For a company to strengthen competitive advantage, they had to put in whatever method they can from time to time, for example, from product innovation, strategic innovation to seek for differentiation. There is also no exceptional for Taiwanese manufacturer. Due to the fact that most Taiwanese manufacturers are small and medium scales company, in addition they are OEM supplier, therefore at initial stage, it is very difficult to pursue differentiation from marketing and product research and development innovation. Under limited resources situation, how to aims at their own strength to select the strategy for differentiation is an issue for Taiwanese manufacturer to consider very thoroughly. This article took small electrical appliances industry as an example and from the business model application standpoint, we discovered that most Taiwanese manufacturers has taken Tapered vertical integration as the main business model to sustain its competitive advantage. Especially when they started on mainland investment, due to the land obtains easily and the cheaper labor force...etc, this vertical integration model application can further be implemented. Taking Value Chain theory and the Smile Curve as a basis for this study, and obtains the most effective vertical integration model is focus on "The Production Vertical Integration". This business model has led a few manufacturers obtain cost advantage in different level. As a case study we take Tsann Kuen Enterprise Co., Ltd as an example, to learn how this company has taken this vertical integration as an approach and developed to become the first Taiwanese manufacturer listed in China stock market. In addition, to learn how it became the top three of the largest small electrical appliances supplier. Finally, from the case study, we will propose a future development approach and suggestion for the Taiwanese small electrical appliances industry. Key Word: Vertical Integration, Smile Curve, Value Chain

Along with more and more intense competition of OEM as well as ODM low margin strategy, Taiwanese' small appliance manufacturers have inevitably encountered the sharp profit decline and could no longer benefit from the original good earnings that derive from Vertical Integration Strategy commonly applied. In order to sustain the competitiveness and pursue higher returns, it's indispensable for those Taiwanese small appliance manufacturers to further consider moving towards value chains that generate better added-value such as R&D and marketing; R&D here includes innovation, patent and marketing consists of brand as well as channel. By fully adopting Vertical Integration Strategy in the preliminary, Airmate has fruitfully grown to a well profit-earning company and then moved towards design innovation as well as brand that were extremely stressed in Smile Curve Theory. Once again, Airmate has succeeded in the branding and considerably benefited from its brand equity. Based on China market's small appliance background, trend and affiliated with a liner regression analysis on home appliance manufacturers as well as channels, a research was conducted through in-depth interview and secondary data gathering to discuss how Airmate should further utilize channel to manifest its brand equity so that it could accordingly generate more profits as well as stabilize its cash flow. In summary, this very study has revealed and concluded a number of suggestions as followings. 1.New Product Development Strategy Owing to the inferiority of its product mix, Airmate has to further develop new product with eminent complexity and more varieties so that it could enhance its core competence as well as keep the new competitors from involving in the original competition. 2. Branding Strategy Airmate is highly suggested to keep investing in the branding as a way to better strengthen Airmate's high-end brand image. At the same time, a new branding project should be planned in order to extend Airmate's brand recognition to those secondary and thirdly cities as well as farmers market. It's not advised to additionally rebuild the middle or low end brands for thirdly cities or farmers market as it will muddle its brand positioning and diminish its high-end brand image. In light of brand theory, a product with higher added-value could correspondingly secure higher market price and generate better profit. Thus, since Airmate has been doing OEM as well as ODM for those celebrated appliance companies worldwide, it's extremely recommended that Airmate should appeal to media such as newspaper or magazine to publish articles to associate its brand with those high-end appliance companies. 3.The Channel Selection Strategy It's highly advised that Airmate should concentrate on primary and focused channels such as Home Appliance Chain Stores and Supermarket. A review and scheme should be conducted as a way to raise its brand exposure and at the same time increase the sales amount. 4.The Selection of Domestic or Foreign Channels Strategy With the advantages of advanced channel operations as well as management know-how and its large scale new stores opening plan, foreign channels have obviously surpassed the performance of channel efficiency and benefit than that of domestic channels. It's highly recommended that Airmate should actively build further close cooperation with foreign channels. 5.Channel Relationship Management A review on various channels and consumers' behaviors is suggested in order to better position the price and product separately to match up each channel. 6.The Measure to Cope With the Competition Resulted from WTO Innovation and setting up new appliance standard are key to sustain the core competence, Airmate is thus advised to focus on these two aspects.

