Abstract Taiwan corporations must maintain sustainable competitive advantage in the competitive global market to cope with the deteriorated industry environment in Taiwan. This research concentrates on exploring toy industry¡¦s investing process, and operating strategy in mainland China. All multinational enterprises entering China must be aware that even with cheaper labor and land cost, from 1986 to 2004, less then twenty years of rapid changes in China¡¦s toy industry, China is still a fast changing and competitive area for industry development. Based on the study of Company A¡¦s operation, one of the major purpose of this research is to provide corporate strategies for those industries that are interested in entering China, as well as toy industries that are currently in operation. Furthermore, as far as China investment, existing studies only focused on the entry mode; however, the results of these studies did not provide enough experience since most industry¡¦s investment in China is only at the introduction stage. However, since toy industry requires massive labor and is more competitive with Hong Kong¡¦s factories, both Taiwan and Hong Kong enterprises obtain complete operating experiences; and therefore provide valuable studies. The study of Company A has achieved the following conclusions: 1. Industry¡¦s moving outward is due to inconsistency of corporate value and society value in the economic region. Enterprises¡¦ operating strategy is to achieve society value, create customer value, and satisfy employee value in order to accomplish corporate value. 2. Time-based competitive advantage is to apply the concept of competitive advantage into dynamic operation strategy. Efficiency is the success factor of achieving competitive advantage. 3. Acknowledging industry mind-set, meaning to realize, to assume, and to expect specific industry in order to decide how corporate could increase value and to compete with others. 4. Local advantage is more important than core competencies. 5. Taiwan¡¦s industry should merge with area economic, for example, Taiwan-Shanghai, Taiwan-Shenzhen, Taiwan-Xiamen, to avoid Taiwan¡¦s industry become isolated from clusters.

Taiwan¡¦s IC foundry has truly emerged as important roles in Taiwan¡¦s electronic industries, whose fast growth has successfully been in the construction of Taiwan¡¦s economic miracle. Through the differentiation strategy, TSMC, the largest and most successful dedicated IC foundry in the world, expands and develops its business from bottom to top. It also has well driven IC industries a Cluster Effect, prosperously fostering the industries in its supply chain, from IC design and manufacturing to packaging and testing, even rapid growth of Taiwan¡¦s personal computer and peripheral industries relatively. Long-term, increasing growth for IC industries had earned many companies to invest low entry barrier factories - IC packaging that needs lower technical expertise and less capital. However, against semiconductor industrial booming and bust cycles, and the phenomenon known as the Bullwhip Effect in supply chains, most packaging factories have been confronting with the challenges in worse and more competitive environments. Those factories, even the same for the new entrants, actively adopted all different types of competitive, cooperative and integrated strategies, not only for profits but survival. In this study, based on path dependence theory, the competitive strategies among ten new IC packaging companies were introduced to discuss, examine, and more further verify the linkages between their competitive strategies and developing paths. The conclusion indicates that competitive strategies of positive developing path may offer new entrants a successful, experienced model to copy with. 1.The advancement of Taiwan IC packaging new entrants gave evidence for developing path¡¦s model. That is to say, different competitive strategies will result in different developing paths. 2.The competitive strategies of the positively developing path¡¦s model are helpful for new entrants to develop positively. Strategic positioning helps to concentrate company¡¦s resources onto her beneficial path to develop. Innovative strategies will help to break through the limitations of path and guide the developing path to success. Competitive advantage helps the developing path come into positive cycles. 3.IC packaging companies have to review and react very often to manage their competitive strategies when the developing path is influenced by the variances of inner and outer environments.

¡@¡@Since 1990s, rapidly changing business environments such as information technology advancements and global logistical competitions have brought enterprises many challenges. Recently, due to its rapid economic grow, China has become a ¡§world factory¡¨ but it will also cause the steel industry to face the problem of sterner challenges and crises for coping the huge steel demand. Most enterprises may make efforts to retain their competency and keep abreast of market status through so-called business process reengineering (BPR). Under such circumstances, it becomes very important for steel industry to integrate their business process and core competence to improve the competitive advantages. ¡@¡@Through literature review, in-depth interviews with experts and implementing experience of BPR project in steel plant, a reference model was developed to examine the core competence and facilitate the BPR. Some cases from domestic and oversea steel companies with successful experience in BPR project have been studied for validation of the model. And the result shows that this validated model can be used for the steel industry to implement their BPR projects. ¡@¡@In this study, it is also indicated that the core competence, composed of managerial system, physical system, skill and values of behavior, is very crucial to successfully fulfill the business process reengineering. The BPR project needs CEO¡¦s full support. The practical technical system and the skill of employees may speed up to build and maintain the new process. However if the new system is deemed to likely violate the rights and interests of employees, they may resist to reform. Therefore the learning organization in managerial system should guide the employees and communicate occasionally with their employees and with forming a value and a paradigm of common behavior in the company, the BPR could be actually carried out.

