element in the development of IT industries in China, Singapore, and Taiwan. [End Page 481] There also has been considerable variation in the importance of venture capital and the strength of linkages between universities and IT firms. One of the most contentious issues in accounting for the success of the Asian IT industry has been the role of government. Here, again, there has been considerable variation. The simplest and safest generalization is that none of these countries has taken a laissez-faire approach. The only East Asian country whose government has remained largely passive has been Hong Kong, and not coincidentally Hong Kong has been an insignificant player in the IT industry. At the same time, however, governments have nurtured the development of their IT industries in their own way. To cite two examples, the Korean government provided a host of financial incentives so that well-established large firms (chaebol) could plunge headfirst into IT; in contrast, the development of Taiwan's IT industry has for the most part been the work of small and medium-sized firms, but many of them have benefited greatly from being located in the government-sponsored Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park. Whatever its sources, the overall success of the Asian IT industry is indisputable. Still, the question must be asked:Will Asian countries be able to take a leading role in the creation of IT in addition to developing and adapting technologies that originated elsewhere? This issue is most evident in Asia's most mature industrial economy, Japan, where entrenched large-scale firms have effectively developed and marketed incremental innovations, but have a mediocre record in regard to cutting-edge technologies. Other countries that have come later to the IT industry may not have...

Evaluation for the Reclamation Potential of High-Tech Industrial Wastewater Effluent Treated with Different Membrane Processes

Due to the shortage of water supplies, the reclamation and reuse of the effluents from wastewater treatment plants has become an important issue in Taiwan, especially for industrial parks. By constructing a reclaimed water distribution system, the reclaimed water could be used as nonpotable and industrial water. This research used three advanced integrated treatment processes, including sand filtration (SF), microfiltration (MF), granular activated carbon (GAC), ion exchange (IE), reverse osmosis (RO), and an ultraviolet disinfection (UV) unit, to treat the effluent from the wastewater treatment plant of Hsin-Chu Science-Based Industrial Park. The reclamation potential of treated water was examined compared with different water reuse criteria. The results of the experiments showed that different process could achieve different levels of water purification. This was dependent on the complexity and sequence of the units. The effluent from the simplest process, called process A, which combined the SF, MF, GAC, and UV units in that order, could meet the criteria of nonindustrial water. The effluent of process B and C, which additionally installed IE–MF–RO and MF–RO–IE units in sequence, respectively, between the GAC and UV units of process A, could be reused as sprinkling, landscaping and recreational water; cooling-system makeup water; low-pressure boiler feed water; as well as potable water or Newater with suitable advanced treatment.

The Science Park and the Governance Challenge of the Movement of the High-Tech Urban Region towards Polycentricity: The Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park

In this paper I explore the governance challenges of science-park-based urban regions by exploring the case study of the Hsinchu science-based industrial park in Taiwan. In contrast to the economic emphasis of new regionalism on regional learning, I investigate the change and development of the high-tech Hsinchu region as it moves towards polycentricity, by exploring how the political processes of multiple and interconnected forces, from international to national and subnational levels, affect spatial-construction and regional governance issues. With reference to the analytical tool of the polycentric urban region (PUR), I highlight that international, national, and subnational forces caused the polycentric development, which in turn has led to governance contradictions and has politically affected the implementations of an ideal mode of the PUR.

Exposure and Health Risk of Gallium, Indium, and Arsenic from Semiconductor Manufacturing Industry Workers

