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Tiger Technology: The Creation of a Semiconductor Industry in East Asia. By JOHN A. MATHEWS and DONG-SUNG CHO. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. xxiii, 389 pp. $54.95 (cloth).
The East and Southeast Asian tigers have become a fertile ground for hypothesis testing and theory building for over three decades now. However, much of the earlier work had been restricted to the laissez faire-dirigiste debate that seldom converged. This book attempts to pursue a different perspective, i.e., to examine the instruments and forces that explain the evolution of latecomer firms. Although related to past works, its objective is to explain how institutional development assisted latecomer firms in East Asia to achieve successful growth. In doing so it departs from traditional strategic management discourses that explain how already successful firms manage. The authors examine the development of semiconductor firms in Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan.
The book is presented in three parts with eight chapters. The first part presents the evolution of the semiconductor industry in East Asia and the technology-- leveraging strategy used by latecomers. Part 2 discusses...