Abstract This dissertation explores the strategy of entering a high ¡Vbarrier industry for a conventional resin company. By analyzing the competitive advantage of nations in LCD industry, followed by comparisons made based on Resources Based View among the leading LCD chemical companies and the emerging Korea chemical firms in this industry ,the author analyzed the key successful factors of these firms and assemblied a set of strategies for the local players. The results leads to conclusions as follows: 1. The Taiwan LCD industry will have limited future ,without local LCD chemical companies. 2. The key successful factors of first movers are intensive R&D activities, aggressive participation in customers¡¦new projects, strategically alliance with important customers, and products portfolio being based on core technology of polymers, colorants or microlithography and also with organizational capabilities and long histories in chemical industry. 3.The Korean late-commers have similar KSFs with their Japanese competitors ,except that they focus their resources on fewer products portofolio and are more aggressive for faster response to customers¡¦ needs by adopting the culture of electronic industry¡¦s fast tempo. This dissertation is a case study on the competitive advantages of sampled chemical firms. By collection of related papers and reports and talks with experts in the field ,the key successful factors of the foreign competitors are summarized and the counter strategies for the local player are thus formulated. A business plan was proposed to prove the feasibility of the strategies. Key words: TFT LCD,follower¡¦s strategy,first-mover advantage, aggromeration economy,resource based view.

Local medium enterprises used to make economic miracles for Taiwan. However,in the wake of the changes in the macro environment, the rapid development of technology, changes in people¡¦s needs, increasing awareness of job safety and environmental protection, changes in the structure of workplace, capital and human resources moving to China as a result of rising mainland China, and recent rising prices of materials, local medium enterprises have been badly shattered, and their survival space has been squeezed. Rubber processing industries are in especially dire situations because they are labor-intensive and operate in inferior working conditions.So this research was designed to investigate how medium and small rubber processing industries, operating under such hostile business environment, can make good use of resources, overcome unfavorable environmental factors so as to energize business and continue business growth. Through literature investigation, this study used Advantages in Business Competition authored by professor Fang Chih-Min as the main research framework. At the same time, in combination with the review of other literature, through a process of affective learning, this study summarized, compiled and put forth a contention that a business must have advantages lying in ¡§ability to use resources effectively,¡¨¡§ability to achieve internal growth,¡¨ and ¡§ability to achieve external growth¡¨ before it can grow. The study inferred a topic from this contention. Then research was conducted based on case study approach. It was expected to understand, from this topic, what conditions would happen to the case and how to solve them. The results would be contrasted with theory, hoping to investigate and find out what would play a critical role in affecting the growth of a business. Then through practical verification,this study summarized, compiled, and proposed conclusions and suggestions. Through the research of this study, it was initially found that the essence of management would not change because of the size of a business and that how to conduct optimal use of limited resources to construct competition edge which is not related to size plays a vital role of the growth of small businesses. Moreover, in addition to strengthening their mainstream business, small businesses must also plan to enter businesses that can grow and profit tremendously so as to speed up their growth. As to suggestions offered to the case companies, in addition to enhancing their internal operation and management, they should also make good use of external resources to optimize the performance of resources, which would be the key to their growth.