The study aimed to explore and describe consumers’ reliance on brands, specifically the Country of Origin (COO) of brands as a heuristic, i.e. the perceived quality of a selected category of interior merchandise and to subsequently explain how COO influences consumers’ quality perceptions and product choices. The study focussed on major household appliances, due to the prominence of brand names and the COO on these products. In other interior merchandise product categories such as furniture and textile products, the brand name and COO is not necessarily that prominent or visible. A survey was conducted in the Tshwane metropolitan, which is a wealthy urban area in South Africa and a key role player in the economic sector. The study was conducted in the context of an emerging economy, where international brands have penetrated the market and made a wider range of products and brands available to the consumer. The data was collected by using convenience sampling methods supplemented by snowball sampling. It involved the self-completion of a structured questionnaire by 450 willing respondents who fit the prerequisite for the study, i.e. males and females, 25 years and older who belong to the middle to upper socio-economic group (earn R5000 or more per month) and who have an education level of grade 12 or higher, regardless of population group. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, as well as exploratory factor analysis, specifically Principal Axis Factoring, using an Oblimin rotation with Kaiser Normalization to determine the underlying factors associated with the quality indicated by brand names and the associations consumers make of brand names and specific product characteristics. Calculations of means, standard deviations, Cronbach’s Alpha, Anova, t-tests and post hoc Sheffe’s tests were calculated where significant differences between demographics were investigated for further interpretation. The study concluded that consumers are relatively brand conscious, men more so than women and that they are brand familiar in terms of various major household appliance brands. Quality as the most important branded product meaning were confirmed, as well as the use of brands as an indicator of performance and functional product attributes, i.e. value for money. Brands are also frequently used, especially by females, as an indicator of the product’s environmental and ethical compliances, but less so to infer its status implications. The study did however confirm younger consumers use brand names to a greater extent to infer social status than older consumers. It also revealed that the Black and other population group use brand names as an indication of status characteristics significantly more than White consumers. Consumers seem to have little knowledge of the COO of brands; they do however have strong stereotypes of Western and Eastern countries as well as South Africa, where Western countries enjoy more positive stereotypes than the others. These stereotypes also seem to strongly influence their overall quality perceptions of major household appliances, especially in terms of durability, performance and prestige. The COO of a brand can therefore have implications for its brand equity and should be addressed in brand management and marketing initiatives. / Dissertation (MConsumer Science)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Consumer Science / MConsumer Science / Unrestricted

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:50:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4874.pdf: 1459522 bytes, checksum: 5169b93eb32f56a68db468735a84aebc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-29 / The purpose of this study is to analyze the process of ownership change in an appliance company, checking the impacts brought by this process in its management. For this study, it was performed a case study, during which were conducted interviews with managers from different areas of the company. It was also based on a literature in academic journals, economic analysis and sector and public agencies publications on the process of internationalization, the Brazilian economic indicators, and the appliance industry. The 1990s was a period remarkable for the internationalization of the economy, with the rise in trade, finance and information between countries. Brazil was integrated through this process by the trade liberalization for imports, which, together with the macroeconomic and political stability, have made the country more attractive for foreign investment. This context coincided with a period of an overvalued exchange rate, which, together with high domestic interest rates, led to the acquisition of national capital companies in various industries, including appliance industry. Since then, this industry has become an oligopoly, dominated by a few large multinational companies with significant consequences for the management of companies in Brazil. In the studied company, there have been significant changes in the management staff, in the organizational structure, as well as its strategic position, with implications for the operations and human resources management. / O objetivo deste estudo é analisar o processo de mudança de propriedade de uma empresa de eletrodomésticos de linha branca nacional, verificando os principais impactos trazidos por este processo em sua gestão. Para este estudo, foi realizado um estudo de caso na empresa de linha branca analisada, na qual foram realizadas entrevistas com gestores de diferentes áreas. Também foi realizado um levantamento bibliográfico em publicações acadêmicas, de análise econômica e setorial e de órgãos públicos sobre o processo de internacionalização, indicadores econômicos do Brasil e da indústria de linha branca. A década de 1990 foi um período marcante para o processo de internacionalização da economia, com o aumento do fluxo comercial, financeiro e de informações entre países. O Brasil se integrou a esse processo por meio da abertura comercial para as importações, o que, aliado à estabilização macroeconômica e política, tornaram o país mais atrativo para receber investimentos estrangeiros. Este contexto coincidiu com um período de sobrevalorização cambial, o que, juntamente com as altas taxas de juros internas, levou à aquisição de várias empresas de capital nacional em diversas indústrias, incluindo a de eletrodomésticos de linha branca. A partir de então, esta indústria tornou-se um oligopólio, dominada por poucas grandes empresas multinacionais, o que levou a mudanças significativas na gestão de empresas no Brasil. No caso da empresa estudada, verificaram-se mudanças significativas no corpo de gestores, na estrutura organizacional, bem como em seu posicionamento estratégico, com consequências para a gestão da manufatura e de recursos humanos.

Predkladaná diplomová práca sa zaoberá kritickou analýzou súčasnej situácie firmy Gorenje Slovakia, ktorá na slovenskom trhu predáva domáce spotrebiče. Analýza externého prostredia odhaľuje možné príležitosti a hrozby na trhu. Na druhej strane, analýza interného prostredia prisieva k určeniu si silných a slabých stránok, a taktiež finančného zdravia spoločnosti. Výsledky analýz sú zosumarizované v SWOT analýze. V poslednom rade sú navrhnuté odporúčania a návrhy pre zlepšenie súčasnej situácie spoločnosti.