Journal of Economic Geography Advance Access originally published online on December 22, 2007
Journal of Economic Geography 2008 8(2):157-180; doi:10.1093/jeg/lbm049
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Coevolution and coordination: a systemic analysis of the Taiwanese information technology industry
*Institute of Technology Management, College of Technology Management, National Tsing-Hua University 101, Sec. 2, Kuang-Fu Rd., Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. email < cklee{at}mx.nthu.edu.tw>
**iSchool, University of California at Berkeley, 102, South Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. email < anno{at}ischool.berkeley.edu>
JEL classifications: B52, R11, O18, L63
The evolutionary turn in economic geography has led to increasing emphasis on coevolution among technologies, organizations and territories. The weakness of this approach, however, is a focus on broad coevolutionary pictures that pays little attention to coordination processes that guide interdependent actions on the ground. Using the Taiwanese information technology industry as an example, this article suggests an industrial system analysis that gives a structural coherence to a series of intentional, collective actions. Such a systemic measure has the potential to extend the evolutionary analysis beyond broad coevolutions to the strategic transformations of industrial organizations.
Keywords: evolutionary economic geography, coevolution, industrial system analysis, information technology industry
Date submitted: 1 March 2007
Date accepted: 3 December 2007