Today, companies are operating in a fast-changing environment of intense competition. It is essential that they continuously improve their competitive advantage by working hard to strengthen the soundness of their business systems, raise their competitiveness, and improve the quality of their manpower resources. The foundation of any company is its intellectual capital, and this has become an important direction in human resource development. This research paper aims at the relationship between intellectual capital and competitive advantage as well as the effect of innovation and service quality on intellectual capital and competitive advantage. It also examines the moderating effect of strategy on the relationships between intellectual capital, innovation and service quality. Finally, this paper offers some helpful observations and suggestions on how companies may raise their competitive advantage. This paper focuses on the banking industry. Two questionnaires were designed, one for supervisors and the other for consumers. For the former, random and convenience sampling were employed. Questionnaires were mailed to a random sample of 200 financial institutions in Kaohsiung and Taipei, of which 82 responded, a return rate of 41%. For the convenience sample, through the assistance of friends and relatives, a further 48 questionnaire replies were received. For the customer survey, the questionnaire targeted those banks which had already responded to the supervisor questionnaire. Each bank used convenience sampling methods to survey 3-5 customers at its service center. In total, 122 banks returned 573 valid questionnaires. The data from these questionnaires were subjected to a variety of statistical analysis including Pearson's correlation, independent t-test , ANOVA and regression analysis with the following results: 1. Intellectual capital has significant and positive influence on innovation. 2. Intellectual capital has significant and positive influence on service quality. 3. Intellectual capital has significant and positive influence on competitive advantage. 4. Innovation has significant and positive influence on competitive advantage. 5. Service quality has significant and positive influence on competitive advantage. 6. Strategy plays a siginificant moderator role on the relationship between human capital and innovation. 7. Strategy plays a siginificant moderator role on the relationship between human capital and service quality. 8. Innovation has a significant mediating influence on the relationship between human capital and competitive advantage. Keywords: intellectual capital, strategy, innovation, service quality, competitive advantage

Abstract Recently fishing industry in Taiwan is under hugely severe business environment. Due to distinctness of diplomatic situation, it is totally different competitive situation Taiwan is facing. Therefore, not only development of ultra-low-temp tuna fishing industry and managerial means and of international or regional incubate organization will be deeply described but also diamond model of Porter will be explored to analyze the competitive advantages of ultra-low-temp tuna fishing industry of Taiwan in the thesis. Definitely, the conclusion will used to develop practical plans for future severe situation. After well understanding literature about development of ultra-low-temp tuna fishing industry in Taiwan, I concluded the followings based on perspective of diamond model: 1. The first is that operations of Taiwan Tuna Association and cluster effects build the competitive advantages other countries are hard to get beyond. 2. Secondly, under relatively stable variation of tuna prices, the fishing boat owners are emphasizing on cost reduction in order to maintain business operations and get above average earnings. The ability of cost control is competitive advantage of fishing industry of Taiwan. Keywords: diamond model ,ultra-low-temp tuna fishing industry ,competitive advantage

