IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/respol/v40y2011i4p526-538.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Agency in national innovation systems: Institutional entrepreneurship and the professionalization of Taiwanese IT

Author

Listed:
  • Hung, Shih-Chang
  • Whittington, Richard

Abstract

This paper examines institutional entrepreneurship as a form of internal agency within national innovation systems. In particular, we consider the entrepreneurship of Taiwanese IT firms over 1980-2007 in creating a new professionalized organizational form markedly different from the traditional Taiwanese model of family business. We compare two successful sectors - personal computers and semiconductors - and one failure - hard disk drives. We emphasize how entrepreneurial firms used strategies of framing, aggregating and networking (F.A.N.) to build legitimacy, mobilize local resources and reach out beyond the limitations of their immediate contexts. We discuss how F.A.N. strategies may evolve from 'introversion' to 'extraversion' and develop implications for policy-makers and further research.

Suggested Citation

  • Hung, Shih-Chang & Whittington, Richard, 2011. "Agency in national innovation systems: Institutional entrepreneurship and the professionalization of Taiwanese IT," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 526-538, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:40:y:2011:i:4:p:526-538
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048-7333(11)00017-5
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard Whittington, 1992. "Putting Giddens Into Action: Social Systems And Managerial Agency," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 693-712, November.
    2. Bengt-Åke Lundvall, 2007. "National Innovation Systems—Analytical Concept and Development Tool," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 95-119.
    3. Hiroatsu Nohara & Eric Verdier, 2001. "Sources Of Resilience In The Computer And Software Industries In France," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 201-220.
    4. Hayagreeva Rao & Philippe Monin & Rodolphe Durand, 2003. "Institutional Change in Toque Ville: Nouvelle Cuisine as an Identity Movement in French Gastronomy," Post-Print hal-00480858, HAL.
    5. Anne Tempel & Peter Walgenbach, 2007. "Global Standardization of Organizational Forms and Management Practices? What New Institutionalism and the Business‐Systems Approach Can Learn from Each Other," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(1), pages 1-24, January.
    6. Anchordoguy, Marie, 2000. "Japan's software industry: a failure of institutions?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 391-408, March.
    7. Charles Edquist & Leif Hommen (ed.), 2008. "Small Country Innovation Systems," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3981.
    8. Charles W. L. Hill, 1995. "National Institutional Structures, Transaction Cost Economizing and Competitive Advantage: The Case of Japan," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 6(1), pages 119-131, February.
    9. Storz, Cornelia, 2008. "Dynamics in innovation systems: Evidence from Japan's game software industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 1480-1491, October.
    10. Schmitz, Hubert, 1999. "Global Competition and Local Cooperation: Success and Failure in the Sinos Valley, Brazil," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(9), pages 1627-1650, September.
    11. Alice H. Amsden & Wan-wen Chu, 2003. "Beyond Late Development: Taiwan's Upgrading Policies," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262011980, December.
    12. Dennis A. Gioia & Kumar Chittipeddi, 1991. "Sensemaking and sensegiving in strategic change initiation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(6), pages 433-448, September.
    13. Fligstein, Neil, 2001. "Social Skill and the Theory of Fields," Center for Culture, Organizations and Politics, Working Paper Series qt26m187b1, Center for Culture, Organizations and Politics of theInstitute for Research on Labor and Employment, UC Berkeley.
    14. David J. Teece, 2007. "Explicating dynamic capabilities: the nature and microfoundations of (sustainable) enterprise performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(13), pages 1319-1350, December.
    15. Linsu Kim & James M. Utterback, 1983. "The Evolution of Organizational Structure and Technology in a Developing Country," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(10), pages 1185-1197, October.
    16. Landry, Rejean & Amara, Nabil, 1998. "The impact of transaction costs on the institutional structuration of collaborative academic research," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(9), pages 901-913, December.
    17. Hiroatsu Nohara & Eric Verdier, 2001. "Sources Of Resilience In The Computer And Software Industries In France," Post-Print halshs-00484829, HAL.
    18. repec:hal:journl:hal-02311672 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Po-Keung Ip, 2008. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Crony Capitalism in Taiwan," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 79(1), pages 167-177, April.
    20. Liu, Yunshi & Ahlstrom, David & Yeh, Kuang S., 2006. "The separation of ownership and management in Taiwan's public companies: An empirical study," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 415-435, August.
