Taiwan's Economy Research Articles

Foreign-owned subsidiary knowledge sourcing: The role of location and expatriates

Multinational enterprises increasingly rely on knowledge that is sourced from outside their home country in order to sustain a competitive advantage. This research investigates knowledge sourcing in foreign-owned subsidiaries located in the emerging economy of Taiwan. Employing transaction cost economics and the resource-based view of the firm, we find that locational factors such as geographic distance or global city location, and the use of expatriates as managing directors, can positively influence knowledge sourcing. We employ symmetric and non-symmetric analysis techniques to investigate the competitive and combinative explanatory power of both theories. We find evidence for equifinality in that either, when taken separately or in combination, may create transactional and resource-based conditions to facilitate knowledge sourcing.

Power, CSR strategy, and performance in foreign‐owned subsidiaries

AbstractWe investigate how a subsidiary's power base influences its strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) focus on international and local issues, and performance. We develop a theoretical framework and test symmetric hypotheses as well as non‐symmetric research queries based on insights from resource dependency theory and institutional theory. We use survey data collected from foreign‐owned subsidiaries located in the mid‐range emerging economy of Taiwan. We find that a large power base positively influences an international CSR strategic focus in subsidiaries. Furthermore, our symmetric results indicated that only international CSR strategies are conducive to performance. However, our complementing non‐symmetric results show that the distinct power‐base dimensions in combination with a local CSR strategic focus can also lead to high performance outcomes.

The Economic Prospects of Vietnam in the Integration Period

In the reports of international organizations and economic researchers, there seems to be "common formulas" for the advance economies of Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. It is not necessary to think of different theories and policies, but to make a determination, to drastically implement the signs, experiences, lessons and universal values ​​of the "tigers" that go ahead. The leader of Singapore's transformation summarized the principle of a nation's success as having a decisive leadership class, an effective management apparatus and a disciplined society. To turn tigers, Vietnam needs to achieve a growth rate of 7% or more over the next twenty years. So how to achieve that goal, avoiding going into the car's woes of economies that have fallen into the middle-income trap. Only with such a growth rate can Vietnam be in the best position to protect its independence and sovereignty.

Economic Prospects of Vietnam in the Integration Period

In the reports of international organizations and economic researchers, there seems to be "common formulas" for the advance economies of Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. It is not necessary to think of different theories and policies, but to make a determination, to drastically implement the signs, experiences, lessons and universal values ??of the "tigers" that go ahead. The leader of Singapore's transformation summarized the principle of a nation's success as having a decisive leadership class, an effective management apparatus and a disciplined society. To turn tigers, Vietnam needs to achieve a growth rate of 7% or more over the next twenty years. So how to achieve that goal, avoiding going into the car's woes of economies that have fallen into the middle-income trap. Only with such a growth rate can Vietnam be in the best position to protect its independence and sovereignty.

Economic and social factors in Taiwan’s competitiveness with special focus on the Taiwan-EU trade relations

The main question of this study is the present and future challenges that influence Taiwan’s development and competitiveness. From among these traits the issue of the high exposition (especially in terms of FDI) and growing dependence on mainland China (the People’s Republic of China), the need for a shift in terms of the main drivers of the future economic development and to mitigate the risks of brain drain and social unrest. Taiwan needs to give up insisting to the principle of low labour costs, and this may give impetus to the two-decades long salary stagnation and to the domestic consumption. Taiwan can be competitive by increasing its focus to the domestic R&D and innovation in the new industries and also puts more emphasis on sustainability. It may give Taiwanese economy a chance to remain competitive and successful. The study gives a brief overview on the main characteristics and figures of the Taiwan-EU economic and trade relationship from which it can well be seen that while in a 10 years period (2004-2015) the European exports to Taiwan grew by around 50 % in value, Taiwanese exports to the EU countries more or less remains stagnant during the same period. It illustrates and emphasizes the fact that Taiwanese economy needs stimulus to regain its competitiveness. Within the frames of the Taiwan-EU economic relations the paper gives a brief insight into the Hungaro-Taiwanese trade issues too.

A Preliminary Case Study on Circular Economy in Taiwan’s Construction

After realizing the serious environmental problems caused by current linear economic model, designers, researchers and policy makers around the world started to look into the possibilities of a more sustainable model-circular economy. And the construction industry is no exception to this change. In recent years, not only in Europe, circular economy in the built environment has also become a key focus for public and private sectors in Taiwan. Several projects aiming at constructing circular buildings have been initiated. However, the understanding of circular buildings in Taiwan is very little. Furthermore, how Building Information Modeling (BIM), known as a powerful tool for circular buildings, contributes to these projects for building circularity is beyond exploration. Through one in-depth interview and case study, this paper aims at disclosing the current development, barriers and future potentials of circular economy in building sectors and related BIM applications in Taiwan. The current awareness of stakeholders, key challenges and enablers for circular economy in construction have been identified. How BIM is utilized for circular building design, and its benefits, limitations and potentials are also recognized.

