To date, several disciplines have broached the systems view of service and the engineering of service systems. Operations research applied to services began with a rather simplistic, macro view of resource integration in the form of data envelopment analysis (DEA), introduced by Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes in 1978 (Banker et al., 1984; Charnes et al., 1994). Micro models of service systems have tended to study the systems’ IT components (Hsu, 2009; Qiu 2009). Engineering, which has always been associated with ‘assembling pieces that work in specific ways’ (Ottino, 2004) and ‘a process of precise composition to achieve a predictable purpose and function’ (Fromm, 2010: 2), has contributed to greater scalability and purposeful control in service systems. However, the agents of the system are usually people whose activities may not easily be controlled by predictable processes and yet are critical aspects of the value-creating system (Ng et al., 2011b). There is need for a new combinative paradigm, such as third-generation activity theory, in which two or more activity systems come into contact, to explore dialogue, exchanging perspectives of multiple actors, resulting in networks or groups of activity systems that are constantly interacting (Marken, 2006; Nardi, 1996, Oliveros et al., 2010). While various systems approaches, such as general systems theory (von Bertalanffy, 1962); open systems theory (Boulding, 1956; Katz and Kahn, 1978); and viable systems approach (Barile, 2008; Beer, 1972; Golinelli, 2010), will not be reviewed here (see Ng et al., 2011a for a systems approach to service science), they share common tenets: boundaries, interfaces, hierarchy, feedback and adaptation to which most systems writers would add emergence, input, output and transformation (Kast and Rosenzweig, 1972). These terms may be used as a basis for a research agenda for the consideration of a service system.

Abstract This research develops and tests an application of the latest version of the expectancy-value model—the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), to a new context, that of higher education overseas enrolment choice. The study argues that TPB is well suited for modelling and predicting international students’ university choice processes. Choosing a university in a foreign country is probably more difficult than making a domestic choice. While there has been some literature on undergraduate domestic university choice, scant attention has been directed at the understanding of international students’ choice of universities. Past studies have looked mainly at factors that influence choice of programmes and destinations with little emphasis on the students’ cognitive processes. Furthermore, these past models, intended to help predict student choice, have been limited to economics-based, pragmatic or statistical frameworks. Now, more than ever, this gap in the literature needs to be filled. International education is currently worth more than $4 billion a year. More and more universities today are increasingly dependent on overseas full fee paying student revenue, sometimes to an enormous and alarming extent. This competition and globalisation of higher education is forcing universities to better understand how students choose. A simple understanding of international student choice behaviour is not enough when so many universities are competing for vital revenues and market share. The Theory of Planned Behaviour, as a rigorous and comprehensive choice-model, well supported by hundreds of published studies, is proposed as a way forward to help better predict, segment and profile international students’ university choices. This research attempts to answer the following three main research questions: 1. How do international students choose overseas universities? 2. How do international students’ choice processes differ by culture? 3. Can TPB be applied in an international student choice context and can it usefully be applied for cross-cultural segmentation? Underpinning the development of the conceptual model presented are two research themes. The first of these themes investigates the choice processes of international students with respect to three main cognitive factors: attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. The second theme of this research investigates the differences in choice processes between students from different national cultures with respect to attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control and behavioural intentions. It examines how the relationship between these constructs can help determine appropriate segments of international students. Collectively, these research themes lead to a new model for the choice process international students engage in when selecting an overseas university. The study conducted in this thesis involved a two-stage design. The first, qualitative, stage consisted of a pilot study (Study 1). The primary purpose of the pilot study, using semi-structured questionnaires, was to elicit the attributes to be addressed by the quantitative part of the research (Study 2). The second, quantitative, stage consisted of a questionnaire survey. A total sample of 500 potential international students from four countries (Norway, China, Thailand and India) was collected. Careful translation and cross-cultural measurement validity processes were followed. The findings provide insights into the three research questions proposed. Firstly, results indicate that choice for a potential international student is a complex, highly involved, cognitive and individualistic process. Findings also underscore the important influence of sources of information on students when choosing an overseas university. Additionally, this study concludes, for the first time in this research area, that information sources indirectly influence changes to students’ intention through attitude or subjective norms, whereas prior research has skipped the detailed process