ABSTRACT
Taiwan’s economic success today is rooted in the IT industry. Because Taiwan has come to play such an important role in the global IT industry, it is well known as the “Silicon Island.”
Taiwan is a small business-dominated economy, small businesses accounting for about 97 percent of all firms. The average life of Taiwanese small businesses is 13.3 years. The advantage of a small business is its flexibility in weathering adversity such as the Asian financial crisis in 1997; but it has the disadvantage of limited growth due to financial and technological constraints. ASUSTek Computer Inc. (ASUS) has demonstrated entrepreneurial success globally in a relatively short period of time. Established in 1990 with four owner-employees and NT$30 million (US$1 million) start-up capital, with revenue of less than NT$1 billion (US$31.7 million) in its first year of operation, ASUS has grown to be a global company with market capitalization of NT$49 billion (US$1.5 billion), and revenue of over NT$755 billion (US$24 billion), the historical high, in 2007. ASUS has been in the top three for name brand value in Taiwan since 2003 with a value of US$1.66 billion in 2012 (“Top Taiwan Global Brands,” 2013). This phenomenal success in only 13 years makes ASUS an interesting case study to investigate the entrepreneurial activities leading to its continuing success.