    21. Dodgson, Mark & Mathews, John & Kastelle, Tim & Hu, Mei-Chih, 2008. "The evolving nature of Taiwan's national innovation system: The case of biotechnology innovation networks," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 430-445, April.
    22. Sea-Jin Chang & Chi-Nien Chung & Ishtiaq P. Mahmood, 2006. "When and How Does Business Group Affiliation Promote Firm Innovation? A Tale of Two Emerging Economies," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(5), pages 637-656, October.
    23. Arie Y. Lewin & Chris P. Long & Timothy N. Carroll, 1999. "The Coevolution of New Organizational Forms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 10(5), pages 535-550, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dodgson, Mark & Hughes, Alan & Foster, John & Metcalfe, Stan, 2011. "Systems thinking, market failure, and the development of innovation policy: The case of Australia," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(9), pages 1145-1156.
    2. Hu, Mei-Chih & Hung, Shih-Chang, 2014. "Taiwan's pharmaceuticals: A failure of the sectoral system of innovation?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 162-176.
    3. Jain, Sanjay, 2020. "Fumbling to the future? Socio-technical regime change in the recorded music industry," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    4. Elbasha, Tamim & Avetisyan, Emma, 2018. "A framework to study strategizing activities at the field level: The example of CSR rating agencies," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 38-46.
    5. Castellacci, Fulvio & Natera, Jose Miguel, 2013. "The dynamics of national innovation systems: A panel cointegration analysis of the coevolution between innovative capability and absorptive capacity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 579-594.
    6. Srikant, Chethan D., 2019. "Impression management strategies to gain regulatory approval," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 136-153.
    7. Elitsa R. Banalieva & Ravi Sarathy, 2011. "A Contingency Theory of Internationalization," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 51(5), pages 593-634, October.
    8. Purkayastha, Anish & Karna, Amit & Sharma, Sunil & Bhadra, Dhiman, 2024. "Role of resource investment management and strategic resource deployment capabilities in internationalization-performance relationship," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(2).
    9. Mei-Chih Hu, 2011. "Evolution of knowledge creation and diffusion: the revisit of Taiwan’s Hsinchu Science Park," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 88(3), pages 949-977, September.
    10. Proksch, Dorian & Haberstroh, Marcus Max & Pinkwart, Andreas, 2017. "Increasing the national innovative capacity: Identifying the pathways to success using a comparative method," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 256-270.
    11. Maximilian Benner, 2022. "Legitimizing path development by interlinking institutional logics: The case of Israel's desert tourism," PEGIS geo-disc-2022_01, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    12. Jing Zhang & Justin Tan & Poh Wong, 2015. "When does investment in political ties improve firm performance? The contingent effect of innovation activities," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 363-387, June.
    13. McKeever, Edward & Jack, Sarah & Anderson, Alistair, 2015. "Embedded entrepreneurship in the creative re-construction of place," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 50-65.
    14. Paredes-Frigolett, Harold & Pyka, Andreas & Leoneti, Alexandre Bevilacqua, 2021. "On the performance and strategy of innovation systems: A multicriteria group decision analysis approach," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    15. Brayden G. King & Teppo Felin & David A. Whetten, 2010. "Perspective---Finding the Organization in Organizational Theory: A Meta-Theory of the Organization as a Social Actor," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(1), pages 290-305, February.
    16. Razieh Nejabat & Marina Van Geenhuizen, 2019. "Entrepreneurial Risk-Taking in Sustainable Energy: University Spin-Off Firms and Market Introduction in Northwest Europe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-23, December.
    17. Suvi Nenonen & Kaj Storbacka & Charlotta Windahl, 2019. "Capabilities for market-shaping: triggering and facilitating increased value creation," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 617-639, July.
    18. Lechevalier, Sébastien & Nishimura, Junichi & Storz, Cornelia, 2014. "Diversity in patterns of industry evolution: How an intrapreneurial regime contributed to the emergence of the service robot industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(10), pages 1716-1729.
    19. Roberto Ganau & Eleonora Di Maria, 2014. "Determinants of technological innovation in SMEs. Firm-level factors, agglomeration economies and the role of KIBS providers," ERSA conference papers ersa14p820, European Regional Science Association.
    20. Betty Feng, Jing & Liu, Steven Y.H. & Anne Liu, Leigh, 2023. "Cognitive antecedents of EMNEs’ dynamic capabilities: A case study of global identity at Lenovo," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:40:y:2011:i:4:p:526-538. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/respol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.