A Study On The Spatial - Temporal Evolution Of Science And Technology Innovation System In Taiwan

IV Since the 21 st century, with the promotion of the economic globalization and technological globalization, the world economy is undergoing a historical transformation from traditional economy which based on material resources and labor input to information-based knowledge economy, and economic growth have come to rely more and more on the development of science and technology. Knowledge worked as the main factor of production together with science and technology worked as “the first productive force” has become “new normal”. Science and technology innovation ability, especially the capacity for independent innovation, has become a core essential factor for national and regional competitiveness. Countries and regions of the world put research and technology innovation in a very important position, increasing investment in order to enhance the competitiveness of national science and technology and innovation ability. Taiwan began to complete the transformation process with high-tech-dominated industries in the 1980 s. As a research subject of building science and technology innovation system in Taiwan, it is worth pondering by researchers in economic geography and regional economics field in China.This study concluded that: first, the comprehensive development of science and technology innovation is consistent with the background of economic transformation in Taiwan. Second, the main body of technological innovation is research and development institutions.“Enterprises, universities and government ”system refers to universities and academies on behalf of public research institutions act as intellectual resources in a region, and mainly undertake basic research as well as help enterprises to complete the link from theory to market. Besides, research and development institutions are responsible for getting the technology to market. The government provides good policy environment and risk-sharing responsibility; while governments at all levels provide platform and system guarantee, all three together constitute the “triple helix innovation model”.The main conclusions are as follows:The spatial characteristics of science and technology innovation in Taiwan are: the government’s scientific research institutions are highly concentrated in Taipei-centric northern reign with other parts in scattered layout. Colleges and universities attached with research and development institutions locate in central cities of northern, central and southern Taiwan.(such as: Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung etc.)The research and development institutions attached by enterprises mainly situate inside the Science Park, and now Taiwan’s science park has formed a science and technology industrial concentration zone running north and south.By the study of the evolution of Taiwan’s technology innovation mechanism, this paper found that combining the superior external resources and scientific planning of science park with the suitable high-tech industry development policy support and the formation of distinctive leading industry with high efficiency are important safeguards and motive force of development for he construction of technology innovation system in Taiwan. By studying the input structure of science and technology innovation in Taiwan, we found that research and development expenditures maintain a rapid development with an increasing share of GDP; enterprises keep a favorable position in research and development investment; appropriation expenditure of research and development are mainly used for technical research and development projects; basic and applied research and development project investment mainly supported by government agencies and academics accounting for a small proportion, which would be a new restriction in the sustainable development and leading superiority of technological innovation ability in Taiwan.From a view of the structure of research and development personnel investment, the enterprises occupy a dominant position. The number of their researchers with bachelor’s degree or above is more than 80% of the total number of development personnel. According to personnel age, as the low birth rate phenomenon has become increasingly apparent in Taiwan, the growth number of young researchers tends to slow down in recent years and the percentage of middle-aged researchers is growing rapidly, which could cause the age fault of researchers in the long term. In terms of OECD, due to the high-tech industries possess high value-added products, Taiwan enterprise prone high-tech industries which bring in added value of products and give priority to technical researches.Finally, this paper uses DEA model to sample data from 2000 to 2012 analyzing the innovation performance in Taiwan. Results found that from 2000 to 2001 scale efficiency worked, and from 2002 to 2008 it is invalid, while from 2009 to 2012 scale efficiency worked again. This indicates that the innovation ability presents "U" type evolution in Taiwan. Affected by the internal and external fact or such as international division of labor, environment policy and industrial environment, the efficiency of scientific research input and output in Taiwan has a certain degree of fluctuations, however, scientific and technological innovation ability present a tendency of increasing as a whole.