Local Clustering and Organizational Governance of Trans-border Production Networks: A Case Study of Taiwanese IT Companies in the Greater Suzhou Area

本文主要以最近八年內在中國大陸大蘇州地區投資設廠的資訊電子業臺商為例，分析其在地聚集之供應鏈的企業間交易關係之本質與組織網絡的治理模式，以探討全球生產網絡之地域性聚集的經濟地理意涵，以及企業組織間的治理結構對於地方發展以及空間分工的影響。本文指出臺商在大蘇州地區的分支部門功能逐漸趨於完整，並逐漸改變北臺與蘇南的空間分工，但更具有「在地化」意涵以及對於廠商之機能運作整合有策略性意義的本地技術資源的運用仍有待觀察。此外我們也發現這一波資訊電子業臺商的跨界投資相當程度係由外商大廠所驅動，跨界投資的過程基本上強化臺灣代工廠商與品牌大廠之間的策略性合作，然而臺商生產網絡的跨界拓展也交織著企業組織間的權力運作，導致生產網絡之治理模式發生改變並形構了空間聚集的動力。本文顯示從全球生產網絡之廠商間交易治理結構出發的分析視角有助於理解區域發展的機會與限制，而就發展中國家由全球生產網絡之跨界轉移所形構的新工業空間而言，「經濟地理學」所強調的廠商間具有地理鄰近特質的「互賴性」並不能脫離全球商品鏈所內涵的的不對稱權力關係。This article aims to explore the formation of new industrial space in the Greater Suzhou Area (GSA) in china driven by recent trans-border investment of Taiwanese IT companies in the last eight years through an investigation of the governance mechanisms of the local supply chains as well as its implication to regional development. We found that the functions of Taiwanese IT companies’ branches in the GSA had increased, and the spatial division of labor between Northern Taiwan and the GSA is changing gradually, but the local branches’ R&D activities are still limited. Furthermore, we also observed that foreign brand-name companies had played important roles in propelling this wave of Taiwanese IT companies’ trans-border investment in the GSA. Although strategic cooperation between Taiwanese OEM/ODM companies and foreign brand-name companies was consolidated, the pressure from foreign brand-name companies has changed the governance mechanisms of Taiwanese companies’ supply chains and forged the dynamics of spatial agglomeration. We argue that the production networks’ trans-border extension is interwoven with the exercise of power between enterprise organizations. The findings of the study suggest that interdependence among the firms in close geographic proximity that economic geographers emphasize as the main reason for the formation of new industrial spaces in developing countries due to global cross-border production shift is inseparable from the asymmetric power relations embodied in the global commodity chains