| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 資訊管理組 === 97 === The IC trading industry is situated between the IC manufacturers and the electronic manufacturers. With the vigorous development in Taiwan''s electronic industry and the market specialization, the role of IC trading companies in supply chain becomes more important. In order to reduce the inventory risk and the manufacturing cost, the computers, communications and consumer electronics manufacturers purchase parts from distributors for their quick delivery and attractive price. However, the low barrier to entry/exit the business has created hundreds of IC distributors in Taiwan, making the business more competitive and diversified.
As a broker between the IC manufacturers and the electronic manufacturers, distributors gains through the ''management '' and ''service'' they provided. In recent years, the gross profit margin of electronic products has dropped significantly. In particular, since the electronic manufacturers in Taiwan are mainly OEMs, their margin ratio now drops from 15% in the early days to nearly 5% or 6% or even lower. Likewise, IC trading companies, as a member of the Value Chain, is impossible to gain high profit as before, and thus must seek some strategies to survive in the fierce environment and to maintain their competitiveness.
Large-scale IC trading companies take the horizontal expansion as the main strategy, including the multi-product line, one-stop-shopping, tying arrangement, technical support service and discount or rebate. The expansion strategy of large-scale IC trading companies poses some threats on the survival of the middle- and small-scale IC trading companies, possibly forcing them to be merged or acquired.
This research applies Porter''s ‘five forces analysis’ and the Ansoff Product-Market Growth Matrix to discuss the competition situations of middle- and small-scale IC trading companies. By a case study on the transformation process of a small-to-middle scale IC trading company, this research analyzes its transformation strategy and external environmental factors, and provides some useful suggestions as how a middle- and small-scale IC company should transform itself to maintain competitiveness in the industry.
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