| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 會計學研究所 === 91 === The primary purpose of this study is to examine Taiwan’s motherboard manufacturers for their adopted strategies, resources and capabilities, and the fit between strategy and capability in different stages of the product life cycle (PLC) transition. Product life cycle theory presumes product itself resembles human life with stages of birth, growth, maturity and aging. The PLC includes 4 stages: introduction, growth, maturity and decline. In different stages sales and profit evolve through time. The typical diagram of time-industry sales PLC is S shape. But there also exist cycle-recycle pattern, stable maturity pattern, innovative maturity pattern and so forth. So the PLC cannot be explained by a single model and applied to all industries, and in fact evidences proved there are many patterns of industry evolution. But the features of PLC and driving forces behind shall deserve for thorough observation and serve as a basis of strategy planning. In the environment of dynamic changes, those enterprises within should prepare themselves with different capabilities and different strategies to adjust themselves to the changing world.
In reaction to the change of industry demand and structure through PLC stages, strategists developed matching strategy prescriptions, which define key success factors/ capabilities. But since each industry environment is different, to adopt those prescriptions without adjustment to unique industry situation will cause danger. In early periods (1970-1980), external environments, such as industry structure and competitive positioning are focuses of strategist studies. Later in 1990s, resource-based view that a firm’s resources and capabilities are the principal basis of strategy decision gradually became popular. Evidences are hard to prove industry itself is the primary reason of different profitability between firms. Now firms face more drastic price competition as internationalization and de-regulation, moreover, technology changes faster than before, industry boundary has become obscure. So to develop internal resources and capabilities to create competitive advantage, instead of searching for profitable industry, has become the primary target of strategy formation.
This study based on PLC theory and secures data through questionnaires, interviews and secondary documentation. Through those data, I tried to generate results on finding driving forces of motherboard evolution, the strategies those firms in such industry adopted to match industry evolution, changes on resources and capabilities of those firms through PLC stages and the degree of strategy-capability matching. So I can propose suggestions for motherboard manufacturers to their strategy decision with such study results.
The results suggest: (1) the key success factors have shifted from early “differentiation” and “channel” focus to later “cost” and “after-sale service” focus; (2) capabilities of firms followed strategies adopted to different focuses, e.g., firms with cost leadership strategy improved on capabilities concerned low cost, firms with differentiation strategy improved over capabilities of technology, branding and customer service; those not adopting generic strategies of Porter show weakness on overall capabilities; (3) strategies adopted by those motherboard firms may vary from their strategy group, but generally speaking, they stressed on high price, technology and branding in early stages, focused on price competition, segmentation, vertical integration and diversification in later stages; (4) in mature stage, the capabilities firms intended to intensify still focus on technologies, R&D and time-based competition. But firms with cost leadership strategy more stressed on mass production and low cost, those with differentiation strategy more stressed on marketing, branding and customer service; (5) those firms matching their strategies and capabilities perform better on profitability, while those not perfectly matching show inferior performance.
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