School of Business and CAPS: Center for
Strategic Supply Research at Arizona State University are
pleased to announce that the Focus Study titled "Technology
and Organizational Factors in the Notebook Industry Supply
Chain," by William Foster, Zhang Cheng, Jason Dedrick and
Kenneth Kraemer is now available in English
and in Chinese.
This paper describes the notebook PC industry
and key changes occurring therein as well as the organizational
and technical components of the notebook supply chain. Despite
low levels of information technology (IT) among smaller third
and fourth tier suppliers, the computer supply chain works
fairly well. A major reason is the role of interpersonal relationships
in the supply chain. The notebook industry is a dense network
of mainly small and medium sized firms headquartered in Taipei
with manufacturing and supply clustered in the Shanghai area
of China. The CEOs of these firms are plugged into a network
of personal relationships (guanxi). Through constant communication
with their Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) customers and
fellow suppliers, the Taiwanese business network begins to
resemble a human neural network that matches supply and demand
without keeping a lot of inventory in the system.
The paper has implications for relationships
between other digital supply chains and Chinese business networks.
It concludes with a discussion of the implications for U.S.
companies, with special emphasis on the issue of the business
risks associated with dependence on the Greater China supply
chain.
The study is based on extensive on site interviews
in Taiwan and China with Taiwanese Original Design Manufacturers
(ODMs) and 3rd and 4th tier suppliers which are producing
notebooks for U.S. flagship companies such as Dell, HP, Apple
and Gateway.
(CRITO Research Spotlight, May 2006)
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