ABSTRACT
Taiwan has been an important player in the global ICT industry for decades, occupying a significant position within the global production network (GPN) and global innovation network (GIN) (Ernst 2006; Chen 2002; Sturgeon and Lee 2005). In the ICT hardware industry, a number of Taiwanese-made products have enjoyed a significant global market share in many products including integrated circuit (IC) foundry, IC packaging and testing, liquid crystal display (LCD) panels and light-emitting diode (LED). Taking a closer look at this list of products, one finds that most of them are producer goods or intermediate goods rather than final goods. This fact, however, cannot be used to support the argument that the Taiwan-based ICT final product producers have lost the edge on their international competitors. Instead, it should be interpreted within the context of the GPN, because most of the Taiwanese industrial players are engaged in original equipment manufacturing (OEM) and/or original design manufacturing (ODM) (Chen et al. 2006; Chu 2009) and, more importantly, have gone global (Chen 2004; Ernst 2006). What underlies this outcome are well-regarded production and design capabilities of the Taiwanese ICT producers, which in turn have made Taiwan a major source of contract work for internationally prominent ICT companies.
