INDUSTRIAL-DEVELOPMENT AND STRUCTURAL ADAPTATION IN TAIWAN - SOME ISSUES OF LEARNED ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The industrialization of Taiwan has been a remarkable phenomenon. This paper discusses recent changes in Taiwan's manufacturing industries a nd the response of both government and private enterprises to the chal lenges presented by a dynamic environment and by global competition. S everal cases are discussed in light of the activities and adjustments on the part of government and of the public sector, of small and mediu m business, and of high-tech industries. Government participation over the last four decades has been and will remain pivotal in economic gr owth and in achieving adjusted positioning. Taiwan's personal computer and IC industries have evolved from an infant stage through an accele rated growth period and are now extending to other technologically ass ociated industries. The small enterprise sector is in a transitional s tage of upgrading competitive niches. The unsuccessful stories of biop harmaceuticals and automobiles are discussed in terms of what they rev eal about government intervention and the performance of public resear ch institutes. Active patenting activities by Taiwan enterprises and p ublic research institutes illustrate the accumulated technological cap ability found on this island. The accelerated sociopolitical movements toward democracy, the bureaucratic management of public issues, and t he political and economic interactions between Taiwan and China, exert significant effects on the industrial structure and on government's r ole in directing the industrial evolution. This article presents an in tegrated reasoning of Taiwan's economic success, It reveals that the n eoclassical doctrine of market efficiency is fundamentally valid, and that the effective commercialization of national technological capabil ity has created Taiwan's industrial evolution. Market governance prove d to be an efficient short-term policy instrument when the latecomer s trategy of cost leadership was applied. A conceptual model of industri al competition and technology commercialization is also proposed to fa cilitate the methodological analysis. This study concludes that learni ng capability and human capital will determine the endurance of Taiwan 's industrial success, and that entrepreneurship must be learned by th e state, as well as by the private firms.