The knowledge intensity and the economic performance in Taiwan’s knowledge intensity business services

The service sector plays a key role to employment growth and increased public well-being in OECD countries. The service industries contributed more than 63% of GDP in 2016 and have become the core of economy in Taiwan. Within the service sectors, knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) particularly illustrate higher levels of productivity and profitability. Moreover, due to lack of the clear measurements of the knowledge intensity with prior investigations in KIBS, the aim of this article is to explore the knowledge intensity of Taiwan’s KIBS. This study then further probes into the relationship between knowledge intensity and economic performance. Panel data from 13 service sectors in Taiwan during the period 2007–2015 is analysed with a fixed effect model. This empirical research shows four findings: first, 13 industries are classified into three groups as high, low, and no level of knowledge intensity; second, most of the level of knowledge intensity has been increased from stage one to stage two; third, education level and vocational training rate positively influence productivity; and, finally, the percentage of knowledge workers and vocational training rate have a positive effect on the margin rate.

The influence of competences and institutions on the international market orientation in foreign-owned subsidiaries

The international market orientation of foreign-owned subsidiaries, defined here as the importance of markets supplied outside their host country, can, and often does, play a vital role for managers as well as policy makers. This paper investigates how multilevel corporate competences and institutional differences stand to influence international market orientation and performance among firms. Our research is based on a survey of subsidiaries located in the mid-range, emerging economy of Taiwan. The results are analysed using SEM-PLS method. We found that competences that emerge from the subsidiary itself and competences from multinational enterprise networks serve to enhance; whereas, competences emerging from headquarters' operations can have an adverse effect on international market orientation. Institutional differences add to the overall complexity through direct and moderating effects. This study indicates that the competence-based view of the firm can be enriched with insights from institutional theory in order to expand our understanding of subsidiary development located in emerging economies and also with their international market orientation in particular.

The influence of competences and institutions on the international market orientation in foreign-owned subsidiaries

The international market orientation of foreign-owned subsidiaries, defined here as the importance of markets supplied outside their host country, can and often does, plays a vital role for managers as well as policy makers. This paper investigates how multilevel corporate competences and institutional differences stand to influence international market orientation and performance among firms. Our research is based on a survey of subsidiaries located in the mid-range, emerging economy of Taiwan. The results are analysed using SEM-PLS method. We found that competences that emerge from the subsidiary itself and competences from multinational enterprise networks serve to enhance; whereas, competences emerging from headquarters’ operations can have an adverse effect on international market orientation. Institutional differences add to the overall complexity through direct and moderating effects. This study indicates that the competence-based view of the firm can be enriched with insights from institutional theory in order to expand our understanding of subsidiary development located in emerging economies and also with their international market orientation in particular.

The effects of networks and autonomy on foreign-owned subsidiary competence development in Taiwan

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of networks and autonomy in competence development of foreign-owned subsidiaries (FOS) located in Taiwan.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data have been collected from FOS located in the mid-range emerging economy of Taiwan and analysed using structured equation modelling and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) techniques.FindingsThe results show that decision-making autonomy and intra-organisational networks are important factors for primary and support competence development. However, by using fsQCA technique the authors also show that many subsidiaries differ from that main pattern. For instance, local business and non-business networks can also contribute to primary competence development, but only in high autonomy subsidiaries.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper lies in the detailed investigation of how fine grained network relationship strengths (intra-, business-, non-business local networks) affect different levels of subsidiary competencies (primary and support activities). The authors also provide novelty in applying a combination of symmetric (structural-equation modelling – partial least squared) and non-symmetric (fsQCA) analytical techniques.

The key factors affecting the strategy planning of Taiwan's hydrogen economy

For decades, the hydrogen economy (HE) has been considered an option in Taiwan's national sustainable energy plan, but its development is currently in a dilemmatic situation. This problem is not only hindering the progress of Taiwan's sustainable energy policy but also preventing the energy companies from setting competitive business strategies. This study investigates the key factors affecting the strategy planning for Taiwan's HE development, through a proposed technology foresight based research framework that extends from the introduction of Trends, Uncertainty factors to that of sketching Strategies (named TUS). The TUS inducts literature and specialist's expertise to perform data divergence, information convergence, and factors analysis with the use of Delphi and Theoretical Triangulation. The study result concludes eight key trends, seven key uncertainty factors, and sets six strategies for Taiwan. Furthermore, the demonstrated TUS practice and research findings provide considerable reference beneficial to the extension of future studies associated with HE.

