The dynamics of Samsung's technological learning in semiconductors

California Management Review

Volumn , Issue 3, 1997, Pages 86-100

  Kim, Linsu ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0031511658     PISSN: 00081256     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/41165900     Document Type: Article

References (25)

1. See "Korea: Headed for High Tech's Top Tier," Business Week, July 31, 1995, pp. 32-38.
2. See Chapter 1 of Linsu Kim, Imitation to Innovation: The Dynamics of Korea's Technological Learning (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1997).
3. See Wesley M. Cohen and Daniel A. Levinthal, "Absorptive Capacity: A New Perspective on Learning and Innovation," Administrative Science Quarterly, 35 (1990): 128-152.
4. See Richard R. Nelson and Sydney G. Winter, An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982), p. 134.
5. Changrok Suh, "The Political Economy of Competitiveness: The Case of the Korean Semiconductor Industry," a paper presented at the conference on Redefining Korean Competitiveness in an Age of Globalization, University of California at Berkeley, April 24, 1993.
6. Korea Semiconductor Company (KSC) was a joint venture with Integrated Circuits International, Inc. (ICII), an American company, where Dr. Kang worked previously. ICII's American engineers also played an important role in extending technical assistance to Samsung. Samsung later bought out ICII's equity share of KSC.
7. Jinjoo Lee, "Urinara Giupeo Changeojuk Gisulgyebal Sunggongsarae" [Successful Cases of Creative Technological Development in Korea], Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, a mimeograph, October 1993, p. 5.
8. After attempting to assimilate untested 5″ wafer production technology from Zytrex, Samsung switched to emulate a production-tested 4″ wafer system used by Sharp.
9. Samsung Semiconductor and Telecommunications Co., Samsung Bandoche Tongshin 10 Nyonsa [Ten Year History of Samsung Semiconductor and Telecommunications] (Seoul: Samsung, 1987), p. 204.
10. See Chapter 6 of Youngrak Choi, Dynamic Techno-Management Capability: The Case of Samsung Semiconductor Sector in Korea unpublished Ph.D. dissertation at Roskilde University, August 1994, p. 106.
11. The working good die is a functionally operating wafer (at about the 99 percent level) before packaging and reliability test.
12. Youngrak Choi, op. cit., pp. 107, 137.
13. Samsung in fact acquired foreign technical assistance in various forms for solving minor problems and modifications. Youngrak Choi, op. cit., p. 110.
14. Linsu Kim, "National System of Industrial Innovation: Dynamics of Capability Building in Korea," in Richard R. Nelson, ed., National Innovation Systems: A Comparative Analysis (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 357-383.
15. Martin Bloom, Technological Change in the Korean Electronics Industry (Paris: OECD Development Center, 1992), p. 64.
16. The stack structure and trench structure are methods of increasing storage capacitors on wafers. The former stacks capacitors on wafers, while the latter etches wafers in a trench shape.
17. Kee-Young Kim and Ji-Dae Kim, "The Korean Electronics Industry," College of Commerce and Economics, Yonsei University, 1993, a mimeograph.
18. "Samsung Electronics Jumps Ahead of Competition in Memory Chip Output," The Korea Economic Weekly, January 16, 1995, p. 10.
19. "Samsung Announces First Ever 256M DRAM Chip Prototype Development" The Korea Economic Weekly, September 5, 1994, p. 8.
20. "Samsung Inks Semiconductor Tech Tie-Up Contract with US Companies," The Korea Economic Weekly, October 3, 1994, p. 10.
21. "Non-Memory Capacity Expansion by Chip Makers Leads to Higher Sales," Korea Economic Weekly, August 14, 1995, p.9.
22. See Linsu Kim, "Crisis Construction and Organizational Learning: Capability Building in Catching-Up at Hyundai Motor," Organization Science (forthcoming, 1997);
23. Linsu Kim, Imitation to Innovation: The Dynamics of Korea's Technological Learning, (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1997).
24. Ikujiro Nonaka, "Creating Organizational Order Out of Chaos: Self-Renewal in Japanese Firms," California Management Review, 30/3 (Spring 1988): 57-73.
25. For an excellent discussion of the state role in the development of the semiconductor industry in Korea, see Jeong-Ro Yoon, "The State and Private Capital in Korea: The Political Economy of the Semiconductor Industry, 1965-1989," Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1989.