Formation of industrial innovation mechanisms through the research institute

Taiwan's industrial structure has benefited from interactions between the government and national research institutes. In typical exchange, the government will commission research organizations with R&D projects and the results will be implemented in industry. General domestic industrial innovation benefits as a result. The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is Taiwan's largest research organization. Its mission is to set up new industries and to help existing industries upgrade-a goal that it has worked toward for 30 years. Since ITRI's results must be implemented in industry, the methods it uses in industrial innovation are crucial. In order to relate these methods to ITRI's industrial innovation mechanisms, this paper provides a clear conceptual model. This model includes: (1) The selection of (a) technology development targets, and (b) methods of technology R&D and commercialization, and (2) The components of the national innovation system, which are the government, research organizations, academia, industry, and international organizations. These two aspects are used to analyze the mechanisms of industrial innovation. This conceptual model reveals the mechanisms that ITRI has employed from 1973 to 2003. We are thus able to obtain a broad perspective on how ITRI's mechanisms have continually created new technologies and implemented them in industry. These mechanisms have gone on to form a network that facilitates the operation of Taiwan's industrial innovation system. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.