Innovation, organization and performance in the global semiconductor industry

This dissertation examines innovation, organization and performance in the global semiconductor industry. It combines quantitative and qualitative research methods from industrial organization economics, transaction cost economics, organization theory and the resource-based view of the firm to examine several important and recent industry phenomena. Research topics examined include the organization and strategic importance of process innovation; the changing industrial organization of the industry; and the interdependence among the firm-level technological environment, the inter-organizational environment and the country-level technological and institutional environments that influence semiconductor firms' foreign investment decisions.; The body of the dissertation consists of three empirical applications at different levels of analysis. The first of these looks within the firm and examines various human resource and organizational practices internal to semiconductor firms that influence the speed and quality with which new process development can take place. This empirical application adds to literature in the resource-based view of the firm by analyzing the effects of resource deployment on the ability of firms to “learn by doing” and thereby improve their ability to adapt and improve performance.; The second empirical chapter examines the technological factors that influence the speed and quality of new process development between specialized semiconductor manufacturing firms and firms integrated into product design. This application adds to the literature in industrial organization economics and transaction cost economics by examining governance, innovation and performance.; The third empirical chapter considers the technological, inter-organizational and institutional environments in which semiconductor firms compete, and how these environments independently and jointly influence foreign investment decisions. This chapter adds to the growing literature on politics and firm strategy by exploring how the various environments in which semiconductor firms compete influence their foreign market entry decisions.