Abstract Due to the reduction of market, intense price-competition, and all continual rises of direct costs, the domestic chemical industry is encountering a tough transformation period in recent years. Hence, the competitive strategies of pursuing low cost and high efficiency are both the crucial tasks for traditional chemical manufactures to be deal with. Facing the challenge from China Mainland and India s¡¦ advantages of the lower labor cost and abundant natural resources, domestic chemical industry must improve their intrinsic technology to cross phase highly added-value products of sophisticated chemical manufactures. Continued from the preceding key issues, only by figuring out a unique route, ¡§blue oceans¡¨, from the bloody Red Seas, the survivor could avoid losing the battle and being eliminated permanently by their competitors or violent environment. The strategy adopted by most domestic enterprises is keeping cost down, including the sources of lands, factory facilities, labor, water, electricity, raw materials, and the strategy is integrated with the viewpoints of scale economic. Under the strategy, the enterprises still can¡¦t achieve their definite triumph in competitive circumstances, and nevertheless, it enhances the inherent advantages barely. Taking the steps toward the sophisticated tactics is necessary in order to consolidate the advantage of the original products. Furthermore, the adopted distinctive strategies of market, brand and channel is one of the major issues to success. This research referred to the essential literatures related to my main theme, and I adopted the case study to be the research mode, a foundation prepared for the CEO as the advanced recommendations. Through the process of analysis the chemical industry , target market analysis, SWOT analysis and value chain analysis, we achieve the distinction between two different operation modes. Further the research is expected to provide the domestic chemical enterprises for references while phase off the new pattern. Key words: Competitive advantage, Value chain, Business strategy, Cross-Phase

Since the late 20th century, transformation of the general environment has generated unprecedented challenges for symphony orchestras in Europe and America, such as audience development, fundraising, technology innovation, and market competition. Now, transplanted by the Western symphony orchestras, the symphony orchestras in Taiwan also face the most important task to deal with, and that is how to subsist. At the moment, professional symphony orchestras in Taiwan are mainly publicly-owned. The subject of this study will hence probe into the organizational legitimacy, organization positioning, and business strategy of publicly-owned symphony orchestras through analyzing both their external and internal environments as well as the results of in-depth interviews. On one hand, this study will provide an overview of the development of publicly-owned orchestras in Taiwan. On the other hand, it will offer new ways of thinking to orchestra managers and policy makers.

The inspection (verification) or Certification firm is to utilize professional specialist, technology and equipment, standing on an independent¡Aimpartial and objective position to conduct inspection, testing and assessment on the quantity/quality of commodity, performance of machinery and components, and implementation of the established quality system, then provide the supplier/buyer and stakeholder with certificate or report for fulfilling the contractual obligation or commitment made in the trade transaction activities. The inspection and certification are playing the role of pioneer in the process of technological development, and they are also one of the necessary pusher for business and industrial enterprises to achieve the target of enhancing product quality¡A obtaining international accreditation and increasing international competence. In the current society of free trade and free economy, the inspection or certification firms, along with the consumers¡¦ awareness and the drastic competitions among inspection or certification industries, facing the daily increasing competition and consumers¡¦ demanding, should make research of how to adopt an appropriate competitive strategy, to look for the market niche, to enhance service quality, to understand customers¡¦ real needs and customers¡¦ satisfactions so as to broaden service scopes and customer groups for the purpose of accomplishing the objective of building the firm to last forever. - iii - This study is to explain the characters, current status and outlook of the inspection or certification industry, and to analyze the development history, performance and achievement of SGS Group in Taiwan - the world leader of verification, testing and certification organization. By employing the industry analysis method addressed by Porter and the SWOT analysis for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat, we discussed the effect of ¡§five forces¡¨ on SGS Taiwan¡¦s business strategy, the correlation of service quality and customers¡¦ satisfaction, and currently its implementation of the managing tools of Balanced Scorecard and ISO 9001 quality management system. In summary, we have derived the Key success factors for the inspection or certification industry, and submitted suggestions of strengthening business model and management strategy for other inspection or certification firms as reference and benchmark enabling them to provide best and integrated services for the business and industrial enterprises in Taiwan who are pursuing quality. Key words:Inspection, Verification, Certification, Business Strategy, Service Quality, Customers Satisfaction.