The semiconductor manufacturing industry is a chemically-intensive, modern industry in which workers are potentially exposed to toxic metals of the IIIA, IVA, and VA families, including gallium (Ga), indium (In), and arsenic (As) (Liao et al., 2006; Chen, 2006). These metals or metalloids are known to have several toxicities and to cause carcinogenesis in animals and humans (Chepesiuk, 1999; Fowler et al., 1993). Symptoms of acute poisoning (including gastrointestinal discomfort, vomiting, coma, and sometimes death) usually occur within 30 min of ingestion of GaAs and InAs, whereas the consequences of chronic poisoning (including anemia, leucopenia, skin cancer, and other internal cancers) are much more insidious (Betoulle et al., 2002). A single dose of 100 mg/kg of GaAs and InAs resulted in acute pulmonary inflammation and pneumocyte hyperplasia after 14 days (Betoulle et al., 2002; Tanaka et al., 1996; Webb et al., 1986). Chronic exposure (2-year observation period) to lower doses (<1 mg/L) of GaAs and InAs produced systemic toxicity and definite pulmonary lesions (Ohyama et al., 1988). In addition, testicular toxicity was observed, and tumor occurrence increased significantly in mice when GaAs and InAs were injected intraperitoneally (Omura et al., 2000). There was also evidence of renal toxicity. CD rats exposed to GaAs developed mitochondrial swelling of renal proximal tubule cells and dose-dependent inhibition of d-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD) in the blood, kidney, and liver (Goering et al., 1988; Conner et al., 1995). Arsenic has been classified by International Agency for Research in Cancer (IARC) as a Group I carcinogen, which means that it is a documented human carcinogen. Much of the information linking arsenic to cancer has been obtained through studies of human exposure. Chronic exposure to inorganic arsenic is a potential occupational hazard. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) mandate permissible limits for occupational exposures to ensure the safety and health of workers. The permissible exposure limit (PEL) for arsenic was set at 10 lg/m for an 8-hr day in a 40-hr workweek, and the short-term exposure limit (STEL) measured over a 15-min period was set at 2 lg/m (ATSDR, 2006). Moreover, the biological exposure index (BEI) of total arsenic in urine was set at 35 lg/L (ACGIH, 2004). Taiwan’s history of economic development is well known. The semiconductor manufacturing industry, in particular, has played a decisive role in the development of Taiwan’s economy. Taiwan is the largest producer of CDROMs and light emitting diodes (LEDs) with integrated circuit (IC) products, accounting for 70% and 50% of total worldwide production, respectively. Semiconductor production increased 54% in Taiwan from 1993 to 2000. Currently, about 350 companies in Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (HSIP) manufacture ICs, computers and peripheral devices, telecommunication devices, optoelectronics, biotechnology products, and precision machinery. These companies employ over 30,000 people (Chen and Huang, 2004; Chen, 2006). Because workers in the semiconductor manufacturing industry are potentially exposed to a variety of heavy metals, their health may be at risk. In this study, we examined workers’ personal exposure to gallium (Ga), indium (In), and arsenic (As) by monitoring the concentrations of these substances in inhalable-air and H. W. Chen (&) Department of Environmental Engineering and Health, Yuanpei University of Science and Technology, 306 Yuanpei Street, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, Republic of China e-mail: hwchen@mail.ypu.edu.tw

Nanoparticles in wastewater from a science-based industrial park—Coagulation using polyaluminum chloride

The Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (HSIP) is the hi-tech manufacturing hub of Taiwan. Wastewater from the HSIP contains numerous nano-sized silicate particles whose size distributions peak at 2 and 90 nm. A 3–5 mg l −1 as Al dose of polyaluminum chloride (PACl) was used in the field to coagulate these particles, but the removal efficiency was low. Laboratory scale tests indicated that although PACl coagulation removed 52% of the turbidity and 48% of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) from water, its effect on nano-particle removal was minimal. About 58% of the soluble COD was associated with colloidal Si particles. A light scattering test and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) demonstrated that the nano-particles agglomerated in approximately linear aggregates of sizes 100–300 nm. Prolonged contact between residual PACl and the nano-particles generated large aggregates with sizes of up to 10 μm and a fractal dimension of 2.24–2.63. The results presented herein should be of interest in the processing of “high-tech” wastewater that contains nanosized silica particles.

Evolution of Knowledge Intensive Services in a High-tech Region: The Case of Hsinchu, Taiwan

Communication costs have reduced markedly owing to improvements in communication technology. Despite this development, face-to-face interactions facilitated by geographic agglomeration remain important in high-tech innovation activities owing to the ambiguity and uncertainty related to new knowledge. Consequently, location remains a major influence on global strategies of transnational companies, and enables global cross-border divisions of labour in high-tech industries. On the one hand, this phenomenon transforms the geographic distribution and structure in industry; on the other hand, it creates demand for strategic functions in management and organizational innovation. The emergence, introduction and operation of such functions all rely on the support of specialized service industries. During the two decades of development of the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (HSIP), the area around HSIP saw the gradual formation of a distinctive and strong network including production, incubation and research and development (R&D) activities. Within this network, knowledge intensive services provide a crucial interface between the supportive environment and technological infrastructure. This investigation analyses the interactions, geographic transformation and distribution between HSIP firms and producer services around HSIP, as well as the coordination between HSIP firms and research institutions. This investigation found that competition strongly influences the development and geographic transformation of producer services. Together with different industrial resources, they formed production networks. Such networks caused the development and geographic transformation of the Hsinchu area, and thus further influenced the growth of knowledge-intensive service businesses.

