TIGHTER BONDS - CUSTOMER SUPPLIER LINKAGES IN SEMICONDUCTORS

This paper examines changing linkage relations between high technology firms and their semiconductor suppliers. In an effort to improve manufacturing performance and accelerate the pace of technology development, high technology firms are. establishing closer ties with semiconductor suppliers. To date, the restructuring of supplier relations has focused primarily upon increasing the flow of information among firms; stronger forms of collaboration, such as the co-development of manufacturing and technological capability, are less common. The locational effects of tight supplier linkages are weaker than anticipated, differing markedly from the intensified regionalization of manufacturing associated with just-in-time production in the automobile industry.