“Compressed Industrial Development: The Growth Mechanism of Taiwanese Notebook PC Manufacturers” (Nagoya University Press. 2012)

Momoko Kawakami (Research Fellow, Institute of Developing Economies, JETRO)

It is my great honor to receive the 29th Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize. I would like to thank the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Foundation, the Board of Directors, and the Selection Committee. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my interviewees in the PC industry who made this book possible. My advisors and mentors, friends and family have provided me with warm support, inspiration and insight. Special thanks go to the editors of the University of Nagoya Press for their dedication and encouragement.

My book investigates the firm-level mechanism of capability formation that lies behind the phenomenal rise of Taiwanese firms as notebook PC contract manufacturers. By focusing on the changes in the interactions between powerful firms in developed economies and Taiwanese PC subcontractors, the book attempted to elucidate the learning process that made the Taiwanese notebook PC industry so successful. The book also attempted to propose an analytical framework that captures the learning dynamics of latecomer firms in the globalized industries. More specifically, I employed an approach in which I traced the change in the interactions among main actors of the industry, the flow of information among them, and the learning strategies of latecomer firms, and I applied this to an analysis of the notebook PC industry.

This book is a result not only of my last several years’ research of the Taiwanese PC industry, but also of my twenty years’ study of the Taiwanese industries and firms since I entered Institute of Developing Economies in 1991. I always enjoy my field research in Taiwan and it was a great joy to meet industry people and social science scholars so full of energy and enthusiasm. Taiwan has been a constant source of inspiration for my research and my life.

I would be very happy if my little book contributes to an enhancement of the understanding of the Japanese people towards the industries and firms of Taiwan.

Thank you very much.

Profile
Momoko Kawakami graduated from Faculty of Economics, the University of Tokyo in 1991 and joined Institute of Developing Economies (IDE) in the same year. She visited Chung-hua Institute for Economic Research (Taipei) during 1995-1997 as IDE overseas researcher. She earned her Doctor in Economics from Graduate School of Economics, the University of Tokyo in 2011. She is now visiting Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica (Taipei) as IDE overseas research fellow. Her recent work includes M. Kawakami and T. Sturgeon eds. The Dynamics of Local Learning in Global Value Chains: Experiences from East Asia, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.