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The Narrow ‘Breadth of R&D’ and the Bottleneck of Technological Catch-Up: A Case Study of Taiwan’s Flat Panel Display Industry from the Perspective of the R&D Strategy of AMOLED

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Varieties and Alternatives of Catching-up

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Abstract

This chapter through a case study of Taiwan’s flat panel display (FPD) industry, shows that it is important for industries in developing countries in the final stages of the catching-up process to widen their ‘breadth of R&D’ and improve responsiveness to market needs. In the early 2000s Taiwan’s FPD industry invested considerable resources in developing AMOLED, an advanced type of FPD, in response to increasing marketplace uncertainty. Afterward, however, the lack of a strong brand and a solid alliance with specific major vendors led the industry to focus its R&D on areas with high marketability, which ultimately led to the stagnation and suspension of R&D on AMOLED technology. This weakened the ability of the Taiwanese FPD industry to adapt to the ensuing changes in market structure.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Liu and Chao eds. (2012), material provided by Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center of Industrial Technology Research Institute.

  2. 2.

    Even though a simple comparison is not possible in the case of Samsung Electronics since Samsung Electronics includes R&D spending in departments other than the display department such as the semiconductor department, it is unlikely that the share of the display department in overall R&D spending is extremely small. Supposing that the display department’s share in total sales (11.6 %) is multiplied by the amount of R&D spending in 2013, the amount (USD1.57 billion) would surpass the R&D spending of Taiwanese FPD makers and LG Display (Samsung Electronics web site http://www.samsung.com/, accessed on 30 June 2014).

  3. 3.

    ‘Youda keji zhongxin fabiao quanqiu diyi pian shuangmian quancai zhudong shi juzhen youji faguang xianshiqi’ [AMOLED Science Technology Center releases the first double-face color AMOLED in the world]. 12 October 2004. AUO web site. http://auo.com/?sn=21&lang=zh-TW&c=2&n=392 (accessed on 20 January 2013).

  4. 4.

    An interview with an industry analyst of a government-affiliated research institute on 17 October 2012.

  5. 5.

    Samsung Display web site (http://www.samsungdisplay.com/, accessed on 21 January 2013).

  6. 6.

    Liu and Chao eds. (2012), material provided by Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center of Industrial Technology Research Institute.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mizuho Research Institute, Chiyoda-ku, Japan

    Shingo Ito

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  1. Shingo Ito
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. IDE-JETRO, Interdisciplinary Studies Center, IDE-JETRO, Chiba, Japan

    Yukihito Sato

  2. Area Studies Center, IDE-JETRO , Chiba, Japan

    Hajime Sato

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Ito, S. (2016). The Narrow ‘Breadth of R&D’ and the Bottleneck of Technological Catch-Up: A Case Study of Taiwan’s Flat Panel Display Industry from the Perspective of the R&D Strategy of AMOLED. In: Sato, Y., Sato, H. (eds) Varieties and Alternatives of Catching-up. IDE-JETRO Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59780-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59780-9_3

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