峰迴路轉還是死胡同？彰化社頭織襪產業的路徑依賴與鎖進過程

Abstract

本文從探討社頭織襪產業的特殊性出發，研究織襪產業為何在生產成本日益高升的台灣還存有一席之地？延伸劉寶齡(2000)對社頭織襪產業的研究，我將「彈性生產、快速反應」的在地調適策略進一步拆解分析，結合Storper對區域經濟的分析與演化經濟學的理論取徑，發展出一組技術(草根學習)、組織(外包制度)與社會資本(社會鑲嵌)三者共構的區域產業發展路徑，說明地方的行動者如何從鄉內大工廠的解散為始，在歷史的資源中開始發展專精短期彈性生產的策略，如此的生產體制恰能符合1980年代全球生產鏈國際分工的需求，社頭織襪產業榮景一直持續至1990年代前半時期。 1990年後在貿易自由化的浪潮下，全球產業競爭加劇，嚴重衝擊台灣產業發展，我認為這不只牽涉產業技術面的升級與創新問題而已，我以彈性理論的辯證做為中介，說明社頭織襪產業在前一個階段的發展過於強調發揮短期與個人層次的調整彈性，在缺乏政策支援、難以鬆綁地方資源與社會紐帶的條件下，原來曾是區域優勢的技術、組織與社會資本三組路徑開始浮現矛盾的僵固張力，使區域發展調整不易，逐漸因路徑依賴作用走入鎖進的困局中。雖然部份行動者的積極性似能引入外界資源，嘗試不同的發展路徑，但從區域長期整體發展的角度而言，社頭織襪產業似乎還無法進一步整合調整現有資源，僅只於個人層次的努力與突破。

Processing from the speciality of Shetou Hosiery industrial district, I discuss why hosiery industry could survive in Taiwan where production costs have been increased since 1980s. Based on Liu’s(2000) research, I analyze the “flexible production” and “instant reaction” strategy in Shetou. Inspired by Storper’s model of regional economy and evolutionary economics, I develop a set of pathway of regional development, including technology, organization and social embeddedness. I elucidate how local actors built up the flexible specialization from the historic resource such as the disintegration of the leading firm. The production system coincided with the global labor division in East Asia in 1980s thus industrial prosperity continued till early 1990s. However, the wave of trading liberalization around 1990s sharpened the competition. I introduce the debate of flexible theory to explain that Shetou is over reliant on short and individual flexibility. The paradoxical rigidity which sustained the flexible production evolves gradually in this phase. The local resource get consolidated and the regional path become lock-in. Although some actors could bring external resource for upgrading, it is difficult to integrate and combine the external and local resource for breaking through the status quo in regional level.