Abstract
Through a comparative case study of two semiconductor foundry firms, UMC and TSMC, we aim to examine how and why firms differ in their technological paths. The technological path can be described as an evolutionary, organization-level process of innovation, which is characterized by both the path-dependent and path-creating natures that build on each other. We draw on a topic modeling approach to distinguish between path dependence and path creation, and to discern into their different effects on the structuring of technological path inside a firm. Two different strategies were identified in the two firms – technology blending (in UMC) and technology deepening (in TSMC), serving as generative mechanisms for spawning a diversity in sources of technological advance that characterize distinctive technological paths, accounting for path difference across the two focal firms. Overall, our central contribution is a strategic structuring view of technological paths, whereby actions create structures.