Tai Shan Hu

Role of Interaction between Technological Communities and Industrial Clustering in Innovative Activity: The Case of Hsinchu District, Taiwan

Economic development requires knowledge in todays knowledge-based economy. The achievement of economic development in one area depends directly on the efficiency of the attainment, accumulation and application of knowledge and information. These processes rely heavily on the involvement of human resources with technological knowledge and technical skills. Correspondingly, knowledge creation ability and the efficiency of knowledge creation and application determine industrial clustering and economic sustainability. Current surveys of industrial clusters in Taiwan have ascertained that clusters of traditional industries do not necessarily lead to innovation although, empirically, an industrial cluster is a prerequisite for innovative activity. Recent studies have addressed the effects of the spatial proximity among firms and advanced research institutes in the Hsinchu area. According to their results, industrial clustering positively influences innovation by technological companies. Based on available results, this study considers how interaction between technological communities and industrial clustering influence the innovative activities in a sample area. Additionally, this study analyses social networking within the technological community and the relationship to industrial clustering in the Hsinchu area. Results of this study provide a valuable reference for industrial district planning and management.

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

Abstract 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.

Interaction among High-tech Talent and its Impact on Innovation Performance: A Comparison of Taiwanese Science Parks at Different Stages of Development

Abstract Numerous studies have studied how knowledge spillovers and various other factors influence industrial clusters in terms of geographical proximity. Related studies have generally confirmed significant positive correlations between firm innovative activities and factors such as spatial proximity and degree of industrial clustering. This study elucidates on an individual level, based on the relationship between proximity dimension and innovative activity, the interactive relationships between the mobility and interaction of high-tech talent and innovation performance. Survey results indicate that the spatial proximity of firms clustering within the Hsinchu and Tainan Science-based Industrial Park increases the interaction among high-tech personnel and the expansion of their professional networks, thus promoting innovation. Gradually organizational and social proximity evolve from physical proximity within high-tech districts via the evolution of industrial networks and interactions among high-tech talent. Additionally survey results demonstrate the value of mobility and informal relationships involving high-tech talent, as well as the effect of these relationships on innovation performance during the various stages of science park development. However, how to avoid lock-in in the future development of high-tech districts remains a critical issue. The results of this investigation provide a useful reference for planning and managing industrial districts.

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.

Knowledge patterns and spatial dynamics of industrial districts in knowledge cities: Hsinchu, Taiwan

Abstract In the era of a global knowledge economy, urban regions that seek to increase their competitive edge and become destinations for talent and investment have little chance of achieving these goals without forming effective knowledge-based urban development strategies. Hence, the development of clusters of knowledge-based corporations has become an important strategic factor in increasing the competitiveness of knowledge cities. Whereas previous studies have tended to focus on the characteristics of local clusters and the causes of their success, empirical studies of the long-term development of local knowledge-based industries are few. Accordingly, this investigation takes the knowledge city region-Hsinchu as its subject, and quantitatively analyzes the correlation between the spatial dynamics of knowledge in major industries and innovation based on empirical data. This finding shows that steadily developing industries in the Hsinchu region have continued to strengthen their new knowledge of product development and innovation. An overview of innovative activities of firms also revealed that their knowledge patterns have been changing from patterns of internal dependency to a locality-based, broader networking and agglomeration pattern.

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.

Knowledge-Intensive Business Services as Knowledge Intermediaries in Industrial Regions: A Comparison of the Hsinchu and Tainan Metropolitan Areas

Abstract The literature repeatedly stresses the role of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) as a provider of knowledge and information to other businesses and organizations. KIBS simultaneously promotes, mediates and enables client innovation. This investigation mainly seeks to link KIBS to the analytical structure of concepts, including regional innovation systems, knowledge exchanges and innovation patterns. This investigation interprets the role of KIBS as that of a knowledge intermediary that mediates and transmits knowledge among actors. This study also clarifies the mechanism of knowledge exchanges in different geographic innovation systems. The analytical results obtained by this investigation are applied to analyse the intermediary functions of KIBS in various metropolitan areas in southern and northern Taiwan. This investigation demonstrates variations in how KIBS act as knowledge intermediaries, and that these variations depend mostly on industrial cluster patterns, the dominant innovation patterns at their locations and the birth of sustainable KIBS. KIBS in large/core metropolitan regions, thus, are initially based on science, technology and innovation industrial activities, and further closely resemble doing, using and interaction industrial activities. Consequently, more informal learning processes, such as local buzz and discussion/competition relations, tend to develop in such regions.

Developments in interactive relationships and knowledge between KIBS firms and their clients in Taiwan

Researchers have in the last decade highlighted the increasing importance and continuing expansion of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) in developed economies. This study investigates the role of KIBS in the evolution of an innovation system. Interactions between KIBS firms and their clients, and the roles of KIBS in these interactions, are analyzed by examining the evolution of local innovation systems in the Hsinchu and Tainan Science-Based Industrial Parks in Taiwan. Analytical results reveal that cumulative interactions have raised demand for and reliance upon KIBS, and have increased the need for specialized support with various functions. Consequently, KIBS firms are becoming increasingly important in the industrial interface by gradually transforming from being primarily knowledge carriers into influential and symbiotic partners of their clients.

Creative Talent Drive Transformation of Professionals' Constitution in the Modern City: A Case Study of Fashion Talent Flow in Taipei

Taipei is the economic and cultural centre of Taiwan. To compete with other Asian countries, Taipei has adopted pragmatic innovation and development strategies to achieve competitive advantage. Analysis of data obtained in face-to-face interviews indicates that Taipei may have a unique fashion economy. This study confirms the potential of the Taiwan fashion industry from the perspective of its cultural and creative economies. The main goal of this study is to determine how fashion professionals promote and affect the Taiwan fashion industry. First, fashion-related industries in the Taiwan cultural and creative system are defined and classified. Based on these definitions, statistical employment data and interview data are used to show how the distribution of fashion professionals provides directions for urban development by fashion clusters.

From fashion product industries to fashion: upgrading trends in traditional industry in Taiwan

ABSTRACT In the 1990s, China opened its economic markets and replaced the New Institutional Economics (NIEs) of East Asia as the global centre for sourcing labour. This event changed the spatial and economic structure in Asia, especially in Taiwan. Based on the historical evolution of the textile and clothing industry in Taiwan, this study examined how traditional textile and apparel manufacturing was upgraded in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, and in Tainan, the most historical city of Taiwan, under varying resource availability and under different city policies. While referring to both second-hand information and the literature, the results of interviews with fashion industry professionals were also considered. This study revealed that the potential to upgrade the fashion industry was highly associated with regional background characteristics. Additionally, lack of talent and the limited market for domestic brands create the largest bottleneck in the current fashion industry in Taiwan. Accordingly, the optimal solution for the fashion industry in Taiwan is to promote affordable Taiwanese brands and to use e-commerce. Such integration may enhance the position of the Taiwanese fashion industry in global networks.