­^¤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

A pesar de la gran importancia que se le han atribuido a las innovaciones tecnológicas como la principal fuente de ventaja competitiva y como un motor del buen desempeño económico, aún no ha surgido en la literatura un marco analítico sobre las técnicas o enfoques que permitan entender el comportamiento de las actividades de investigación y desarrollo (I+D) y varios temas demandan una investigación más profunda. En este contexto surge esta tesis cuyo principal objetivo es analizar las actividades de innovaciones tecnológicas siguiendo una perspectiva analítica de proceso. Caracterizando a la innovación como un proceso que consta de las fases de buscar, seleccionar, implementar y capturar, esta tesis desarrolla cuatro investigaciones empíricas para entender cada una de las etapas del proceso de innovación. El Capítulo II se enfoca en las fases de búsqueda y selección y tiene como objetivo incrementar nuestro conocimiento en el comportamiento de las empresas que determina la selección de la estrategia de I+D. Las estrategias de innovación son definidas en esta tesis como la estrategia de hacer, que representa el desarrollo interno de actividades de I+D; la estrategia de comprar que constituye la externalización de las actividades de I+D y; la estrategia de hacer-comprar que combina el desarrollo interno y externo de I+D. Contrariamente a la literatura previa, este Capítulo considera que los recursos internos de la empresa y las condiciones de la industria determinan la selección de la estrategia de I+D. El Capítulo III también explica la selección de la estrategia de I+D pero con un especial énfasis en el papel que desempeñan las ayudas públicas. El Capítulo IV, analiza las fases de seleccionar e implementar, busca analizar cuál es el efecto que tienen las diferentes estrategias de I+D en el desempeño innovador de las empresas. Finalmente el Capítulo V se enfoca en las últimas dos fases del proceso innovador, implementar y capturar. El propósito de este Capítulo es el de proponer un nuevo enfoque para analizar la relación, entre innovación y desempeño económico de la empresa. En esta investigación se sugiere que el uso indistinto de los inputs u outputs de la innovación para medir el grado de innovación de una empresa no está libre de problemas y que más bien éstos deberían de considerarse simultáneamente siguiendo una perspectiva productiva. Todos los análisis econométricos realizados en esta tesis se han realizado utilizando una muestra tomada de la Encuesta Sobre Estrategias Empresariales. Esta encuesta es de tipo panel (1992-2005) y recoge información sobre empresas manufactureras españolas. Los resultados muestran que la estrategia de comprar es principalmente seleccionada por empresas con bajos recursos organizativos y es evitada por empresas que compiten en mercados con altos niveles de incertidumbre. Sus efectos en el desempeño innovar de la empresa son los menores y tienen un efecto a corto plazo. Por el contrario, la estrategia de hacer-comprar suele ser seleccionada por empresas con altos recursos tecnológicos y con operaciones en mercados con un alto grado de incertidumbre tecnológica. Respecto a sus efectos en el desempeño innovador, los resultados muestran que ésta produce el mayor efecto y genera un impacto a largo plazo. Adicionalmente, los resultados muestran que los efectos de las estrategias en el desempeño innovador está moderado por la intensidad tecnológica en la cual las empresas se desempeñan. Finalmente, los resultados obtenidos brindan soporte a nuestro argumento de que la mejor manera de medir el impacto de las actividades de I+D en el desempeño de la empresa es a través de la eficiencia del proceso de innovación tecnológica. / Despite the great importance attributed to technological innovations as the main source of competitive advantages and as the driver of firm performance, a comprehensive picture of the techniques and approaches for understanding firms’ R&D behavior has not yet emerged and several issues require further investigation. In this context, the aim of this dissertation is to analyze, in a broader sense, the technological innovation activities following a process-based perspective. Categorizing innovation as a process which embraces the phases of searching, selecting, implementing and capturing, this dissertation develops four empirical studies in order to capture and understand each of the innovation process phases. The first empirical Chapter accounts for the searching and selecting phases of the innovation process and aims at increasing our knowledge of firm innovative behavior by analyzing the factors that determine firm R&D strategy selection. Three R&D strategies are defined and represent the internal development of R&D (make), the externalization of R&D (buy) and the combination of internal and external R&D (makebuy). Contrary to previous studies, we consider the joint effect of firm internal resources, industry characteristics and appropriability conditions as determinants of R&D strategy selection. The second empirical Chapter also explains the determinants of the R&D strategy selection but with an emphasis on public R&D funding. The third empirical Chapter aims at ascertaining the effects of the different R&D strategies on firm innovative performance, which accounts for the selecting and implementing phases. In order to evaluate RDSs effects in a broader sense and looking for robust results, we consider different measures of product and/or process innovations as indicators of firm innovative performance. Finally, the fifth chapter accounts for the implementing and capturing phases of the innovation process. It proposes a new approach to tackle the innovation-performance relationship; its objective is to cope with the, so far, mixed and inconclusive results of studies analyzing this relationship. We argue that the indistinctly use of the innovation inputs or outputs in order to measure firm innovativeness is not trouble-free; they should be, rather, jointly considered from a productive perspective. All empirical studies are carried out using the Survey of Business Strategies of Spanish manufacturing firms which is a panel dataset from 1992 to 2005. Results show that the buy strategy is mainly selected by young firms lacking organizational resources and it is avoided by firms competing in uncertain markets and characterized by major technology shifts. Its effects on firm innovativeness are weaker and last less than that of any other R&D strategy. On the opposite side, the make-buy strategy is selected by firms possessing high technological resources and acting in highly uncertain markets. Regarding its effects on firm innovativeness, we observe that they are stronger and last longer. In addition, we find empirical support for our proposed argument that the effects of the R&D strategies on firm innovativeness are moderated by the technological intensity level. Finally, results of the last empirical Chapter support our arguments that the better measurement of outcomes of the technological innovations is through the efficiency whereby they are developed. Moreover, we test the moderating effect of the technological intensity level and firm size on the efficiency-performance relationship.