The influence of knowledge source and ambidexterity in the thin film transistor and liquid crystal display industry: evidence from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan

Based on country-level comparisons, this study applies geographic (internal vs. external) and knowledge (exploitation vs. exploration) boundaries to explore the influence of knowledge sources and ambidexterity on production and innovation performance in the thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) industries of the three major players, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, from 1995 to 2009. Our findings suggest that different resource-based industrial development strategies are associated with the specific knowledge acquisition strategies in the technology leader, Japan and its followers, Korea and Taiwan. The contribution of this study is empirical verification of the influence of knowledge sources and ambidextrous capabilities on production and innovation activities in the TFT-LCD industries of these countries. Since each country is endowed with different resources, this study aims to reveal the strong implications of this for the design of an industrial strategy that has to acquire both known and new knowledge through internal and external sources simultaneously, while carefully integrating them and exploiting their interactions.