Securities investment trust industry was in fact an oligarchy in Taiwan. Under the restriction of governmental regulation, there were only China(¤¤µØ), International(°ê»Ú), Abn-Amro (¥úµØ), and National(«Ø¥°) securities company in existence before 1992. As the development of global financial liberalization going and the effort of government trying to join WTO, domestic financial policy is growing wide open. The threshold for the establishment of securities investment trust corporation company has been constantly adjusted since 1995; moreover, the qualification for being a shareholder of securities investment trust corporation company is loosen. The possibility of establishing securities investment trust corporation company with 100% foreign funds or domestic funds has attracted national and international corporations to establish investment trust corporation company in Taiwan. There were a total of thirty-eight (38) investment trust corporation companies in Taiwan by the end of 1999. A fund management company must be a financial institute that is stable and capable of providing investors with long-term profits. However, the newly born domestic securities investment trust corporation company has indeed grown rapidly but learned from the hard way too. The turnover rate of management is beyond imagination. According to the statistics of Investment/Trust and Investment Consulting Association, managing director of securities investment trust corporation company lasts for only 16 months in general up to 1999. In fact, there are only six (6) managing directors with a seniority of two (2) years that responsible for fund management amounts to NT$774.2 billion. The rapid growth of securities investment trust corporation company has reinforced the need of securities investment and trust company for professional managers; therefore, competition is brutal, turnover rate of employment is high, and operational risk is severe. The securities investment trust corporation industry relies its operation heavily on ¡§talents.¡¨ No matter it is for the promotion of fund business or the management of fund assets, it is done by ¡§people.¡¨ Therefore, the number of people and the quality of talents do affect operation and business performance; therefore, the importance of human resources management strategy goes without saying. Securities investment trust corporation industry in Taiwan will be discussed in this study with a focus on the impact of business environment, business characteristic, business strategy, and human resources management strategy on operation performance. Interviews will be conducted in accordance with the content of questionnaire; also, research hypothesis will be verified through statistical analysis. It is concluded from research result that there is a significant relation existed between business environment and business strategy; also, business capabilities and business strategy; and business culture and leadership. There is a significant positive relation between the application of ¡§human resources management strategy¡¨ and ¡§investment differential strategy,¡¨ ¡§number of workers,¡¨ ¡§information control,¡¨ and ¡§number of beneficiaries.¡¨ On the contrary, there is a significant negative relation between ¡§the establishment of branch office¡¨ and ¡§human resources management strategy.¡¨ If all variables do comply with human resources management strategy, operation performance could be upgraded. Moreover, once securities investment trust corporation company adopts ¡§investment differentiation strategy,¡¨ the application of ¡§human resources management strategy¡¨ will be with an orientation of ¡§accumulative¡¨ strategy. Once investment and trust company starts establishing branch office, in other words, once organizational operation is in a larger scale, the adoption of ¡§human resources management strategy¡¨ will be with an orientation of ¡§accumulative¡¨ strategy. It is also concluded from the study that a securities company with business capabilities outperforms the one without. Recommendation is made to securities investment trust corporation company in accordance with research result regarding the importance of human resources department or unit. At the time of drafting up human resources management strategy, it is important to give it a thorough and complete consideration and match it up to organizational business strategy in order to regulate appropriate human resources management strategy and to improve organizational performance. Moreover, the management should strive to develop the core competitiveness of company and to control its competitive advantages. We would like to suggest the successors to exercise multiple criteria for performance evaluation; also, to expand the scope of research in order to improve research value.

