過去的兩岸經貿研究顯示，臺商「臺灣設計、大陸生產」的產業鏈布局，是為歐美跨國企業代工所致。本文以手機產業為例，透過分析中國大陸在地產業的發展歷程，來檢驗臺商角色與兩岸產業分工的轉變。研究結果發現，驅動兩岸產業分工型態轉變的兩大新因素，一是中國大陸山寨手機市場的興起，二是中國大陸政府制訂的產業政策變遷－從先前吸引外商投資到支持國企發展中國通訊標準「時分－同步分碼多工存取」。其次，臺商因擁有較先進的研發能力與完善的供應鏈優勢，逐漸轉變為中國大陸手機產業在地化發展的推動者。新的兩岸分工關係可描繪為「兩岸合作、大陸內銷」。

Previous studies of Cross-Strait economic integration concluded that Taiwanese enterprises relocating production factories to China were driven by global multinational corporations (MNCs). Thus, the Cross-Strait division of labor is characterized as ”R&D in Taiwan, manufacturing in China.” This article examines shifting roles of Taiwanese enterprises and the transformation of Cross-Strait economic integration by analyzing Mainland China's indigenous industrialization in the mobile phone industry. One of the new findings is that two new drivers to transform Cross-Strait economic integration are the rise of the domestic low-end Shanzhai market and adaptation of the central government's industrial policies, shifting from inducing foreign direct investment (FDI) to supporting state-owned enterprises (SOEs) R&D on China's mobile standard TD-SCDMA. Second, with superior R&D capacity in high-end key components and a complete supply-chain network, Taiwanese enterprises have gradually played critical roles in promoting industrialization of the mainland's mobile-phone business. As a result, the altered division of labor could be re-characterized as ”Cross-Strait cooperation in vertical integration, import substitution in China.”