Seeing that domestic securities underwriters are not able to develop effectively sustainable competitive advantages, the research is aimed to combine the resource-based view (RBV) and the value chain concept. Questionnaires are released to carry out investigation mainly into the securities associates of local underwriters for the purpose of finding out the vital enterprise source and value activities that construct the high performances of underwriters. And it also discusses the relation between value chain activities and business models of domestic underwriters, and the relation between their business models and high performances. The research discusses the following subjects based on the above research motive: 1. What kinds of essential assets and skills should underwriters grasp to obtain higher performances than those of their competitors? 2. Discussion of the vital value activities that construct the high performances of underwriters, and attempts to build the complete value chain of local underwriters. 3. Discussion on whether local underwriters will develop different business models due to emphasis on different value activities from those of their competitors. 4. Reasoning about whether the high performances of local underwriters will vary significantly because of different business models. The result of the research¡¦s practical testimony shows: ¡§Underwriting performance¡¨, ¡§customer developing ability¡¨, ¡§support from financial holding companies¡¨, ¡§channel and distribution¡¨ and ¡§underwriting superiors¡¦ charm and leading abilities¡¨ are considered by local securities associates to be five of the most important enterprise resources that constitute the high performances of underwriters. Among them, resources such as ¡§underwriting performances¡¨ and ¡§support from financial holding companies¡¨ are of durability, immobility, high embededness and not able to be duplicated. Plus, ¡§customer developing ability¡¨ and ¡§channel and distribution¡¨ are of durability, and partial immobility as well as resource embededness. All of the above resource characteristics are deemed by resource-based view to be able to form the sustainable competitive advantages of enterprises. After the variables of each factor in the aspect of value activities are measured, 24 items¡¦ means of importance degree are more than 3.79 among them. Analyzing descriptive statistics data, we find out that more than 70% of securities associates consider the effect of these 24 value activities to be important or extremely important, which implies that local securities associates highly agree to the importance that the support activities and primary activities in the value chain comprise the high-performance base of domestic underwriters. Furthermore, a complete value chain of local securities underwriters will be set up based on the result. In the field of cluster analysis for the aspect of business models, the research adopts the minimum variance method (also called Ward¡¦s method) among hierarchical methods, and divides 20 securities underwriters into three groups based on one¡¦s strong or weak behaviors of each value activities compared with those of other rivals of the same business. After analyzing performance variables such as the number of underwriting cases (act as the lead underwriter), the total amount of underwriting, profit abilities, employees¡¦ productivity, and customer satisfaction, we find that their significance level are less than 0.05, which indicates that there are obvious differences among the performances of different groups of business models. And with Post Hoc multiple comparison, it is found that there are distinct variances among the performances of different groups of business models except for the three performances - profit abilities, employees¡¦ productivity and customer satisfaction - of group 1 and group 2.

In light of the niche theory, the study aims to understand the competition among the four telecommunication services, including fixed network telecom, second generation telecom service, third generation telecom service and internet phone in the taiwan market. In this study, we put emphasis on the gratification of the telecom user, because the more gratification the telecom get, the more competition it have. The findings suggest that there are eight factors about the gratification of the telecom consumer, including functional, affection, information-seeking, fashion, uitility, entertainment and pricing structure. In addition , there is strong competition between the fixed network telecom, second generation telecom service, third generation telecom service and internet phone. Four telecom services are good at different factors, therefore, new telecom services would not form competitive displacement for fixed network telecom. Thus, we argue that four telecom services satisfy different consumers needs, and they will survive in different segmentations of telecom market service.

The market that Taiwanese travel abroad is ripening gradually, especially after the rise of information science, technology and e-commerce. The information about travel products is transparent day by day, the ecology of travel agencies change too; though the number of people going abroad still grows up, but the profit of the travel agencies is dropping constantly. When the management of other industries have already entered ¡§the era of the meager profit¡¨, in fact the travel agencies have already entered the market of ¡§the slight profit ¡§, so the travel agencies are in a highly competitive environment invariably . However, how to evaluate the competitive environment and the essence of the competition effectively? To set up the unique and constant advantage and to start up the enterprise for a long time and lucrative growing up, will be the key for the enterprise to sustain in an unassailable position and to continue existing in the market, it¡¦s also the main purpose to conduct this study. The result of this study shows that under the external competition, if the travel agencies want to build up the competitive advantage from 6 dimensions among the same trade; Including products advantage dimension, brand advantage dimension, service advantage dimension, human resource advantage dimension, cost advantage dimension and price advantage dimension, the travel agencies must to analyze the resources and abilities they have internally; this paper takes a case study of Club Med in Taiwan and use the model and framework which was created by this study to explore the core competency, competitive strategy and competitive advantages of Club Med. Therefore, the main contribution of this study is to create ¡§The model of enterprise setting up the competitive advantage¡¨. Besides this key finding, there are some conclusions as following, which can be regarded as a reference by the travel agencies: 1. Travel agencies should enhance their core resources and abilities as valuable, rare, costly-to-imitate and non-substitutable capabilities, to create the sustainable competitive advantage. 2. Though the future development of the travel agencies will move towards the trend of the maximization or the minimization, but regardless the scale, the core competencies still the key success factors for a travel agent to sustain in the highly competitive environments. 3. Most of the travel agents in Taiwan belong to small and medium-sized enterprises, although they are not able to build up the advantage overall at brand, products, manpower, service, cost and price, but they must at least have one or two competitive advantages, such as products and service, if the travel agent own the unique products and differentiate service, even it¡¦s a small agent, still can compete with the competitors. 4. Even though the case company has the competitive advantage on brand image, case company still need to take the growth strategy to increase new market segments for growing up, and to take the differentiation strategy to develop the products and service which are suitable to the target audiences¡¦ need, to enhance the network with supplier's airline and distributor's travel agent, to strengthen the managerial ability of its holiday village continuously and to improve the service quality in order to obtain higher competition advantage .

