Doctoral Dissertation Research: Collaboration on Thin Ground: Contract Production Arrangements Between Taiwanese Firms and their American MNC Customers in the PC Industry

本论文研究个人电脑产业中台湾厂商与其美国跨国公司客户之间的原始设备制造/原始设计制造安排。它侧重于它们作为合同生产伙伴之间的合作问题，并解决了它们如何在一个通常被认为是相对知识密集型的行业中启动、维持和深化合作的问题，因为它们的文化差异和监管薄弱的全球经济。它的次要任务是确定这些公司之间合作的质量，方法是将其与在已知具有厚重文化和制度的经济体中发现的客户与供应商合作的实例进行对比。该项目采用了多个比较案例研究的方法。数据是通过档案研究和对台湾相关公司及其美国客户的结构化采访以及在必要时对台湾政府官员的深入采访来收集的。通过审查跨国界的公司间合作现象，该项目预计将阐明社会科学中更普遍的问题，即在稀薄的文化和体制环境中如何以及何种合作是可能的。鉴于人们日益认识到，在世界上那些没有丰富的社会体制基础设施的地区和渴望利用跨国公司主导的国际生产网络在高技术部门的扩展而进行工业升级的发展中国家，公司间合作的重要性日益得到承认，预计它也将具有广泛的经验意义。

This dissertation project examines the Original Equipment Manufacturing/Original Design Manufacturing arrangements between Taiwanese firms and their American MNC customers in the personal computer (PC) industry. It focuses on the issue of cooperation between them as contract production partners and addresses the question of how they have managed to initiate, sustain and deepen their cooperation in an industry generally considered to be relatively knowledge intensive given their cultural differences and the weakly regulated global economy. Its secondary task is to determine the quality of cooperation found between these firms by contrasting it with instances of customer-supplier cooperation found in economies that are known to be endowed with thick culture and institutions. The project employs the approach of multiple comparative case studies. Data is collected through archival research as well as structured interviews with relevant firms in Taiwan and their American customers and, if necessary, in-depth interviews with Taiwanese government officials. Through examining the phenomenon of inter-firm cooperation across national borders, the project is expected to shed light on the more general problems in social sciences of how and what kinds of cooperation are possible in a thin cultural and institutional environment. It is also expected to have broad empirical significance given the growing recognition of the importance of inter-firm cooperation in those parts of the world not blessed with a rich socio-institutional infrastructure and in developing countries eager to engage in industrial upgrading by taking advantage of the spread of MNCs-led international production networks in the high-tech sectors.