Coagulation and Filtration of Nanoparticles in Wastewater from Hsinchu Science‐Based Industrial Park (HSIP)

The Hsinchu Science‐based Industrial Park (HSIP) is a “high‐tech” manufacturing base in Taiwan. Wastewater from the HSIP contains numerous nanoparticles, which are difficult to remove by conventional coagulation‐sedimentation processes, and are the main foulants to ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse‐osmosis (RO), membrane in filtration. This investigation observed that the coagulation rates of nanoparticles in wastewater could be significantly increased by raising the solution temperature to over 65°C, thus yielding large and compact aggregates. The proposed thermal treatment could considerably reduce the fouling potentials of UF and RO membranes, and thus represents a suitable pre‐treatment for producing clean water from HSIP wastewater.

Innovative East Asia: The Future of Growth

Innovative East Asia: The Future of Growth. By Shahid Yusuf et al. Washington, D.C.: World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2003. Pp. 439. The seduction of the universal applicability of successful institutions in a global society has increasingly been based on the assumption that successful institutions can be replicated and that success in the originating country is more important than context. This has resulted in various instances of replication failures such as Taiwan's Hsinchu Science City, modelled after the successful Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park, and other science parks modelled after Silicon Valley. The cases of Silicon Valley-emulators illustrate the dichotomy between universalism and contextualism in replicating successful institutions. It is against this backdrop that Innovative East Asia, a book by Shahid Yusuf and seven other contributors, offers the timely lesson that many East Asian countries, particularly the high and middle-income economies, need to move on to new ground. As the main volume in a series of publications on the economic future of East Asia co-sponsored by the Japanese Government and the World Bank, the book argues that institutional growth and competitiveness can no longer depend solely on foundations of past success that had been characterized by strong macroeconomic fundamentals. Instead, East Asian countries need to go beyond the catch or imitative phase of development to the innovative phase, where the countries would move up the value chain of production to stay ahead of lower cost producers. The book starts by laying out a comprehensive survey of the East Asian economies with notable emphasis on the problems carried over from the financial crisis of the late 1990s, and goes in-depth into the various regional co-operation efforts that spans exchange rate and monetary policy, financial, trade, and other areas. Strong emphasis is placed on addressing revealed weaknesses in demand management and public spending, exchange rate management, regional coordination, financial and corporate governance. The main thrust of the book on innovative growth occupies five chapters in the book. The authors reiterated that encouraging the growth of more innovative East Asian economies requires the foundation provided by the strengths of the past - macroeconomic stability and tradeoriented policies - as well as addressing the weaknesses revealed by the crisis of 1997-98 in financial and corporate governance and in regulatory and judicial oversight. Innovative economies can generate new ideas on a continued basis and also facilitate their being brought to market. Creating such an environment requires investment in tertiary education, in research and development, and in the supporting infrastructure of information and communication technology. It calls for the networking of public and private institutions, the interaction and circulation of knowledge workers, and agglomeration of firms in dynamic urban clusters. On the demand side, it calls for competitive markets that require both and reward innovation, and a corporate policy which encourages small firms to emerge as start-ups and to evolve into mature entities either through IPOs or mergers and acquisitions. Under the umbrella of chapters on innovation, Chapter 5 on Education for Growth is noteworthy for its comprehensive review of the role of secondary and tertiary education for developing innovative economies. The authors suggested several reforms to generate quality and creativity which includes infrastructures for lifelong learning and incentives to promote innovative research. However some of the observations arising from using citation indices and ranking of country scholarly output as a measure of high-impact and innovative research (pp. 206-11) may warrant further qualification. The authors need to consider that there are nodal points where knowledge is produced and from where it is globally distributed. …

Measuring user satisfaction with knowledge management systems: scale development, purification, and initial test

The shift from a product-based to a knowledge-based economy has resulted in an increased demand for knowledge workers who are capable of higher-order thinking and reasoning to solve intricate problems in the workplace. This requires organizations to introduce knowledge management systems (KMS) for employees and has fueled predictions and speculations about what makes KMS effective. Unfortunately, there are very few empirical studies that examine this issue. Thus, this paper develops a validated instrument to measure user satisfaction as a surrogate measure of KMS effectiveness. Based on a survey of 147 respondents practicing mostly in four international semiconductor manufacturing companies in the Hsin-Chu Science-based Industrial Park in Taiwan suggests a 16-item instrument that measures four dimensions of user satisfaction with knowledge management systems (USKMS) is well-validated. The instrument and comprehensive model proposed in this paper would be valuable to researchers and practitioners interested in designing, implementing, and managing knowledge management systems.