新興產業與先進者優勢之個案研究: 以GPS與太陽能電池產業為例

Abstract

先進者優勢(First Mover Advantage)的研究，對於企業生存與成長而言具有相當的重要性。面對市場的激烈競爭，是否要領先對手發表新產品開發新技術，或是等待技術成熟再進入市場？過去的研究對於先進者優勢的存在與否，爭論從未停歇過。對於企業的經營階層，新產品或新技術是否能握有先進者優勢，是掌握進入時機的一個關鍵考量點之一。太晚進入到可形成先進者優勢的產業，將喪失大好的獲利機會。太早進入難以形成先進者優勢的產業，其結果往往會是以虧損的結果收場。為回應此一問題，本研究針對GPS與太陽能電池兩個產業，探討其先進入者的優勢來源與可維持性。這兩個高成長產業的早期技術發展均非為了商業用途，這兩個產業形成的時間約莫在1950-1960年代。 本研究發現GPS產業的先進者優勢無法有效的維持，然而太陽能電池產業的領導廠商，卻能夠持續不斷的維持領先地位。經過進一步分析，我們認為GPS產業之所以無法擁有先進者優勢，而太陽能電池產業能夠形成先進者優勢，可能是與不同產品的技術與現有產業技術的整合程度與接近的程度有關。GPS產品的技術與現有其他電子通訊的技術十分接近，很容易與其他電子產品整合，因此，對於電子系統廠商而言，進入的障礙與門檻較低，先進廠商的優勢遂難維持。反觀，太陽能電池本身產品的技術與現有電子產品的技術整合程度低、且相似程度低，所以，相關的電子或半導體廠商較難進入該市場，加上上游原料的掌握，為先進廠商的一個重要優勢，這使得先進廠商的先進者優勢可以維持。綜合言之，先進者優勢能否維持，與產品技術與其他產品技術相似度及產業獨立性有關。除了產業面因素的影響之外，本文發現企業本身的慣性，導致GPS領導廠商未能掌握產業發展的不斷變化的關鍵因素，也可能是企業無法掌握先進者優勢的內部因素。

The existence of first mover advantage (FMA) is vital to firm’s entry timing and survival. Finding the best timing to enter a new market is always a tough decision for a new entrant. Early entering into an industry where FMA is hard to sustain may suffer from lower returns while later entering into an industry where FMA can be sustained may lose a great opportunity to grow and lead. Previous research on FMA at best reveals a mixed result which calls for further research exploration at the case level. The present thesis undertooks a comparative study on the GPS(Global Positioning System) and solar cell industries. Although there are many similarities between these two industries, key technologies pertainting to these two industries were not for commercial purposes when they were first invented. According to our research, we found that it is hard to maintain FMA in the GPS industry but leaders in solar cell industry seem to keep their leading positions for long. Reasons attributtable to such a difference are associated with the characrteristics of perspective technologies. GPS technology is comparatively more similar to the presently used communication technology and therefore is easier to be integrated by the existing eletronic devices. Leading system manufacturers in the industry are difficult to maintain FMA due to lower entry barrier. On the other hand, solar cell technology tends to be more difficult to be integrated with other electronic products and therefore it is more difficult for other electronic or semiconductor companies to penetrate this market. Another factor that helps to sustain the FMA for incumbent companies is that they have better control over the source of silicon material. In summary, the sustainability of FMA is relevant to the similarities between the technologies of products and the interdependency between the industries in concern. The research also discovers that, in addition to the external factor of industry interdependency, the potential inertia of major industry players in GPS industry constitute a critical internal factor to erode FMA as these incumbents often fails to control over the ever-changing key success factors of the industry due to complacency and conservatism.