The national innovation system in the Taiwanese photovoltaic industry: A multiple stakeholder perspective

With the shortage in fossil energy and the increasing demand for renewable energy sources, the solar energy, or photovoltaic (PV), industry has flourished. The main purpose of this paper is to integrate and extend a multiple stakeholder perspective and the National Innovation System (NIS) to decipher the convergence and strategic dynamics among the innovation networks of the PV industry. Data are collected through a survey of multiple stakeholders, including government, industry experts, scholars and silicon wafer and solar cell firms. Building upon a multiple stakeholder perspective, we identify the behaviors of stakeholders and construct a strategic network based on their interests in order to understand the evolution and potential transition trends of the PV industry. As a result, our empirical studies show that the silicon wafer and solar cell industries are highly dependent on the silicon supplies of companies abroad, while major stakeholders spontaneously converge in non-government stakeholder network rather than that in government-led network. The paper demonstrates that studying stakeholder networks enables us to identify the dynamics and interactions of stakeholders in the development of the PV industry. That is, the empirical results not only provide an overview of innovation activities within the widely accepted NIS landscape, but also identify key success factors influencing the successful development of the PV industry. The implications of the study enable us to reevaluate the relationship between stakeholders and the NIS with respect to the development of industrial innovation policies.