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The purpose of this paper is to identify what kind of supply chain integration strategies can support TFT‐LCD manufacturers seeking to break through the cost constraints and complex co‐operation relationships between manufacturers, suppliers and set plants/distributors, and further satisfy the market requirements in terms of cost, quality, delivery, and flexibility.

The paper encompasses in‐depth interviews with 20 TFT‐LCD industry executives in three of the largest Taiwan TFT‐LCD manufacturing firms.

Several different supply chain integration strategies have been identified for operational‐level improvement of TFT‐LCD manufacturing, including direct or indirect investment in suppliers; “made in‐house” and “made by resident suppliers” arrangements, “quasi‐cluster” formation, and new module assembly line set‐up at set plant.

This study involves only three multinational corporations of Taiwanese origin.

Based on the analysis of the TFT‐LCD supply chain structure, the strategic fit of supply chain integration leads to the improvement of TFT‐LCD manufacturers' capability to satisfy customer requirements and then attain competitive advantage. Their experience provides guidance for other hi‐tech industries.

The paper provides insights into the strategic formulation of supply chain integration in the real world of the TFT‐LCD industry and identifies directions for further empirical research.

This paper aims to answer two research questions: what latecomer advantages and disadvantages they had, and what strategies they employed to utilize the advantages or to surmount the disadvantages.

After reviews of the literatures on latecomers' characteristics and the notable rise of Taiwanese thin‐film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT‐LCD) panel manufacturers in the global manufacturing contexts, this research project combined secondary industrial sector data analysis and individual company case study (AUO Ltd) approaches in order to build a conceptual framework and identify latecomers' (dis)advantages.

This paper advances the existing literature on latecomer advantages and disadvantages by reviewing the spectacular rise of Taiwanese TFT‐LCD panel manufacturers and reveals the importance of some unexplored source of latecomer advantage such as the competition dynamics which is proved to be vital for Taiwanese firms to successfully penetrate into the market. The paper finds the influence of technological regime and argues that the incremental technological advance rather than radical innovation provides latecomers with opportunity to utilize the learning curve effect. It has also discovered new forms of latecomer advantages, for example the free‐rider effect of improved equipment due to suppliers' own learning curve. This paper illustrates the necessity of adequate exploration on technology and product features to understand firms' strategic behaviors. Moreover, the subtle tactics found in this case study may enlighten other latecomers.

The study leaves a number of questions unanswered which warrant more attention. First, the theoretical arguments and experiences from this single case are not easily extendable to the other industries. Broader investigation should be helpful to discover the mechanism between latecomer advantage, strategy and performance. Second, the study of latecomer (dis)advantages and strategies should take the firm features into account to get a whole picture. Third, the examination of interactions between latecomer (dis)advantages and more detailed analytical framework are needed.

Although latecomers' characteristics and strategies have been discussed for many years since Asia economy emerged, TFT‐LCD industry is a relatively new and fast growing industry. How can a latecomer play an important role in emerging industry growing phase? This is novel in contrast with classical latecomer's model in established industry.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of international acquisition activities on performance and its role in innovation build‐up in developing countries.

A case study was used to understand the deep integration process of acquisition process. The theory behind the study is the relationship of innovation management and merger and acquisition activities.

Acquiring a company with higher technologies has more risks and it requires the acquiring company to master a fast learning capability. The key to a successful international technology acquisition for a developing country is to leverage technology dynamics and build up a high‐level learning capability to absorb tacit knowledge.

An in‐depth case study was adopted. Further quantitative research may be needed to test our research outcome here.

The case study may provide valuable reference for the companies aiming to catch up via international acquisition in the developing countries.

First, this paper is to enrich literature on acquisition research from a technological perspective. Second, fast learning capability, especially the capability to absorb tacit knowledge, is the key to a successful acquisition when a lagging‐behind company in the developing country wants to catch up a leading one.

This study aims to refocus the analysis of global political economies using concepts from studies on Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) to track Taiwan’s rise in the Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display (TFT-LCD) industry. Taiwanese electronics firms began to outpace their competitors from Japan in TFT-LCD industry’s competition from about the year 2000.

