Elucidating How Environment Affects Patterns of Network Change: A Case Study of the Evolution of an Industrial Network i
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Elucidating How Environment Affects Patterns of Network Change: A Case Study of the Evolution of an Industrial Network in the Flat Panel Display Sector Hung-Chun Huang & Hsin-Yu Shih & Tsung-Han Ke & Pai-Yu Liu
Received: 22 October 2012 / Accepted: 5 November 2012 # The Author(s) 2012. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Abstract As science and technology policy-makers focus on understanding how industry networks evolve, this study discusses how environmental changes affect the evolution of industrial networks, especially in the flat panel display (FPD) sector. By investigating different environmental scenarios, it can be shown that changes of environmental munificence and environmental uncertainty simultaneously affect industrial network transition and reshape distinctive network formations. Data from 71 countries from 1976 to 2008 have been examined to empirically evaluate their network relationships. This study, thus, demonstrates a longitudinal evolutionary trajectory for the FPD industry and locates the essential transition of technological competition via international technological coevolution. The analytical results demonstrate that different environmental scenarios provide different opportunities for countries to develop their niche competence in the FPD industry. Our findings provide insightful implications for policy-makers and business practitioners involved in dynamic and competitive global industries similar to FPD. Keywords Environmental changes . Industrial network evolution . Flat panel display . Environmental munificence . Environmental uncertainty
Introduction Flat panel display (FPD) manufacturing emerged as the first industry to fully develop in a global economy defined more by trade in knowledge than in physical products H.-C. Huang (*) : H.-Y. Shih : T.-H. Ke : P.-Y. Liu Department of International Business Studies, National Chi Nan University, 1, University Rd., Puli, Nantou 54561, Taiwan e-mail: [email protected] H.-C. Huang Department of Business Administration, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan
J Knowl Econ
(Murtha et al. 2001). However, the FPD industry is characterized by large capital investment and accelerated technological development (Mathews 2005). It, therefore, holds a technological advantage in industrialized countries. While stressing the critical role of organizational colocation in FPD development of both technology and industry, previous studies have posited that a new class of global, knowledgedriven manufacturing industries has emerged in which learning, continuity, and speed define competition (Murtha et al. 2001; Spencer 2003). Collaborative networking among countries is, thus, essential for technological advances (Powell et al. 1996; Kogut 2000; Osterloh and Rota 2007). A healthy innovation infrastructure is vital yet independently insufficient to support the environment required to achieve continuous innovation (Furman and Hayes 2004). Countries can increase their technological capacity by obtaining advanced technologies from abr
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