The Service Support System for Textile & Clothing Sector: A Benchmarking Study against EU Countries
Date Issued
2004
Date
2004
Author(s)
Pan, Shu-Chin
DOI
en-US
Abstract
After four decades of glorious time, with the removal of quota restrictions and the rising of China competition as recent impacts, the textile & clothing (T&C) sector in Taiwan is facing an unprecedented challenging time now. In the meantime, when the high-tech industries are highly promoted and pursued by the government and the private entrepreneurs alike, the future of the ‘traditional’ sector seems to be left less attended. As a result, we wish to investigate the current business support system to the T&C sector in Taiwan, to identify the hidden needs of the private sector, as well as to benchmark the service provision system against the leading service provision intermediaries, especially those in the European Union (EU) countries.
Through the research of this thesis, we believe that National Innovation System (NIS) is the economic and social context that a nation should construct in order to foster the innovative technology development and the diffusion of technologies. Such innovation may include the development of new product, new method and new equipment for production, as well as the promotion of information technologies so as to enhance the overall competitiveness of the industry. The indispensable part in such innovation system is the service support mechanism built around the needs of the industries within the national economic context. Such supportive services will help the industry improve the skills & specialization, quality level, and flexibility through the direct business services and through a better access to technical or management knowledge and information. Therefore, the establishment of National Innovation System is the right approach to the high-tech industries, as well as to traditional industries such as the T&C sector.
However, a service support system involves multiple actors from the government and semi-public institutions. The interrelationship between the private enterprises with these organizations is the key to the effectiveness of the service provision system. Furthermore, the dominant factors affecting the interaction among these private and public actors include the legislation & regulations, promotion programs, institutional setting and intermediary structures. These factors are called ‘policy-related framework conditions’. They are either designed directly by the government policy-makers or strongly shaped by the public policies. Through such instruments, the government influences the behavior of the relative actors within the national economic network.
The service support system is set on the multilateral interrelationship in different ways: 1) among various enterprises; 2) between the industry and the service institutions; and 3) among different service institutions. The last two types of interrelationship are the focus of this research. This research will first investigate the prevailing service provision system in Taiwan for T&C sector and identify the needs of the industry. To do these, we applied the interview methodology and proceeded with a direct dialogue with the core players in the sector. A total of 15 interviews were conducted. It covered three groups of related interviewees: private (enterprises) sector, public sector and academic sector.
The findings from the interviews demonstrate that there is a gap between the industry’s real demands and the content as well as the amount of the services provided to them. In addition, they also illustrate that the public policies are directed towards the provision of scientific technology which are referred as the ‘hard’ technologies, but the ‘soft’ technologies involving various aspects of business management gain less attention.
Furthermore, we compared our findings with the ‘better practices’ of both business service centers (BSCs) and research & technology institutes (RTIs) from some EU countries. These ‘better practices’, which we learned through the literature review, may not be T&C-specific, but in general they present the ways to enhance the competitiveness of the industry and to improve the interaction between the industry and the service institutions. In other words, they are valuable resources against which the Taiwan T&C sector should benchmark.
As a result, we concluded this thesis by presenting the implications from the interviews and the policy recommendations thus developed. We emphasized that the government should not give away the power and responsibility to establish a solid economic environment to allow the industry to develop and flourish. It is important to note that the public policies and programs can regulate and shape the structures of the industry and the institutions and further influence their behavior and interrelationship. In other words, that is how the government should act as a catalyst of the industrial development and economic growth. However, as Porter suggests “there are no low-tech industries, only low-tech firms” (2005). Ultimately, the firms themselves are the core to grasp the opportunities to carry out the evolution plans under the context that National Innovation System builds.
In the end, the true merit of an innovative economic society is all about how the knowledge flows openly and that all sectors obtain an easier access to the knowledge and information of their needs, ranging from financial support, to marketing promotion, global relocation, IT infrastructure, e-commercialization, and much more. And this is the perfect economic society that we should strive for.
Subjects
紡織成衣業
架構條件
服務支援系統
T&C sector
National Innovation System (NIS)
framework conditions
service support system
Type
other
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