Drawing on depth interviews and analysis of secondary source material, newspaper and magazine.

A time factor that helps determine advantage and/or disadvantage of high-tech industry in Japan and Taiwan. Stable organizational structure and less talent mobility in the Japanese TFT-LCD firms may well have been an advantage initially in the transformation process from US firms’ experimental technologies to tacit mass production technologies, but proved to be a disadvantage in the subsequent competition with more mobile talent in Taiwanese firms eager to standardize mass production techniques. Japanese firms’ rigid organizational structure could not keep pace to the market-oriented technology strategy in the global TFT-LCD industry, lost competitive advantage in a rapid pace.

VoC literature should be focused to highlight two insights. The first is the premise of institutional forms specific to national models of capitalism. Patterns of technology transfer appear critical in the innovation process, and differ markedly between Taiwan and Japan. Second, the VoC literature suggests comparative institutional advantage.

Through the comparative analyses between Taiwanese capitalism model and Japanese counterparts, we can understand the reason and process of the rise of Taiwan in global TFT-LCD market.

Interest in investigating key supplier relationships from both academic and corporate spheres has increased in recent years. However, it is difficult to develop a sustainable and effective model for evaluating key supplier relationships because the information available in the practical environment is often uncertain and asymmetric. The purpose of this paper is to identify critical factors concerning key suppliers selection derive from resource-based view and construct a hierarchical evaluation framework which has elements of implied change or transformation of the firm’s resources for operation strategies when evaluating key suppliers relationships. Moreover, the authors propose a fuzzy preference relations (FPR) model, with a hierarchical evaluation framework, to address the imprecise and inconsistent information used by managers to evaluate key supplier relationships and further to select appropriate suppliers.

The FPR model based on the consistent FPR methodology not only provides an efficient and systematic evaluation for key supplier relationships by using the performance and evaluation scores of each key supplier, but also solves problems arising from the conventional multi-criteria analysis approach. This methodology is faster to execute and enhance the consistency and accuracy with regard to the decision makers’ judgments. To illustrate how the model is created and assessed, the authors use the TFT-LCD TV panel manufacturing industry as an empirical subject.

The FPR model holds promise for assisting TFT-LCD TV manufacturers in evaluating key supplier relationships with TFT-LCD TV panel suppliers. The findings indicate that first, “the supplier’s product quality” is the most important factor when evaluating key supplier relationships, followed by “selling price set by the supplier” and “specialized supplier development capability”; second, after the 1980s, all suppliers had similar delivery capabilities with only small differences in delivery times, such that the relative importance of “time required for shipments” has become less significant, and customer awareness of the “customer assistance and service” factor has been heightened; third, the provision of excellent product quality and attractive low prices by suppliers requires technical capability, therefore, from the perspectives of industry experts, “specialized supplier development capability” is far more important than “time required for shipments”; and fourth, TFT-LCD TV manufacturers need to focus on their product quality performance continually, and concentrate on applying process technology strategy as well as product and service development strategy to build up “difficult to imitate resources” for competitive advantages.

The main contribution is to provide managers with an efficient and systematic model that can evaluate the performance of key supplier relationships in terms of critical factors derived from resource-based theories. By focussing on employing the proposed model with successful management for key supplier relationships, the authors hope to help buying companies improve the benefits of supplier relationships. Because of the uncertainties and complexities of real strategy making in TFT-LCD TV panel industry, the authors offer a model that implicitly assume that managers can have influences over the strategic direction of their organization.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the origins of the two types of green innovations: proactive and reactive green innovations.

In order to satisfy the essence of the triangulation in methodology, this study applies a hybrid research method which includes both qualitative and quantitative research to discuss the origins of green innovations based on the two following stages. First, the study uses inductive logic from the perspectives of case study research and grounded theory to build the research framework and selects AU Optronics Corp. (AUO), the worldwide top three manufacturer in the TFT‐LCD industry, as the research object. Second, the study utilizes a questionnaire survey method to test the research framework proposed in the first stage.