Abstract By following changeful environment and global competition trends, business strategy has an enormous influence toward enterprises. The most significant resource in an enterprise is manpower. Therefore, this research attempts to fit the relationship through environment uncertainty, the enterprise business strategy and human resources flexibility strategy. Besides, the research will discuss the human resources strategy how to make human resources flexibility fit and adjust business strategy practically, then promote to create enterprise competitive superiority, to follow external environment to reach enduring competitive capabilities, and to have double win. This research method adopts depth interviews and discussions with four individual cases. These four companies in this research are high-tech multinational stock companies. Their main products are different¡G crystal, IC¡]Integrated Circuit¡^seal and test, electric capacity, electric photography and scanner, etc. Totally there are 19 companies (including branches and subsidiaries) in investment cases. To build this method construction in this research by literary studies has found out the management connection among these case studies which all get involved with environment uncertainty, business strategy and human resources flexibility strategy. Four key findings are: (1) When the enterprise is aware of the low general environment uncertainty, characteristic business environment uncertainty and industrial environment uncertainty, business strategy should take it in terms of prospector and human resources flexibility strategy should select temporal working day and flexible wages. (2) When the enterprise is aware of the high general environment uncertainty, and low characteristic business environment uncertainty and industrial environment uncertainty, business strategy should take it in terms of prospector and human resources flexibility strategy should select temporal working day and flexible wages. (3) When the enterprise is aware of the low general environment uncertainty and characteristic business environment, and high industrial environment uncertainty, business strategy should take it in terms of defender and human resources flexibility strategy should select functional and numerical flexibility (4) When the enterprise is aware of the low general environment uncertainty and characteristic business environment uncertainty, and middle industrial environment uncertainty, business strategy should take it in terms of analyzer and human resources flexibility strategy should select functional and temporal flexibility. The conclusion is an enterprise must have different business strategies to fit environment uncertainty. If the enterprise can execute the human resources flexibility strategy at all times, they can build up effective management systems, and promote competitive conditions

Conference proceeding from the Living the Future 6 Conference, April 5-8, 2006, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / In this presentation I will review the theories of business strategy developed by Clayton Christensen and his colleagues in his three books - the Innovator’s Dilemma, Innovator’s Solution, and Seeing What’s Next. I will apply this work to academic libraries and scholarly communication and will show that academic libraries are likely to be disrupted by new technologies and their application by competing organizations. I will then show that libraries also have the potential to drive, and benefit from, disruptive change especially in the scholarly communication value chain. The result should provide guidance to academic librarians in establishing strategies, organizational structures, and values that will position academic libraries in the scholarly information and learning value chains in ways that will assure their relevance to our various clienteles. The result should provide attendees with a basic understanding of the most important of Christensen’s theories and how they can provide insights into the current state of academic libraries and help to chart the future. This work will build on my article, (Lewis, David W. "The Innovator’s Dilemma: Disruptive Change and Academic Libraries." Library Administration and Management 18(2):68-74 April 2004. Available at: http://idea.iupui.edu/dspace/handle/1805/173), but will advance and develop it in significant ways.

The purpose of this thesis is to further examine the market dynamics of M&As in the cleantech and renewable energy industry. This study analyzes the abnormal returns of 273 announced and 54 completed buyout acquisitions that took place between 1997 and 2014. The event study method is used to test if cleantech deals experience higher returns than traditional energy and mining deals, if deal completions display similar effects as deal announcements (which is the unique contribution of this thesis) and if homogenous deals experience higher abnormal returns than heterogeneous deals. The outcomes are that the traditional energy and mining sector outperforms the cleantech sectors in homogenous deals. That deal completions effect follows the announcements effect for 11 out of 15 groups and that homogenous deals outperform heterogeneous deals.

