Technology entrepreneurial styles: a comparison of UMC and TSMC

Technology entrepreneurship concerns the ways in which entrepreneurs draw on resources and structures to exploit emerging technology opportunities. Based on this concept, this paper examines and compares technology entrepreneurial styles of two leading Taiwanese semiconductor firms, UMC and TSMC. We show that the two firms' technology entrepreneurship originated and developed in distinctive ways: UMC became oriented toward agility in organisational networks and in business diversification, while TSMC became oriented toward stability in self-dependent development and in business focus. We explain these differences in behaviour by referring to the distinctive backgrounds of the firms' entrepreneurs. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.