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Tiger Technology: The Creation of A Semiconductor Industry in East Asia. By John A. Mathews And Dong-Sung Cho. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp. 389.
This is an important book looking in detail at an important aspect of the East Asian economies -- the semiconductor industry. The development of this sector, together with the wider electronics industry of which it is a crucial part, has been at the leading edge of the region's rapid industrialization along with the car, steel, textiles, and petrochemical industries. The book takes the semiconductor sector as a prime example for understanding the dynamics behind this rapid industrialization and describes why parts of East Asia (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and, to some extent, Malaysia) have managed to come close to the world cutting edge in such complex technologies. The book follows in the tradition of Hobday (1995) and Borrus et al. (2000) with a detailed discussion of country experiences and applies a thorough review of the literature regarding technology diffusion and organizational theory to the specifics of the East Asian semiconductor industry. In this way the authors examine the wider implications including prospects of replication in both other developing economies and also in the United States and European Union (EU). This book is an important contribution to our understanding of why the region developed so fast and will be useful for a variety of readers from macroeconomists to industry specific specialists and policy-makers around the world.
The key dynamic stressed is the creation of institutional capabilities to leverage existing technology from more advanced countries as opposed to traditional product invention and discovery. They rigorously explain that this was not a spontaneous development. Rather, it was the result of a concerted effort by the development-- orientated state to build the required institutional frameworks. In the context of technological underdevelopment, and with the disadvantages of being latecomers, the governments were instrumental in creating the mechanisms by which technology could be first introduced, then adapted to local requirements and finally mastered. Japan was the first and was perhaps sui generis with its strategy of full infant industry protection and a heavily mercantilist view. In...