An 'Evolutionary' Analysis for 'Later-Entrant' Firms to Catch up Advantage-– A Comparative Cases Study of Taiwan Inverter Industry
| Autor: | Wen-Chang Shieh, 謝文昌 |
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| Rok vydání: | 2004 |
| Druh dokumentu: | 學位論文 ; thesis |
| Popis: | 92 There are many later-entrant firms try to catch up with those early-entrant firms who have gained first-mover advantage. This is an important and usual phenomenon in any industry. However, some later-entrant firms can catch up with the leading firms very quickly, although the later-entrant firms may be already ten years lag behind the early-entrant firms; while some other later-entrant firms cannot catch up with the leading firms, even though these later-entrant firms is only one year lag behind the early-entrant firms. So what is the key factor of this later-entrant firms catching-up strategy? And how should we analyze this kind of strategy? These are the core problematics of this research. Inverter is one of the representative products of the electrical and electronic industries. It incorporates multiple technologies such as electronics, semiconductor, information, and traditional electric engineering, and is another promising applications industry, just like the semiconductor and information technology industries before. Delta Electronics company entered the inverter industry in 1994, as a later-entrant firm which is ten years lag behind the first-mover in the inverter market. However, it has achieved an annual sale of NT$ 1.8 billion and a huge domestic market share of 42%, greatly surpassing those famous first-mover large firms such as TECO and TSEI companies. Delta has further set a target annual growth rate of 30% for the next few years, aiming to become a top ten player in the global inverter market. As a later-entrant, the phenomenon of Delta’s catching-up strategy and rapid growth is impressive and can be found in many industries. However, existing strategy management theories seem inadequate to provide a valid analytical framework for later-entrant catching-up strategy. In terms of methodology, the author first employed the reverse thinking technique on those literature of “first-mover firms competitive advantages” to preliminarily clarify the directions of the later-entrant’s catching-up with the market leader. After that, the author first uses historical research method to collect and organize cases study materials of the major firms in the inverter industry; then, grounded theory research method is used to analyze, through three kinds of coding process, how some later-entrants manage their catching up operation in market competition. So this study has identified three elements of later-entrants’ catching-up strategies-- technology, market, and organization. In addition, the overall key successful factor for catching-up strategy is the new concept of “triple-evolution”. In order to gain a deeper understanding into the likelihood of success in firm’s catching-up strategy, this author then assigned “intensity” weights to the three elements of the later-entrants’ catch-up strategy, using grounded theory method to explain the relationship between the strategic capability of later-entrants and their chances of succeeding in their quest to surpass market leaders. To answer the question of how these three elements of “catching-up strategy“ “co-evolve” with each other. With the central axis of “evolution” cutting through the entire analysis, this study has developed a “triple-evolution” capability model to explain the three elements of the later-entrants’ strategy. Based on the interpretations of the case subject, this study has further developed an initial framework of a strategy trajectory for later-entrants to self-evaluate their chances of out-competing the first movers on the market. |
| Databáze: | Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations |
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