This study divides green innovations into two types: proactive and reactive green innovations, because their origins are different. The results show that both of the internal origins – environmental leadership, environmental culture, and environmental capability and the external origins – the environmental regulations and the environmentalism of investors and clients – can generate reactive green innovation. However, only the internal origins can facilitate proactive green innovation. This study suggests that companies should invest their resources in cultivating the internal origins rather than the external origins.

The paper provides insights into what origins cause proactive and reactive green innovations by means of hybrid research method – qualitative and quantitative research – in Taiwan. This study builds up a theory about the origins of the two types of green innovations.

The purpose of this paper is to apply an on‐line automatic inspection and measurement of surface defect of thin‐film transistor liquid‐crystal display (TFT‐LCD) panels in the polyimide coating process with a modified template matching method and back propagation neural network classification method.

By using the technique of searching, analyzing, and recognizing image processing methods, the target pattern image of TFT‐LCD cell defects can be obtained.

With template match and neural network classification in the database of the system, the program judges the kinds of the target defects characteristics, finds out the central position of cell defect, and analyzes cell defects.

The recognition speed becomes faster and the system becomes more flexible in comparison to the previous system. The proposed method and strategy, using unsophisticated and economical equipment, is also verified. The proposed method provides highly accurate results with a low‐error rate.

In terms of sample training, the principles of artificial neural network were used to train the sample detection rate. In sample analysis, character weight was implemented to filter the noise so as to enhance discrimination and reduce detection.

The paper describes how pre‐inspection image processing was utilized in collaboration with the system to excel the inspection efficiency of present machines as well as for reducing system misjudgment. In addition, the measure for improving cell defect inspection can be applied to production line with multi‐defects to inspect and improve six defects simultaneously, which improves the system stability greatly.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a small data set forecasting method to improve the effectiveness when making managerial decisions.

In the grey modeling process, appropriate background values are one of the key factors in determining forecasting accuracy. In this paper, grey compensation terms are developed to make more appropriate background values to further improve the forecasting accuracy of grey models.

In the experiment, three real cases were used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The experimental results show that the proposed method can improve the accuracy of grey predictions. The results further indicate that background values determined by the proposed compensation terms can improve the accuracy of grey model in the three cases.

Previous studies determine appropriate background values within the limitation of traditional grey modeling process, while this study makes new background values without the limitation. The experimental results would encourage researchers to develop more accuracy grey models without the limitation when determining background values.

The essence of core competitiveness in an enterprise is the ability to embed knowledge into the routine work of the enterprise and to transform personal knowledge into corporate assets. The purpose of this paper is to explore this area.

This study reviews three interoperated variables of external knowledge acquisition, enterprise knowledge accumulation, and knowledge accumulation mechanism to construct a model of knowledge interoperability within firms.

This study finds that in the thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT‐LCD) industry, implicit knowledge collected through the interactive coordination mechanism has a significant impact on the knowledge accumulation of the enterprise, where knowledge is accumulated in real technology systems and employees’ skills. The more willing companies are to invest resources in the shaping of knowledge and the environment, the more successful they will be in transforming implicit knowledge into explicit knowledge.

This study points to a new direction of interchanging implicit and explicit knowledge within firms.

This study argues that an improved interoperability of firm‐level knowledge can mitigate problems of knowledge integration and sharing, leading to better decisions and greater partner synergies.

Knowledge transformation allows employees to share and transfer valuable experience and knowledge within the enterprise and forms a knowledge‐intensive corporate culture or work environment, creating so‐called learning‐ and innovation‐oriented enterprises.

This study provides the impetus of valuable experience and knowledge of employees to be fully shared and passed on, resulting in a corporate culture and working atmosphere that creates the so‐called learning‐oriented enterprise or innovative enterprise.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Green issues are hot news today. Environmental awareness is an essential part of strategic thinking for companies large and small, at a time when investors and the public at large are ready to raise questions about how products are made, the materials used and the disposal of waste. Any organization with an international business also needs to be aware of and comply with a whole range of environmental regulations, including the Kyoto Protocol; the Montréal Convention; and EU directives on the use and disposal of hazardous materials. Sometimes compliance is a reluctant afterthought, but there are others who use green innovation as a key part of their strategy and a way to take the lead over their competitors.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.