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The Competitive Advantages and Strategies of Chinese Language Centers in Taiwan¡XA Case Study of National Sun Yat-Sen University and Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages

Ever since China opened its door to the world in the ¡¥90, investors poured into China to ¡§dig gold¡¨. Hence, a new surge of ¡§learning Chinese¡¨ has been setting off. According to an unofficial statistics, over 30 million people all over the world are learning Chinese. Likewise, Taiwan is certainly eager to attract Chinese learners while the whole world is infected with ¡§Chinese fever¡¨. As a result, Chinese centers affiliated to higher education institutes in Taiwan have sprung up in recent years. However, the market size in Taiwan is relatively smaller in comparison with China. Each year, the average number of foreign students heading for China fluctuates between 70,000 to 80,000 while only about thousands of students choose to study at Taiwan though the number eventually exceeded 10,000 for the first time in 2007. As the market remains stagnant, the emergence of more competitors obviously intensifies the competitiveness.
Therefore, how is each Chinese center going to survive and even excel in such keen competition? Many scholars analyze competitive strategies of enterprises from external factors. Whereas, the research of Rumelt ¡]1991¡^and Roquebert¡]1993¡^indicates that external factors only account for 15%~19% while analyzing the variation of overall performance. The resource-based view investigates how enterprises build up and sustain competitive advantages from internal resources and abilities. This research is conducted on the basis of literature review and in-depth interview with two Chinese centers that enjoy a long history in Kaohsing area¡XNational Sun Yat-sen University and Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages. The purpose of this research is to probe into the strategies these two Chinese centers apply in light of the core resources and competitive advantages they possess. For those universities and colleges who plan to join this industry in the future, they may use the following conclusion and suggestion as reference in identifying their own competitive advantages and strategies.
The conclusion this research has drawn is particularized as follows:
1. The core resources Chinese centers value are reputation and faculty¡¦s professionalism. Further, intangible resources are more important than tangible resources.
2. The core abilities Chinese centers value are administration, R&D and corporate culture.
3. Both Chinese centers tend to apply ¡§Strategies of Differentiation¡¨ though each possesses different competitive advantages.
Whereas, our government should consider to simplify the application procedures in terms of admission and visa in order to attract more foreign students inwards. The review of Taiwan Scholarship Program and consulting service provided to those international students are necessary. More active initiatives should be adopted so that Taiwan can stand out as the key Chinese-learning providers. Further, a clearer and more favorable Chinese teacher certification system should be stipulated in order to attract more people of ability to devote themselves in this industry.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0710108-101004
Date10 July 2008
CreatorsCheng, Shu-lin
ContributorsTee, Kim-Tong, H. Jason Huang, Chang-yung, Liu
PublisherNSYSU
Source SetsNSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive
LanguageCholon
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0710108-101004
Rightsrestricted, Copyright information available at source archive

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