The economic development in Mainland China is obvious to all. After adopting the open door policy, the differences of competitive advantages among regions gradually contribute to an unbalanced economic development. The huge difference will cause not only economic crisis but also political crisis resulting from people's dissatisfaction on the decline of living standard. This has been gradually erodes the fruits of opening policy and causes a bottleneck on the way forward economic development in the future. The aim of this thesis is to discuss about the unbalanced phenomenon of economical development resulted from the competitive superiority in regions. We thus objectively evaluate the degree of advantages in each region on the aspects of exterior environment, such as plentiful resources in each region, and the demand structure of market, the mutual influence of the geographical distribution of industries and the governmental economical development policies, and the competitive ability of enterprises. In this article, we also want to reach the following goals. First of all, we try to realize what reasons caused the gaps of economical development among regions, what situations it current presented, and what problems it existed. Secondly, looking for the most suitable way of economic development in each region, it would suggest how to upgrade the competitive advantage in those disadvantaged regions. Finally, introducing the environmental competition of each region in the Mainland China to investors, it will let those investors choose the best location for business to promote their market competitiveness in the future.

ABSTRACT In the record of the theory, we found out that the competitive advantage always be focused on the thinking of strength, the strength aiming at ¡ugood¡v¡B¡ustrong¡vresources or conditions, whatever in the resource-based theory or the strategy-based theory. The reason is all research was deeply influenced by SWOT. Japanese Industry successfully growing up, ¡§with small to win huge¡¨, to beat global deader, had highlighted the important issue, ¡§ Shall small always be small? Shall big always be big? ¡§ Gray hamel and C.K. Prahalad in ¡uCompeting in the future¡vdeclared¡G ¡¨ Mastering industrial spaces is not by company¡¦s small or big, not by less or much resource, not by less or much market-share.¡¨ In case, it shall convince of us to study the factor of competitive advantage shall be in a vision more than ¡ustrength¡v, good , strong, or much resources and conditions. Meanwhile, in the record of theory, we also found out that the efficient method of resource & strategy must carefully consider the differentiation of product, industry and industrial structure. On fact, the differentiation of product, industry and industrial structure formed at each industry¡¦s differentiation and each industry¡¦s specificity. Concluding all of above, the writer is interested in the research of the topic; the key of factor of competitive advantage shall be emphasized and aimed at the specificity of the industry. In order to studying the relevance between the competitive advantage and the industry¡¦s specificity, the writer design the researching range as followings as: 1. The original of the competitive advantage. 2. The relevance between the competitive advantage and resource, strategy. 3. The relevance between the competitive advantage and the industry¡¦s specificity. Keywords: Competitive advantage ¡BIndustrial specificity¡B Chains-strand competitive advantage