Charge / Credit card market is very competitive in Taiwan which grew from nothing in 1989 to 44 Million cards by the end of 2004. With the brutal competition in this industry, issuers tend to lower their profit margin to trade for the higher market share. What is their ultimate objective? How they prioritize their business strategy and finance strategy in different competition stage? Understand the credit card market and prospect segmentation definitely play a big role for issuers to scope their target prospects then design the right product to fit their selected cardmembers’ needs. Compare the world leading card issuer Citibank with the largest issuer in Taiwan Chinatrust Commercial Bank, what make the world’s largest issuer can not be the number one in Taiwan? What is the impact on different business strategy and financial strategy? How regulator should react to proper discipline the over-heated credit card market? From financial analytical method perspective, what should be the right measurement to be used in the credit card market? ROI, NPV or RORC? In this thesis, I also cover the discussion between “Niche Market but High Margin Approach” and the “Mass Market but Low Margin Approach” together with the importance of the organizational impact. To provide a insight on the different strategy to be used in the different business developed stage. With all the above, I put together the conclusion and suggestion of my own to the Charge / Credit Card business.

Using organizational theory, this research study examines whether a firm's business strategy influences the ethical culture and climate within the organization, and thus explains why a firm's business strategy may ultimately contribute toward an increased risk of financial misreporting. This study develops from recent research which finds that companies following an innovative, risk-oriented Prospector business strategy are significantly more likely to experience financial reporting irregularities, despite increased audit effort levels. To examine the research question, both survey and archival methods are employed. Using a large-scale research survey, I find two subset groups of Prospector firms where a smaller (larger) group is significantly associated with a less (more) ethical culture and climate, which offer insights into why companies following a Prospector business strategy continue to experience irregularities despite auditors' efforts. Results suggest auditors may not be able to distinguish between the two sets of Prospectors and thus may direct higher audit efforts too generally at Prospector firms rather than at the smaller set of firms with less ethical cultures and climates?i.e., firms more prone to rationalizing less ethical behavior. I also find that firms pursing a second type of strategy, a transitory Reactor strategy, are consistently associated with a negative ethical culture and climate. For a subset of public companies which can be linked to archival data, I find evidence to suggest that companies with less (more) ethical climates are associated with an increased (reduced) risk of financial misreporting while controlling for incentive and opportunity factors. I continue to find evidence that companies following a Prospector business strategy are associated with greater risks of misreporting, confirming prior research. Altogether, my findings suggest several antecedents for firms experiencing greater risk of financial statement misreporting and provide evidence regarding the third leg of the auditing fraud triangle (rationalization).

This thesis explores knowledge transfer between firms in multinational organisations. The subject of knowledge transfer is undisputedly important because knowledge is the essence of competitive advantage. In addition, multinational organisations are believed to be more effective at facilitating inter-firm knowledge transfer. The theoretical framework of this thesis is based on four constructs of knowledge transfer: motivation to transfer knowledge; richness of communication channels; absorptive capacity and organisational context. The research uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore these constructs. The research confirms the positive relationship between these constructs. Importantly, it highlights three knowledge transfer levels namely: pooling; assimilation; application and integration of knowledge into the multinational organisation. The research shows that knowledge must move through each of these levels if the focus is knowledge creation, these levels not to be treated as isolated but in fact overlapping. The research also found that high levels of espoused motivation are not always supported by proactive knowledge transfer behaviours. It demonstrated that at a certain level of knowledge transfer encouragement becomes less important than other motivational factors. Importantly, the multinational needs to manage knowledge transfer. To do this, the nature of knowledge must be considered and there needs to be an understanding that ad hoc knowledge transfer patterns can inhibit knowledge being transferred to where it may be needed. The research highlights how important it is for multinational inter-firm knowledge transfer to begin with the individual and then move to the organisation. The individual needs to have the necessary attitudes and ability to understand the benefits. Also, they need to understand that knowledge is not transferred through acceptance alone, but needs to be implemented. This means the multinational must provide strategic direction and structure that facilitates the movement of knowledge across the multinational organisation. Knowledge transfer routines must be managed to allow knowledge to move to where it can create unique knowledge because it is this unique knowledge that can be a strategic benefit to the organisation.