Since the early 1980, the economic development of Taiwan has mainly relied on the small and medium-sized businesses that steadily play the important roles in leading the development of globalization of Taiwan industries. However, under the trend of mergers and acquisitions between businesses and grandization of the enterprises, the operation of the small and medium-sized businesses has faced a tough challenge and competition from foreign businesses, especially the traditional metal processing industry, which forces the small and medium-sized businesses have to upgrade and transform themselves. Currently China has already become the global manufacturing plant and the international investment center in Asia. In 2002, Taiwan and China joined WTO at the same time; Taiwan metal processing manufacturing industry faces the serious cost competition from China and pincer attack of American-European brand advantage in global markets. Under this difficult situation, it is very important for Taiwan traditional manufacturing industries to find out the better way to survive in the competitive environment. For example, the metal processing manufacturers in Taiwan are facing tough competitions from foreign businesses in a bidding war for opportunity to do business in China. Is it important for Taiwan's economy that the small and medium-sized businesses can compete against those foreign competitors? The Taiwanese small and medium-sized companies must join force and work together to compete and stay competitive in global industries. Under the new structure of WTO and the agitation for industry globalization, it is important for Taiwan's metal processing industry to do research and come up with a solution to be more competitive in the international market so as to grasp its own transnational competition advantage. The relevant research institutes in Taiwan should make this issue a top priority since Taiwan resources are very limited compared to other countries like Europe, the United States and Japan. They must work together in all aspects of business and share with each other their resources and knowledge to stay competitive in the current situation. This research adopts the theoretical foundation approach and real cases study. Aiming to Taiwan's metal processing industry, I invited two top managers for the metal processing companies in south Taiwan to have deep discussion on the problems they have been facing. Through the interviews with the two managers, I learn their business plans on transnational investments, experiences in tactics planning and transnational management¡Ketc., by which this research will focus on the study of the advantage of transnational investment that would become the core target for the small and medium-sized businesses to create synergy. The points of the main theme include institutional framework, financing, industry development, technological innovation, and competition between China and foreign countries on the study and judgment upon advantage tactics, such as shutting and strategic alliance. Under the changeable situation that several new developing markets are open, and that the newly-developed countries join the global competition, this research consults the transnational enterprises about their overall arrangement of investment and experiences of management to make Taiwan numerous traditional industries and the small and medium-sized business have macroscopically global vision of management tactics. The forming of the market regional economy and trade competition directly influences the future fortune of numerous small and medium-sized enterprises in Taiwan. Taiwan small and medium-sized businesses must gradually adjust themselves to globalization trend and make corresponding strategies for it while Mainland China is positively expanding international trade and improving technology and quality through national economy projects.

The main purpose for this paper is to study how we should focus on and its management during business merger and acquisition so that we could achieve the goal what we wanted successfully. The study can have several structures as follows: 1. How to announce the message of M&A to outside is pretty important to avoid any rumor happened --- Philips PPCK in this sample did well by: (1) Corporate Centurion Meeting (2) Business Strategy Review Meeting (3) Senior Staff Meeting (4) Town Meeting (5) Philips Components¡¦ memo 2. Re-plan the business strategy to bring up the morale of employees (1) PPCK¡¦s vision --- ¡§Keep creative and innovative to sustain its value¡¨ (2) The evaluation for long-term strategies and priority setting of 1999 strategy. (3) Build up ¡§One Unit Concept between the company and the employees¡¨ (4) Listen to voice from employees and (5) The comments from Labor Union 3. Build up the communication channel in full support in different ways (1) Make the communication process transparently (2) Management Team offer appropriate directions at any time (3) Go towards to a common consensus ¡§Three win --- The employees, Shareholders and management team¡¨ together 4. Decision Making to be done as planned (1) Define the decision model and time schedule (2) The negotiation and breakthrough on the preferential retirement measure (3) The protection on working conditions (4) The crisis management on keeping key-persons 5. Thinking about the synergies how will it be after merger and acquisition (1) The competitive advantages of the company that to be merged (2) The competitive advantages of the desired goal company (3) The advantages on global after merger and acquisition Keywords: M&A (Merger and Acquisition); Synergy; Competitive Advantage; Passive Components; Settlement; Communication

Abstract After the industry of Taiwan's bicycle and its parts were brought to the top in 1980, due to the change of economic environment of Taiwan, the proprietors of bicycle and its parts that belong to the conventional industries face the predicament of wages upsurge, the invariable of human resource and lands. The industry of Taiwan's bicycle and its parts has been played the role of manufacturing division supply chain of the system of global industry division and faced the conflicts of liberalization, globalization and low price for a long time. In order to operate in the situation of global industry division and its congregation plus the channel of marketing was controlled by others, how to get the cheaper human resource and lands to lower the producing cost to satisfy the marketing runners about the managed trend of low price. In early 1990, part of manufacturers started to have industrial relocation in Mainland China and sustained their business life by thinking the reason of economic open of Mainland China, cheap human resource and lands. Under the management of people who are from Taiwan and other countries and the advantage of lands for 10 years, the industry of Taiwan's bicycle and its parts still play an important role in global supply chain. With good economic situation of China after year 2000, its conventional industries extended rapidly, because of the competitive advantage of it, this advantage was used on the role of global manufacturing division and became a base of operations of global conventional industries. The strategy of Taiwan's bicycle and its parts that used cheap manpower, land resource as a step of global export was successful in early period, but it faces the cruel managed situation of foreign companies expends its business, overproduced and some conventional industries of China grow up and seize this big global market now. The industry of Taiwan's bicycle and its parts is part of medium-sized enterprises mostly. In this thesis, we found that this industry of medium-sized enterprises was the main managed factor or growing up in international division in early period, and it could enter China's market fast and keep the benefit and life of enterprises management safe then expended the situation of it continually. In this thesis, we found that the main points of industry of Taiwan's bicycle and its parts in the strategy of international division are, first, Mainland China was the main foothold for foreign companies to go and expended their business. Second, foreign companies all got together in Shenzhen area which was near Hong Kong in early period and used the step of position of Hong Kong as a free port of delivering and supplying this convention to the whole world. Third, after the management became stable in late 1990, the foreign company owners moved their business to Shanghai area, which was the core place of the industry of China's bicycle and competed for this global market with conventional industries of China. Fourth, most business runners started to occupy the inland market of China after everything got steady. The last point was though all the business areas were still controlled by Taiwan, the manufacturing had a recession gradually or even stopped producing totally. What's the next step of industry of Taiwan's bicycle and its parts after it gets its manufacturing base of operations? As for the industrial situation of the whole world, goods price is still low, but the capital of manufacturing tends to get high. Managed environment has been successful for 10 years from now because of the open strategy of Mainland China and makes the competition harder and harder. Businessmen of Taiwan should think about how to become better in the aspect of creating new stuffs and knowledge management to enlarge the competitive difference between Taiwan and China and still keeps the competitive core. Mainland China is a place where full of people, if we want to use the operating way of Taiwan's bicycle and its parts by medium-sized enterprises, only management is not strong enough to cover the whole market in China. Only using strategy of congregation and alliance can have an efficient overall arrangement in Mainland China and selecting strategy of diversity marketing to different markets. The conventional industry of Taiwan under the baptism of global division leads to agile managed way or our convention still has to face the managed predicament of loosing superiority one day if the purpose of industrial relocation is just getting low human resource and land cost.

