The Narrow ‘Breadth of R&D’ and the Bottleneck of Technological Catch-Up: A Case Study of Taiwan’s Flat Panel Display Industry from the Perspective of the R&D Strategy of AMOLED

This chapter through a case study of Taiwan’s flat panel display (FPD) industry, shows that it is important for industries in developing countries in the final stages of the catching-up process to widen their ‘breadth of R&D’ and improve responsiveness to market needs. In the early 2000s Taiwan’s FPD industry invested considerable resources in developing AMOLED, an advanced type of FPD, in response to increasing marketplace uncertainty. Afterward, however, the lack of a strong brand and a solid alliance with specific major vendors led the industry to focus its R&D on areas with high marketability, which ultimately led to the stagnation and suspension of R&D on AMOLED technology. This weakened the ability of the Taiwanese FPD industry to adapt to the ensuing changes in market structure.