The State of Studying the Taiwanese Economy: Retrospect and Prospect

The study of Taiwan’s economy began to flourish in the 1960s right up until in the late 1980s. Most early publications discussed the larger issues or macro aspects of economic development during this time. After the 1990s, most publications on Taiwan’s economy covered other applied fields in micro aspects of the economy. The shift of research focus is probably due to: decelerated economic growth; the rising of new research topics due to socioeconomic and political developments such as environmental, labour and health economics; the availability of statistical data; and the advancement of applied econometrics for empirical studies. This article contends that future study of the Taiwanese economy will be more fruitful if the country is compared with other countries at a similar stage of development—in other words, if it is looked at from a comparative perspective.

Confronting the Costs of its Past Success: Revisiting Taiwan's Post-authoritarian Political and Economic Development

The evolution of Taiwan's political economy seems paradoxical. From the 1960s to 1980s, Taiwan went through economic transformations that have been called an “economic miracle.” This was followed by a successful democratic transition from the late 1980s to mid-1990s that might be considered a “political miracle.” In the early 1990s, Taiwan could be regarded as a success story and a model for developing nations. Yet, Taiwan was soon to “enter troubled waters” marked by growing conflict and threat from China (PRC), fears about the “hollowing out” of its previously vaunted economy, and vicious polarization and gridlock in its domestic politics. We argue that many of the challenges facing Taiwan derive from unanticipated and unintended costs of its previous successes. In particular, what worked to promote successful economic and political development at one point later became counterproductive in the changed circumstances created by the country's rapid developmental trajectory. Our basic research questions, hence, are whether the challenges currently facing Taiwan's political economy can be explained by the country's past pattern of development and, if so, whether these linkages appear to be connected to success or failures in Taiwan's history.

Leader, Government, and Market: The Economic Development of South Korea and Taiwan in the 70s and 80s

South Korea and Taiwan experienced the extremely rare type of high-level, sustained postwar economic growth.While it has attracted the attention of many scholars who found out the identical pattern of economic developmentbetween South Korea and Taiwan by focusing on the similar structural conditions, relatively less attention has beengiven to the development mechanism South Korea and Taiwan employed to develop their economy. Furthermore,few studies have highlighted the role of actors in the process of economic development in South Korea and Taiwanbecause most of previous studies have focused on the structural conditions. This study aimed to examine how SouthKorea and Taiwan have developed their economy by discovering the type of a development mechanism employed.Based on using the set of secondary data source, this study found out that South Korea and Taiwan achieved aphenomenal economic development based on the export-oriented industrialization. However, South Korean economywas developed by the government-led development mechanism, while Taiwanese economy was developed by themarket-led development mechanism. And, the difference in the way of developing their economy was mainly causedby not only several structural conditions, such as the consensus between the government and private sector over thematter of economic development, the urgency of economic development, and the existence of vertical social system,but also the characteristics, such as the leadership style of key policy makers.

Meaghan Morris in Cultural Studies in Asia

Meaghan has been part of the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies project from the very beginning— she was at the founding conferences, organised by Chen Kuan-Hsing, in National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, between 1992 and 1995. The two conferences bore the title of ‘Trajectories: Towards a New Internationalist Cultural Studies’ and ‘Trajectories II: A New Internationalist Cultural Studies’, respectively. According to Kuan-Hsing, he was motivated by historical changes in Asia, from postwar decolonisation to post-Cold War in late 1980s, marked locally in Taiwan with the lifting of martial law in 1987. This was also the period of the rise of Asia within global capitalism, beginning with Japan, followed by the so-called ‘Tiger’ or ‘Dragon’ economies of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore via the export-oriented industrialisation. The industrialisation model was subsequently picked up by China and the other Southeast Asian countries. The conferences certainly lived up to their promise of being international, with presenters from first and third world locations, and the core concerns were very much grounded in the historical conjuncture of Asia at the end of the twentieth century. One evening during the second conference, while the edited volume for selected papers were being prepared for publication, Rebecca Barton, the editor for the book project at Routledge, brought up the idea of an Asian cultural studies journal. In a hotel room in Taiwan, with Meaghan, the late Jeannie Martin, Kuan-Hsing and myself from the conference and Rebecca, the plan for Inter-Asia Cultural Studies was hatched. It was decided that Kuan-hsing and I would be the co-executive editors, supported by a relatively large editorial collective drawn across Asia and Australia.