Graduated: June, 2002 Student: Hu, Shen Sheng Academic Degree: Master thesis Advisor: G. Gary Hu Abstract: The semiconductors products are the key components for electronics industry. The applications covered the wide field of 3C(Computer, Communication, Consumer) electronics products. The suppliers are the manufacturers of CPU, MPU, Chip set, Logic IC, Linear IC, etc. The customers are the manufacturers of 3C electronics products. The Distributors of Semiconductor are not only sales components or import-export business, but also provide the professional value-added service for suppliers and customers. They are important bridge for the suppliers and customers in the worldwide semiconductors supply chain. They perform a key role in the electronics industry. Taiwan has the competitive advantage in the hardware of information industry such as low cost and high quality. The worldwide manufacturers consider the production cost and the price competitive. They would like to reinforce the strategic alliance relationship with Taiwan. In this trend, the customer of 3C product manufacturers want to reduce their stock risk and production cost. The customer will not buy from the original component manufacturers directly. They will choose the distributors which can provide low cost, fast delivery, design support, FAE support, good quality, e-process, overseas support, etc. The distributors should develop to differentiation business mode in the future. Provide the value-added service for the supply chain in the electronics industry field. The strategic development of Marketing Channels for Semiconductor Components in Taiwan is shown as below: 1. Build and extend core capabilities. 2. Construct a worldwide distributors network. 3. Continuing expend the economic scale. 4. Provide the total-solution for customers. 5. Search for new products and new applications.

According to China Credit Information Service Ltd.¡¦s classification, Taiwan¡¦s women underwear industry is under the ¡§Apparel¡¨ category. The women underwear industry has developed from 1950¡¦s, and now is in a mature period with high entry barrier. Under the ¡§Oligopoly¡¨ market structure and well-developed domestic distribution system, there are seven leading firms--competing in product¡¦s design, fashion and shop ladies¡¦ service based on good on-job education and training with each other. Foreign rivals¡¦ emulating in the industry also prompted domestic firms developing international competence. Because of mounting up in production cost in Taiwan and low-end products dumping from China and South Asia after signing up for WTO, many firms sought to build ¡§International Division of Labor System¡¨ and engage in overseas production to make cost cut down and improve the industry competitive position effectively. This research adopts the qualitative exploratory study method. The first, author collected an amount of domestic and foreign relative references, including industry yearbooks, books, professional reports, journals, magazines and newspapers as the secondary data. Then, author interviewed three firms and formulated these materials by which author can understand the business operation situation and the industry¡¦s competition model. In order to explore the competitive advantage of Taiwan's women underwear industry, author implemented consumer behavior analysis, analysis of Porter¡¦s ¡§structure of five competitive forces¡¨, ¡§value chain¡¨, and Porter's ¡§concept of crystal model of national competitive advantage¡¨. Finally, we drew up the competitive strategies to the industry and the government for further improvement by SWOT analysis. Those competitive strategies will be include ¡§Production Innovation Strategy¡¨, ¡§Market Development Strategy¡¨, ¡§International Strategy¡¨, ¡§Cost Minimize Strategy¡¨, and ¡§Relative Advantage Strategy¡¨.