The most recent wave of Merger and Acquisition (M&A) sparked by the emergence of Internet and the growing importance of biotechnology, where firms use M&A to integrate innovation capabilities of smaller entrepreneurial firms. This strategy is commonly seen within the medical technology industry, where most research has shown that M&A often destroy those innovation capabilities that made the acquired firm attractive in the first place. This thesis investigates the organizational cultural changes due to an acquisition and its impact on the acquired firm’s creativity and product innovation. The research design of this essay is a qualitative case study based on interviews carried out at a medical technology company that was acquired in 2008. The results of this case study illustrated that the factors that affect creativity and product innovation in a post-acquisition are; communication, time, formalization, money, teamwork and risk-taking, where risk-taking affects product innovation the most.

企業的持續成長是每一家企業所追求的目標之一，也是衡量企業營運績效之重要指標，當一個企業成長趨緩或開始衰退時，往往是企業遭遇困難的警訊。而企業能持續成長端賴競爭力之保有及持續提升，這在企業就必須具有企業競爭優勢策略，因而企業競爭優勢策略是提升企業經營績效的重要課題。 營運成長模式一般可分為內部成長與外部成長。內部成長是指經由公司內部新事業、新產品或新訂單與新客戶的增加使營業額成長；外部成長則是藉由外部策略聯盟、轉投資、購併等手段使公司能取得有利競爭優勢與地位或擴大營業規模。又因為藉由轉投資與購併經常能使企業之規模與競爭力獲得跳躍式成長，如美國通用電氣(General Electric)與思科(Cisco corp.)均為明顯而成功的案例，故在大部分企業經營時，其成為很多企業成長策略的主要選項。 然而，企業在選擇轉投資、策略聯盟或購併行為時，其策略與目標的訂定、購併與被購併企業之定位、整合；購併或轉投資的標的選擇與評估、計畫的規劃與執行等等，均影響外部成長之成敗，導致企業競爭力是否持續增進。 本研究針對垂直市場的產業內聯盟與轉投資為限制範圍，以聚焦於”垂直市場”產業內之轉投資有別於跨產業之投資行為，以”優勢競爭替代”之觀點來探討企業策略定位，以”組織變革”觀點來觀察購併與被購併或投資者與被投資者之定位策略與執行策略，以”累積長期競爭優勢”為標準來衡量與檢驗聯盟或轉投資之效益。 本研究針對研華股份有限公司轉投資艾訊股份有限公司之策略聯盟個案，以探索性研究方法依理論比較實務，研究其在策略聯盟之過程，探討此個案之策略與執行過程，期望能對研華與艾訊公司之策略作一研究與檢討並提出後續改進之建議。 本研究之歸納發現為： 一、 垂直市場競爭者之水平式策略聯盟或購併，如僅由發揮最大生產效率之綜效來考量，不易累積長久之競爭優勢。 二、 在垂直市場產業中，卓越的聯盟或購併之策略運用，在清楚的分析所處市場特性與公司定位以持續維持競爭優勢是策略思考的核心。 三、 破壞性創新思維運用在市場競爭策略上，市場在位者可提升維持性創新競爭力並同時可建立低階策略聯盟以形成阻止其他低階攻擊者障礙，足以保護現有市場在位領先者免於被競爭者侵蝕競爭力。形成結構上的長期競爭優勢。 四、 購併策略之執行，是否應將被併購企業併入，端賴兩方公司之策略定位。依據定位來檢視雙方之資源、流程與價值三個構面，當此三構面在雙方整合對整體策略有助益，則雙方應合併，反之則應維持獨立運作。 五、 雖然處於相同產業，但競爭之主要成功因素將因企業為維持性創新之市場在位者，或是防止低階、低價進攻者之阻攻者角色而有所改變；相對應的組織變革就應提出以確保策略之成功執行。 / The continuous revenue growth is one of the utmost goals that every enterprise seeks. It is also one of the key factors to measure the operation efficiency of an enterprise. It is an alarming signal that the enterprise is encountering serious challenges whenever the sales growth stays slow or encounters a recession. In order to keep the revenue grow consistently, an enterprise needs to sustain its competitiveness and keep its ascendancy as its cutting edge strategy. We can classify the growth engines into two categories: first, the internal growth engine which is contributed by new business, new products, and new orders; second, the external growth engine which is contributed by strategic alliances, M&A, and other investment opportunities. The enterprise usually gets a quantum jump on its business scale when a successful Merger & Acquisition is executed. The General Electric Co. and Cisco Co. cases are good examples of M&A. This probably explains why many companies place M&A and investment opportunity on high priority when setting growth strategies. However, when an enterprise adopts strategic alliance, M&A or diversified investment, its success depends heavily on its abilities of goal setting, positioning, targeting of Alliance Company, doing due-diligence, and solving culture conflict. This thesis investigates the strategic alliances and diversification investment between vertical market players, to focus on monistic industrial investment instead of cross industrial investment; reviews the company positioning strategy from the point of ascendancy competitiveness strategy; studies the execution of organization change between merger and merged companies and verifies the effectiveness of strategic alliances from the viewpoint of accumulated long term competitiveness advantages. The thesis studies from theoretical research to the case study of Advantech Co. which applies the exploratory research method. The Advantech Co. conducted an alliance with Axiomtek Co. in 2002 by stock swap between the two companies. Advantech owns 65% of Axiomtek after the alliance. It is my purpose to assay the process of strategic alliance and try to provide some advices to improve the effectiveness of this strategy. Conclusions can be summarized as follows 1. The strategic alliances or diversification investment between vertical market players can contribute less for cumulating the competitiveness if it is targeted to prevail by maximizing the production efficiency synergy. 2. A superior alliance strategy in vertical market is to analyze the market attributes and anchor the company positioning which helps the competitiveness accumulating for a player. 3. By implementing the disruptive innovation theory in market competition strategy, one company can develop alliance with a lower cost, 2nd tier or less functionality product provider to create the barrier for protecting attack from the disruptive competitors. 4. The resources, process and value are three scopes to judge whether two companies need be combined as one company or not. When those three measurements are formulating more advantages after combining based on mergers decision on companies positioning strategy, then, it should be combined as one company, otherwise vice versa. 5. The key success factors will be reformed accordingly if the acquirer re-positioning the company. A correspondent organization change also is recommended to be implemented.