| Summary: | 碩士 === 元智大學 === 管理研究所 === 89 === Industry networks play an important role for firms to gain competitive advantages. Unfortunately, our understanding on this complex phenomena remains unsystematic that could not provide any guidance for business practices. The purpose of this study is to explore how industry networks evolve over time and to develop a tool for industry forecasting in the context of the wireless communication industry (WCI). First, several dimensions to describe an industry network were developed through an extensive survey of the literature. I then discussed how the development of wireless communication technologies and critical historical events interact with the evolutionary path of wireless communication industry. Second, I develop a new framework to describe and analyze the dynamics of wireless industry networks. I depicted the network structure at different developing stages of the WCI networks. Both internal and external forces that drive the evolution of WCI networks become tractable. I also demonstrated how global WCI networks influenced the regional WCI networks. Third, 13 quantitative measures were used to describe how global and regional WCI change over time. I also report the special characteristics of four different network life cycle stages. Fourth, a scenario prediction approach was used to forecast possible courses of WCI in the next 10 years. Four possible scenarios were identified. According to each of the four scenarios, managerial implications for Taiwan’s manufacturing firms followed. I also found that neither global or regional wireless communication industry networks were getting mature and the growth rate will not be as high as it was in the past decade. Two key driving forces of the next wave of network restructuring is the commercial success of 3G service and the market demands of Mainland China.
There are some interesting findings. (1) It takes a long time for industry networks to emerge, grow, and evolve. (2) Global WCI networks significantly influence the formation and development of regional WCI networks. (3) Members of industry networks can form the network effectively by jointly selecting common technical standards. (4) The evolutionary paths of industry networks are deeply influenced by environmental factors as well as historical events. (5) Government regulations may restrict the flexibility of network members’ activities. I finally conclude with the need for Taiwan’s WCI networks to tightly integrate with regional networks including Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China.
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