台灣汽車零組件產業的技術擴散與產業升級：從火藥、高壓氣瓶到安全氣囊

Industrial Upgrading and Technology Diffusion in the Taiwan Automotive Parts Sector: From Gunpowder and Gas Cylinders to Airbags

汽車安全氣囊（airbag）具高精密度與穩定度的技術要求，其全球市場呈現出高寡佔的市場特性，進入門檻極高。台灣的汽車產業一向被視為「扶不起的阿斗」，長久以來始終無法擺脫技術依賴的困境。在這樣的情況下，為什麼1990年代國家中山科學院與台灣廠商可以自主研發安全氣囊的關鍵技術，並且出口至歐洲、中東、馬來西亞等國際市場？成功的機制是什麼？這段歷程又有哪些值得討論的理論與經驗意涵？本文分別從模組化、代工政治及技術擴散的觀點解釋台灣安全氣囊產業的技術變遷。首先，歐美車廠在1990年代推動模組化生產，這個趨勢帶來相對開放的產業環境，給台灣零組廠帶來加入跨國分工的機會。其次，過去以整車廠為中心的技術移轉模式並不利於零組件廠的技術學習，甚至對零組件的技術發展造成阻礙，本文以代工政治的概念來解釋既有模式的限制。相較於此，中科院、全興、元翎從本業基礎延伸到安全氣囊的技術學習模式，則突顯出台灣分散式生產體系的特質有利於跨產業間的技術擴散，達到技術學習與產業升級的目標。

The global airbag market is highly oligopolistic because of the high precision and stability required during production. As such, there are extremely high barriers for entry. The automotive industry in Taiwan has always been regarded as “a babe in arms” and unable to shake off the predicament of technological dependence. Taking into account these difficulties, it remains unanswered as to why the National Chung- Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) and Taiwanese manufacturers were able to develop key technologies for airbags independently and export them to international markets including Europe, the Middle East, and Malaysia in the 1990s. How did they succeed? What are the theoretical and empirical implications of this history? This article examines the technological changes in Taiwan’s airbag industry from the perspectives of production modularization, the politics of subcontracting, and technology diffusion. Firstly, the modular production promoted by European and American automakers in the 1990s brought opportunities for Taiwanese manufacturers to join the multinational division of labor in car manufacturing. Secondly, the existing technology transfer model centered on automakers was not sufficient to explain the technical learning of parts manufacturers. This article introduces the concept of the politics of subcontracting to explain the limitations of the existing conceptual model. Finally, and in contrast to the technology transfer model, the NCSIST, GSKIT, and MOSA’s R&D approach demonstrates how technology diffusion occurring in their own industrial bases of airbag manufacturing highlights the characteristics of Taiwan’s decentralized industrialization, which is conducive to the cross-industry diffusion of technology and achieves the goal of technological learning and industrial upgrading.