Strategy formulation in a newly industrialized country's strategic technical alliances: A case study of Taiwan's electronics industry.

摘要

The purpose of this research is to investigate the formation and strategic intent of a newly industrialized country's strategic technical alliances (STAs), with a focus on Taiwan's robust electronics industry. An analytical framework and several theoretical propositions are developed. They are then used to guide the investigation of the strategy formulation of Taiwan electronics industry's STAs. The primary research methodology being applied in this research is multiple-case studies, in which previously developed theories are used as a template with which to compare the empirical results of the case studies. Three interrelated questions are considered in the context of this study: (1) Why and how do Asian newly developed countries' firms participate in STAs? (2) Who do they cooperate with to jointly develop and transfer technologies? (3) How does government policy affect the strategy formulation of technological collaboration?;Three firm-level cases in addition to the industry case analysis have been selected for this research. Each firm-level case represents a group of firms which covers a variety of value-added activities within the industry. The evaluation of case data indicated that the fast pace of technological innovation and changing market environments lead to strategic changes of many of Taiwan's electronics firms' strategy and structure. Taiwanese electronics firms' alliance strategy primary reflect Porter's competitive strategy approach. The strategy of Taiwan's electronics firms is to "re-position" its industrial status toward the high value-added portions of the value chain. By establishing technological collaboration relationships with foreign MNCs, Taiwanese electronics firms are able to "re-configure," "coordinate" and up-grade their global value activities to expand the scale and scope of their operations. Acquiring new technologies to build up internal capabilities and learning about new market environments to increase market share and profit are also major motives for engaging in cross-border technological collaboration. Taiwan's electronics industry consists mostly of high-commitment, internal-capability companies. As the technological capability of many domestic firms became mature, the Taiwanese government has shifted its role from merely transferring technologies to the private sector, to the role of coordinating the formation of strategic alliances for large domestic science and technology projects.