Organizational innovation for a sustainable national competitive advantage: ITRI and Taiwan's national innovation system

The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has played a key role in Taiwan's national innovation system. This innovation system can be described as a network of bridges facilitating easy access and the open flow of knowledge into and around Taiwan. As an institution, ITRI provides a mechanism that is unique in developing and developed nations alike. It efficiently combines a number of functions that in other nations may be carried out by several different institutions. ITRI's primary function in its thirty-year existence has been to bridge the gap between basic research and technology commercialization. It was ITRI, charged with a specific government mission in the 1970's that acted as the primary transfer agent of semiconductor IC knowledge into Taiwan. Later, additional specialized technology, human resources and venture capital knowledge from abroad was used to simultaneously create and capitalize on opportunities in Taiwan. This essential knowledge transfer was centered on ITRI as a 'knowledge bridge', facilitating the flow of information. Under this model, ITRI has evolved through four distinct chronological phases: 1) the technology import phase in the 1970's, 2) technology dissemination and commercialization in the 1980's, 3) building industry linkages in the 1990's, and 4) the current focus on international, interdisciplinary and intellectual property linkages. As ITRI's methods have changed over the years, its bridges have grown more sophisticated. This paper examines ITRIs role as a key component in Taiwan's national innovation system. Many lessons from ITRI's successful bridge model can be extracted and applied to developing countries today.