and looked only at the direct influence of information sources on intention. Results of analyses on structural models show that attitude is the best indicator in predicting students’ intentions to choose an overseas university, while perceived behavioural control contributes little toward predicting students’ intention for the TPB model. However, perceived behavioural control showed a positive relationship with intentions for the total group. The more control a student feels he/she has, the more likely the formation of intentions to attend an overseas university. Secondly, the results of post hoc tests for multiple comparisons between groups showed differences between all cultural groups. This result meant that regardless of culture, differences in process or criteria weights can be found and so it is important to use a segmentation approach. The findings show that when marketers analyse the international student market as a whole, which is by grouping all the different country data together, this could result in serious “aggregation error,” i.e., when grouped data results are misleading because the groups are heterogeneous. Instead, the data must first be disaggregated by country and then by behavioural attributes, such as attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. In terms of measurement reliability and the structural fit of each model with the data, the results were positive. Finally, the present research confirms the usefulness of TPB as a choice model in the context of understanding international students’ decision making process. The use of a rigorous cognitive model such as this offers insight to educational marketers on segmentation and positioning. Additionally, this research demonstrates that the choice process is complex and that the diversity of the choice process requires attention. If universities wish to continue to attract and retain international students, they must understand students’ attitudes, normative beliefs, and control beliefs as well as the factors that influence their choice.

Bakgrund: Marknadsföringen har under det senaste decenniet genomgått fundamentala förändringar och digitaliseringen har varit en del i den utvecklingen. Borden var först med att presentera marknadsföringsmixen som koncept på 1950-talet. Bordens koncept utgick från tolv punkter som praktiker kan använda sig av vid utformningen av sin marknadsföring. McCarthy utvecklade Bordens koncept och definierade marknadsföringsmixen som 4P; Produkt, Pris, Påverkan och Plats. Kotler fortsatte sedan att utveckla modellen till det som idag är en av de centrala delarna inom marknadsföring. McCarthys traditionella marknadsföringsmix med 4P används än idag, däremot har modellen inte utvecklats i samma takt som digitaliseringen. Därför anser forskare att 4P-modellen inte är aktuell i dagens marknadsföring och att modellen har begränsat utvecklingen av disciplinen. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om digitaliseringen skapat ett behov av att utveckla den traditionella marknadsföringsmixen. Metod: Uppsatsen använder en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi och angriper vetenskapen med ett deduktivt angreppssätt. Semistrukturerade intervjuer har använts vid insamling av primärdata för att sedan analyseras och tolkas i relation till sekundärdata. Analys och slutsatser: Den traditionella marknadsföringsmixen används idag som en enkel och lättförståelig grund för att operationalisera marknadsföringen. Den tillämpas däremot inte utifrån den traditionella utformningen, då den inte är anpassad efter digitaliseringen. Kunden utgör i dagens marknadsföring en större roll och digitaliseringen har möjliggjort nya sätt att nå ut till och kommunicera med kunden. Relationen mellan företag och kund är idag mer viktig och nödvändig för företagets långsiktiga tillväxt. Slutligen presenterar uppsatsen en vidareutvecklad marknadsföringsmix modell, där kunden och företaget är det centrala och att aspekter som kunderbjudande, kommunikation och relationer är viktiga komplement till denna kundorienterade modell. / Background: Marketing has over the past decade undergone fundamental changes, and the digitalization has been a part of this development. Borden was the first to present the marketing mix as a concept in the 1950s. The concept consisted of twelve factors that marketing practitioners can use in developing their marketing strategy. McCarthy developed the concept further and defined the marketing mix as 4P; Product, Price, Promotion and Place. Kotler developed McCarthy’s 4P-model to one of the most used marketing models today. The 4P- model has not developed in the same rate as the digitalization, however it is still used by practitioners and researchers today. Furthermore, some researchers consider that the 4P-model is not essential for today's marketing and claims that it has limited the development of the discipline. Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to investigate whether or not the digitalization has created a need to develop the traditional marketing mix. Methodology: This paper applies a qualitative research method and uses a deductive approach to science. The primary data has been collected through semi-structured interviews, and later been analyzed and interpreted in relation to the secondary data. Analysis and conclusions: The traditional marketing mix is today used as a simple and easy-to- understand basis for operationalization of marketing. Due to the digitalization practitioners do not apply the model based on its traditional design. The customer has a major role in today's marketing and the digitalization has created new ways for businesses to reach out and communicate with the customer. The B2C-relationship is more important today and necessary for businesses long-term growth. Finally, the paper presents a further developed a customer- oriented marketing mix model where the customer and the business are surrounded by customer offering, communication and relationships.