-¢» Power libralization & Privatilization of power industry have become a worldwide trend in the recent years. To cope with the problems of power shortage and power development, ROC government began the libralization of power generation in 1995. Fifteen IPPs(independent power producers)were acceped to build power plants, through open bidding of phase 1& 2 and current phase, a total of 13210 MW of new capacity. However 7of them were cancelled due to the diffculties of land acquisition. By the end of 2001, Taipower has signed Power Purchase Agreement with 8 IPPs, totaling 7220MW. Amount them, Mailiao units #1¡B#2& #3 and Everpower units #1& #2 started commercial operation respectly from the beginning of 1999 , totaling about 2700MW. Those new competitor have great impacted on Taipower operation. Some of high cost traditional oil and gas fuel units of Taipower had to be shut down or operated in lower load condition. It is of urgency for Taipower to propose optimal competitive stratagies to improve the performance and upgrade the competitiveness. Right now Taipower power market is moving from monopoly toward competitive. By taking Taipowe as study sample, referring to the experience of power libralizationof other countries, and reviewing the characters of Taiwan¡¦s power industry, the study aims to validate following foresight operation stratagies such as¡Gto downsize its organization structure and to increase the productivity of its employee; to promote the Sixth Transportation and Transformation Project to maintain the strength and advantage of transportation and transformation; to develope renewal source generation, to supply the users high-quality and low-price electric power, to prevent the loss of big user and to implement load management polices. The SWOT analysis shows that Taipower must take some competitive stratagies in order to become the leader of power industry and the most reputation enterprise group in Taiwan, These competititive stragies include: 1. Taipower should retrofit and improve the high cost units and low efficency equipment to reduce the generation cost and decrease air pollution ;most of them can generate much power also, Then these units would not be a sunk cost, and can operate all the time. In addition, Taipower should build high efficency units to competite with IPPs. By setting open bidding price and resonable power wheeling price in the future , Taipower can increase its revenue, and secure the resonable rights of its customer, shareholders and emplyee. 2. To establish the development of core techniques and to create innovation mechanism, and to cooperate with domestic & foreign academic organization and manufactures, to lower down repair & maintenance cost. To visit and obtain longterm R&M contracts from IPPs and co-generaters to enlarge R&M market, to establish the excellance image of brand. 3. To diversify its operation by Investing in bangala coal mining in Australia and in fixed network communication business etc.so as to increse revenue and return of investment. In addition, two build coal ships of Taipower were operated by CSC subsidiary in the first 5 years to reduce the cost and keep the supply safety. In the future, Taipower can build more ships to transport the coal by itself.

Abstract Recently the competition among ports has become more severely. This may develop to a new stage of competition of port management as the negotiation of the marine to be restarted in the WTO. What kind of port services could be provided is very critical to those who operate and manage the port. It is important for them to think about how to evaluate and get into the newly opened market of port services. During the stage of organization reform of Kaohsiung port, especially if we could hold this chance, it may create a new development opportunity for Kaohsiung port. PSA group is operating its port in full service and integration; therefore, my research focus is on PSA group¡¦s performance using industrial organization model to analyze its operational environment, and collecting the investigation from ship owners, employees of Harbor Bureau, pilots and scholars. This is done so in regards to the important port services and management condition to come up the core competence of the port. The paper focuses on the investigation of Singapore, Hong Kong and Kaohsiung port to know the merit and analyze the SWOT of PSA¡¦s managing strategy by the statistics sign test. Then, using this concept of basic source model, to find PSA¡¦s management strategy, which upgraded its competition ability, and made the superior position to develop overseas business. ¡uWe can find the right way by other¡¦s experience.¡v, The experience of PSA¡¦s group is good for Kaohsiung Port.

­^¤åºK­n Abstract Thesis: The Influence of Resource Characteristics and R&D Strategies to the Competitive Advantage --- A Study on the Semiconductors Industries in Taiwan To ground on Resource-Based Theory, in this thesis tried to investigate the relationships among resource characteristics, R&D strategies, and competitive advantage in Semiconductors industries, Taiwan. The resource characteristics here are ¡§substantial of resource,¡¨ ¡§sustainability of resource,¡¨ and ¡§appropriability of resource¡¨; R&D strategy could be divided into ¡§product innovation oriented,¡¨ ¡§product improvement oriented,¡¨ and ¡§process improvement oriented.¡¨ This research mainly adopted questionnaire survey as investigating method, and its target group in semiconductors industry Taiwan, were focused on the firm of circuit of design, wafer foundry, assembly and test, and material & equipment manufacturing. Structured questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data so as to test hypothesizes brought by this research. Though the hypothesizes of this research are not fully supported by collected data, following consequences are still able to grasp: (1) The resource characteristics of an organization have significant effected on formulating R&D strategies; (2) R&D strategies would shape corporate competitive advantages of ¡§performance of product development,¡¨ ¡§performance of product quality,¡¨ and ¡§operation cost.¡¨ However, whether to affect on corporate overall profit level, this research has not yet acquired significant differences. Hence, it will rely on further explore of follow-up research; (3) this research shows that resource characteristics are not directly affected on all aspects of corporate competitive advantage, but it might shape competitive advantage by formulating corporate strategy; (4) regarding organizational resource characteristics, in current stage, that businesses emphasize more on value than on sustainability of resources; and (5) innovation, refinement, and improvement orientation of R&D strategy, businesses pay equally attentions on. The findings of this research will be contributed to follow-up study and practical application. Keywords¡GResource characteristics,R&D Strategies,Competitive Advantage¡C