Process-tracing analysis demonstrates how institutional distance generates governance misfit in cross-border semiconductor fabrication projects, highlighting mechanisms to prevent project escalation.
The performance of cross-border semiconductor fab construction depends on how well imported governance routines fit host-country construction institutions, as well as on technical and supply-chain challenges. This study examines how institutional distance becomes governance misfit in authority delegation, labor coordination, and compliance ownership, and whether formal bridging mechanisms can prevent escalation. A multiple-case documentary process-tracing design analyzes 67 public sources on two large U.S. fab projects, Fab Alpha and Fab Beta. A literature-derived framework guides conservative coding of dated events. Alternative explanations, including labor shortages, equipment delays, and demand shifts, are retained to avoid attributing routine project difficulties to institutional misfit. Public documents are treated as mechanism-consistent evidence rather than direct observations of internal decision-making. Fab Alpha shows stronger evidence of normative labor and authority misfit, followed by workforce forums and routine codification. Fab Beta exhibits greater regulatory and cognitive misfit regarding permit approvals, equipment milestones, and reimbursement-linked reporting during the 2026 transition toward operational readiness. The study contributes a governance mechanism that distinguishes institutional misfit from routine coordination and delay problems and identifies governance artifacts and boundary conditions for testing the framework in other verification-intensive projects.
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Liu et al. (2026) studied this question.
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