Abstract
This thesis investigates, the role of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), a public research institute in the catch-up process of the latecomer country Taiwan’s innovation system from the perspectives of collaboration between industries and universities. Using the university-industry-government (U-I-G, triple helix) paradigm, this thesis explores the evolving role of ITRI in reinforcing and facilitating the transitioning of Taiwan from an imitator to an innovator over the last few decades. This thesis has three parts: the first part investigates how knowledge capital accumulated (in terms of patent activity) by ITRI helped configure Taiwan’s industrial structure over the last few decades, and compared its effects with that of Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI); the second part explores the evolving collaboration modes between a public research institute (PRI) and universities during the catch-up phase (the 1970s to the1990s) and post-catch-up phase (the 2000s to the 2010s); and the third part examines how Taiwan reduced failure risk and transitioned itself from an under-developed economy in the 1970s to a developed economy in the 2000s. The role of PRIs in relation to those of other drivers in the innovation system under state-led transformation is identified. In terms of industry-PRIs (I-P) relationships, ITRI has evolved from a facilitator in the catch-up phase into a mediator in the post-catch-up phase, reinforcing industrial strategies and national approaches designed to attain an endogenous structural change in Taiwan’s innovation system. This thesis also highlights macro-meso-micro views of transition and provides salient normative principles as guides for transformational policies for other developing economies.