本研究的個案是系統單晶片企業，系統單晶片是電子系統的核心，因此該企業對於下游電子產品的發展扮演著舉足輕重的角色，是積體電路產業價值鍊最高價值的一環。本研究的主要目的是藉著一個極為成功的系統單晶片設計公司的成長軌跡與其相關的產業歷史，透過還原當時的時空環境了解並分析其經營策略的本質，以建立適合系統單晶片設計公司之經營策略本質的分析架構，同時實證其分析的結果，藉以尋求其研究問題「後進者的成功經營策為何?」的解答，並從個案企業的歷史中找出常被忽略的寶貴的經營智慧，而另一目的是能夠藉著收集具有時間標記的經營事件，提供豐富的研究素材給有興趣系統單晶片設計產業做更進一步或其他主題的研究。 一開始的動機是為了解答「後進者的成功經營策為何?」這個問題，但研究之後發現這是一個很有可能沒有通用解的問題，因此本研究轉從「策略本質的思考」出發，試著從個案公司的各個不同系統單晶片產品及其下游相關的產業的事件中，進行分析、推理、歸納與實證所關心的議題，其中個案分析主要包括四個產業：（一）光碟機產業；（二）DVD播放機產業；（三）數位電視機產業；（四）手機產業。其中每一個產業的故事都以某一個案的企業發展為中心，以時間的先後呈現，描述當時的產業環境、企業狀態、決策的因果關係，以及如何執行與執行結果。為了解答「後進者的成功經營策為何?」這個的大問題，同時從個案的分析與理論推論研究，從不同方向的思考並嚴謹的歸納與分析提出以下的研究發現：（一）從行銷理論分析策略本質；（二）以利潤方程式分析策略本質；（三）SOC晶片訂價策略；（四）從動態能耐的架構分析策略本質；（五）後進者的經營策略；（六）成長與新產品選擇的策略；(七)經營智慧的闡述。希望能提供企業經營者策略思考的架構，而建構出適合自己的經營策略。 本研究藉著邱志聖「行銷理論」中產品的「外顯」與「內隱」之價值分析方法，發展出「（一）從行銷理論分析策略本質」之研究發現中一系列的理論，並以此為基礎，輔助論證其他的研究發現，再根據「利潤彈性」的定義，提出可以以嚴謹的數學証明的一系列有關訂價的創新的理論，以此為基礎進而提出「（三）SOC晶片訂價策略」，再藉著「（四）從動態能耐的架構分析策略本質」的個案研究，發現組織的能耐與低成本優勢有的強烈的相關性，整合以上相關的研究發現，進而提出「（五）後進者的經營策略」，以創新「先進者支援的兩難」理論為切入點，並根據以上研究的結論，提出「後進者的成功經營策為何?」的參考解答。當企業成功之後，必然會面臨成長的困境，因此本研究從個案的深入分析，提出所應採取的「（六）成長與新產品選擇的策略」，以及最後提醒經營者一些知易行難的「(七)經營智慧的闡述」。 根據TEEC的「動態能耐」的理論，企業的策略深受「路徑相依性」的影響，且當不同企業的內部狀態或外部環境不同時其所需的策略也不一樣，因此後進者僅採用模仿的策略是不易成功，所以企業必需要思索適合自身的策略，並透過策略本質的分析，檢驗其策略是否有效，然而任何策略分析的方法都有其盲點，因 此分析或擬定策略時要依據競爭對手與產業特性選數種適合分析的架構進行分析，才能夠互相印證與互補，並思考其矛盾之處以避免致命的盲點，因此本論文提出專為系統單晶片設計企業策略本質的思考之架構以檢驗其策略有效性。 / The System on Chip (SOC) is the core of the electric system of an electric end product. Therefore, the firms that design and produce the SOC play the critical role in the development of the end product and contribute the most valuable part in the IC industry chain. The purposes of this paper are to develope the strategies and wisdoms of management as well as the frame structure for analyzing the essence of management strategies for the late comer. In the case study, there are the companies have been very successful in the world. In the cases, there are a lot of time-marked traces of the growth of the successful firm and its related industry history so that we can clarify what and why the strategies were executed at that time by analyzing the sequences of the management decisions and their consequences. Additionally, I hope the case stories can be utilized for the further research or another related research. Initially in this research we focused only on the topic of the question“What are the effective management strategies for the late comer”. However, after further studies we found that the general answers for the big question might not exit; therefore, we adjusted the research direction and converted to focus on the topic of the essence of the analysis of the management strategies. In the studied case, there are four different kinds of SOC products including optic storage chip, DVD player chip, digital TV chip and handset chip and their related industries. In the story of each product case, the main stream of the story keeps close track of the situation of the management decisions making, the status of the execution by the studied firms and their consequences in timing sequence so that the evolution of the environment of the firms and the industries can be shown clearly. To study for the answer of the big question “What are the effective management strategies for the late comer”, firstly we analyze the cases and simultaneously study the related theories. Secondly