Shih-Chang Hung

Social Capital and Creativity in R&D Project Teams

The existing research contributes to our understanding about the value of social capital in a wide range of social science disciplines however, it does not well address the role of social capital in creativity for research and development (R&D) project teams in a given context. Using a sample of 54 R&D project teams in high-technology firms of Taiwan, we examined the impacts of social capital on creativity of R&D project teams from an intra-team perspective. Results of factor analysis revealed four factors extracted from the concept of social capital, namely social interaction, network ties, mutual trust, and shared goals. Findings suggested that social interaction and network ties had significant and positive impacts on creativity of R&D project teams, but mutual trust and shared goals did not. Managerial implications for managing social capital in R&D project teams are discussed.

Mobilising networks to achieve strategic difference

Abstract This article examines the strategies for achieving differentiation through a network approach. The generic strategies models of positioning and the resource-based view have opened up the possibility of strategic difference, but, drawing on a social network approach, this article argues that, rather than accepting strategy as simply market given or internally driven, firms can draw on their unique social networks of relations to make a difference to their strategies. Illustrations from three successful Taiwanese computer firms seeking to secure differentiation of action show that one enjoys a policy-driven network advantage over its domestic rivals, another has developed both technological and familial networks, while the third exploits its established management and production links in the Taiwanese industrial culture. These comparative case studies illustrate that strategies for achieving differentiation can be based on a wide variety of external social networks of relationships (including political, familial, friendship and alumni links, as well as alliances via boards, trade unions and banks etc). The implications for managers are that firms need to expand their external networks of relationships to secure their survival and growth, and should seek to identify and develop structures that are resourceful, rare and inimitable.

Social construction of industrial advantage

Abstract This study presents a socially constructed account of industrial advantage as applied empirically to Taiwans personal computer platform, rigid disk drive and packaged software industries. Our argument is divided into three parts. First, stressing the differentiation and conflict of a society suggests that national institutional structures are not necessarily co-extensive or convergent. Second, at the national level, institutional structures are not supportive in every industry. Third, countries tend to succeed in industries where their economic actors can optimally apply their national institutions to the global industry.

Policy System in Taiwan's Industrial Context

Drawing on institutional analysis of politics, this paper proposes a concept of policy system that is then applied empirically to Taiwans industrial context of 1986–95. Contemporary political sciences now identify the institutionalization of state-business relations. Accounts differ, but generally they retain a strong sense of conventional rules in the formulation and implementation of industry policy. While taking this idea of rules seriously, we extend institutional perspectives on politics from the familiar confines of structural constraints to the institutional context of resources. Thus, a policy system is socially constructed with a variety of rules and resources, appreciable in the Taiwanese context.

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.

Technological Change as Chaotic Process

In this paper, we draw upon the concepts of chaos theory to examine technological change as a pattern of punctuated equilibrium through the alternation of continuity and discontinuity across time. We advocate the application of the chaos mathematical technique of time‐varying local Lyapunov exponents to estimate the rates of change, timing of technological transitions and the continuity–discontinuity loop time periods. To illustrate our framework of ideas, we investigated and compared the development of four technologies – semiconductor, display, software, and biotechnology – from 1976 to 2005, using time series patent data. Implications for theory, method, and practice are discussed.

Mobilizing social capital to pursue entrepreneurship

To invoke entrepreneurship is to utilize resources to discover, identify and exploit emerging market and technological opportunities. Accounts of the resources vary widely, yet one of the most critical concerns the embeddedness of social capital in the social relations of the entrepreneur. Three factors derived from social relations that create social capital are emphasized: opportunity, motivation and ability. Based on a comparative case study of Trend Micro (an antivirus firm) and TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, a foundry business), this paper shows how access to opportunity, motivation and ability is important to explaining entrepreneurship. It concludes with implications for theory, practice and research.