Research of the Urban Green Economy Efficiency and Its Influencing Factors in Taiwan

In this paper, the environmental factor is introduced as an input index, the DEA-Malmquist model is evaluated the urban green economy efficiency in Taiwan from 1998 to 2016. Then establishes the Tobit regression model, and analyzes the influencing factors. The conclusion shows that the improving of urban management level is the main driving factor to enhance the urban green economy efficiency in Taiwan, but in the northern area, the technical changes play a significant role. The urban management level can promote the urban green economy in Taiwan. The percentage of the secondary industry and wage level are significant positively correlations. Except for urban scale, the technology and education are negatively correlated with the index of DEA-Malmquist. Other factors, including the percentage of the tertiary industry, the economic development investment and the environmental protection investment do not play a role in developing the urban green economy.

Strategies for Promoting Steelmaking Slag Resourcezation in Taiwan

Because of the world ever-growing pursuit of economic growth, natural resources have been overly exploited and squandered. Such actions have created a negative effect on the environment and led to resource depletion. These problems subsequently garnered the government attention for waste reuse, in which they began to promote sustainable circulation and reuse of resources to lower natural resource consumptions. Accordingly, the concept of the "3 R's," namely, reduce, recycle, and reuse was introduced. However, the said concept merely adopts a unidirectional, cradle-to-grave-based treatment and fails to consider the effects of waste on the economy and society. Taiwan produces approximately 20 million tonne s of waste annually, roughly 40% of which are slags. The illegal dumping and burying of slags have negatively influenced Taiwan's environment, economy, and society. Thus, the present study revolutionized the 3R concept by introducing the cradle to cradle concept. Producers are recommended to consider product features and slag usage options during the steelmaking process. Transparent productions, effective management, scientific treatments, and systematic inspections are employed to bring slags into industrial circulations, facilitating the recycling and reuse of resources.

Antecedents of network strength in foreign-owned subsidiaries: locational, expatriate, and industrial conditions

Although the effects of networks on numerous outcome variables such as performance or innovation have been investigated multiple times in the foreign-owned subsidiary literature, relatively little is known about the antecedents of network relationships. This research addresses this gap in applying configuration theory and network perspectives in order to explain network relationship strength in foreign-owned subsidiaries located in the mid-range emerging economy of Taiwan. The data collected from a large-scale survey is analysed using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis method. The results show that there are a number of different solutions that can lead to increased network strength. These solutions, consisting of industrial, locational, and expatriate conditions also vary with the kind of networks. We hence find strong support for equifinality in MNE networks, local non-business networks and local business networks strength development.

Study on Causal Association between FDI and Its Determinants in Taiwan

A vital role is played by FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in enhancing the growth and economic status of the country. Most of the countries in the developing phase depend on FDI to foster their economy as they were facing the scarcity of hard cash for their development process. High growth performance experienced by Taiwan economy largely relies on the FDI; to attract the foreign capital inflows the Taiwan government work on many policies. But the most important factors which influence and attract the foreign capital inflows are in academic debate. On the basis of macroeconomic theory knowledge, this research paper will shed light on the econometric analysis on the data of Taiwan’s total foreign direct investment and factors influencing it, which contains exchange rate, inflation rate, Taiwan stock exchange index, import, and business income tax during the years of 1998 to 2013.

IMPACT OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT, IMPORTS AND TARIFF DEREGULATION ON EXPORTS AMONG PIONEERING ASEAN MEMBERS: PANEL DATA ANALYSIS

Following the successful development of the first-tier Newly Industrialized economies of South Korea and Taiwan, governments have gradually moved from import-substitution policies to export-led or export-led import substitution policies. The Association of Southeast Asian nations are no exception as the rapid pace of trade liberalization has been referred to as the prime driver of economic growth in these countries. While the industrial policies of these countries may not be as effective as those of the first-tier NIEs, the pioneering ASEAN members of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand have enjoyed rapid growth and structural change since the 1970s. Indeed, Singapore’s per capita income has remained higher than that of South Korea and Taiwan. Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand became middle income countries by the turn of the millennium. Hence, using panel data over the period 1970-2015 this paper seeks to analyze the influence of foreign direct investment, imports and tariff deregulation on export growth among the five pioneering ASEAN members. The results show that open trade policies in general and increases in FDI, imports and tariff deregulations has helped the ASEAN-5 stimulate exports. Keywords: Exports; Foreign direct investment; Imports; Tariffs; ASEAN.