we transform the big question into the following seven research subtopics: (1) Analyzing the essence of the management strategies based on the marketing promotion theory, (2) Analyzing the essence of the management strategies by the net profit, (3) Pricing strategies for the SOC products, (4) Analyzing the essence of the management strategies by the perspective of the“Dynamic capabilities”, (5) Management strategies for the late comer, (6) Strategies for the growth and new products selection, and (7) Wisdom of management. Finally, we hope this thesis can provide managers with the frame structure for both thinking and analyzing the strategies so that managers can develop the best strategies for themselves. There are some kinds of logical relation among the theories developed in the above subtopics. The foundation of theories of“Analyzing the essence of the management strategies”is the value proposition that bases on the analysis of the explicit value and implicit value in the marketing promotion theory. Theories of“Analyzing the essence of the management strategies”are one of the most fundamental pillars that support the other theories in this thesis. According to the definition of elasticity of net profit in this thesis, we can deduce some innovative and valuable theories by the rigid mathematical reasoning. Furthermore, we can develop the innovative theories “(3) Pricing strategies for the SOC product”. In addition to developing the above theories, we apply the theory of “Dynamic capabilities” to analyze the strategies in the case stories to find the effective cost advantage is supported by the capabilities of organization with effectiveness and efficiency. We integrate the above theories to propose “(5) Management strategies for the late comer”. A firm will eventually confront the saturation of the growth after its successful startup. To solve this issue, we base on the deep investigation of the cases and some theories developed in this thesis, we propose “(6) Strategies for growth as well as new products selection”. Finally from the case stories, we abstract some both valuable and critical wisdoms that are easy understood but they are hard to be practiced due to the human natural weakness. According to “Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management” by TEECE, the strategies for a firm strongly depend on the path that the firm has experienced, thus the imitative strategies from its rival is usually not effective just because their paths they passed are different, not to mention that neither their environments nor the conditions of the firms are totally different. Therefore, a firm works out any strategies and then its managers have to carefully check the effectiveness of the strategies by analyzing their essence of the strategies and then modify them before they are executed. However, any framework for analyzing strategy has its blindspots. To avoid the strategic blindspots, we have to use several different and suitable frameworks to analyze the strategies, and then check if there are any conflicts among the results from different frameworks analyzing, we have to deliberate to find why and how to solve the conflicts. Therefore, we develop a new frame work that appropriately analyzes the strategies of both the SOC firm-level and their products with a totally different perspective