Taiwan's SMEs since the New Century

[[abstract]]It is well known that SMEs as well as entrepreneurship played important roles during Taiwanâs economic development. Many recognize SME sector is a unique economic foundation of Taiwan. As Taiwan marched toward the New Century, the performance of SME sector in the economy draws new attentions. In this study, we examine the performance of SMEs from three angles. First, we observe the changes in market shares of SME in Taiwan, based on the census data, 1954 to 2006, with a main focus on 2001 and 2006. The statistics show a declining trend from 1991 to 2006. However, according to the official statistics provided by the White Paper of Taiwan SMEs, the status of SMEs in Taiwan maintains strong from 2007 on. Second, to understand what caused the decline of SMEs in the first half decade of the new century, we use regression analyses to compare the determinants of share of SMEs based on manufacturing census data, 2001 and 2006. The evidences show the essence of SME activities changed due to the new development in the global environment as well as the challenge of the entrepreneurial economy. Third, our study also looks into the entrepreneurial activities in recent Taiwan. As an economy considered to be the one has most successful entrepreneurial culture in the world, it is happy to see that there is no obvious shortage in the entrepreneurship. The size of Taiwanâs SME sector and the resource of entrepreneurship have gradually reached an optimal state in the new century.[[sponsorship]]Center for Asia-Pacific Area Studies(CAPAS), Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences(RCHSS), Academia Sinica; 中研院人社中心亞太區域研究專題中心（CAPAS）; 越南社會科學院（VASS）[[sponsorship]]中研院人社中心亞太區域研究專題中心(CAPAS); 越南社會科學院(VASS)[[conferencetype]]國際[[conferencedate]]20121207~20121207[[booktype]]紙本[[iscallforpapers]]N[[conferencelocation]]Taipei, Taiwa