This study characterizes performance of IC fabless firms via a two-stage production process emphasizing profitability and marketability. A data envelopment analysis (DEA) method is employed to determine operating performance of 40 leading IC fabless firms in Taiwan. About 10% of firms (9 out of 40) are found efficient in profitability performance model. In this study, marketability performance is found better than profitability performance for fabless firms. New approach identifies areas for improved IC design performance over two-stage production process.
