台灣中小型電子公司持續成長模式的研究

Abstract

自從1970年代以來，受惠於家電與電子資訊產業的相繼興起，台灣電子資訊公司得以透過專業代工的模式，在國際舞台上逐步崛起，並漸漸扮演不可或缺的角色。然而，電子資訊產業的快速技術變化與競爭強度，常使得中小型電子公司能否持續成長，成為經營的挑戰，也是有趣的研究議題。有鑒於此，本研究以台灣電子中小型上市公司為研究主體，探討這些中小型企業在2000年至2009年期間，面臨經濟環境起伏的成長軌跡。我們將五年定義為一個景氣觀察期，以營收成長與股東權益報酬率為參數，建立樣本公司的成長績效矩陣，並根據這些公司的成長軌跡建立企業成長類型。接著，我們以立意取樣的方法，針對數種典型的成長軌跡與其在產業價值鏈上的位置，選取12家廠商進行進一步深入的個案研究，並據此歸納中小型企業成長模式的若干命題。 本研究發現台灣中小型電子公司受限於本身的資源與能力，在營運績效方面，獲利成長顯然比營收成長來得高，企業在面對競爭時，如果採取低價策略來增加市佔率，爭取營收成長而忽略獲利，終究將導致惡性循環，面臨經營上的困境。同時，我們發現無論位處產業鏈的上中下游，中小型電子企業通常需要驅動二或三種成長動能，方能持續產生兼具獲利性的成長績效，然採取多角化的併購策略的績效並不佳。對半導體廠商而言，水平多元業務與產品組合的擴張，是其重要的成長模式；對位處產業鏈中間的經銷通路商而言，需以高資產周轉率來支撐獲利，併購與財務槓桿的操作，是維持成長的重要方法；最後，對電資通製造廠商而言，市場滲透與業務組合的擴張，是重要的成長措施。本研究並據此提出對企業成長實務與後續研究的建議。

Benefited from the growth of home appliance industry and the emergence of personal computer industry, Taiwan's electronics and information technology (IT) companies have expereinced phenonomenon growth based on original equipment manufacturing (OEM) business model under global division of labor and vertical specialization. As a result, Taiwanese IT companies have played an indispensable role in the global supply chain. However, constant technology change and competitive intensity also led to a high change over for the small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). How to manage sustainable growth becomes a critical issue for these SMEs and hence an interesting research issue for the present thesis. To investigate the typologies and evolution of different growth models of these SMEs in the IT sector, we conducted a two-stage empirical examination based on selected listed SMEs from the Taiwan Stock Exchange Market during the year of 2000 and 2009, in which time period we further divide it into two five-year periods for comparative investigation. To evaluate these SMEs' performance in these two time periods, we first undertook compound annual revenue growth rate and return on equity as two critical performance indices, under which the growth performance matrix were established and differential growth trajectories were revealed. We then selected 12 companies for further case studies based on their value chain positions and radical changes of performance between two time periods.This research highlights several key observations. First, with resource and capability constraints, SMEs in the IT sector maintain their bottom-line growth higher than top-line growth. Those who pursue only top-line growth by low price strategy eventually would fail in the ball game. Second, we also found that those high performers usually maintain two to three growth engines to support their continuous growth, regardless of their value chain position. Neverthless, the performance of diversified mergers was commonly unsatisfactory. Third, one of the critical growth model for semiconductor manufacturers is to expand their product portfolio and to provide multi-dimentionsal services. But, for channel distributors, achieving high asset turnover is the key to sustainable profit. Therefore, using M&As and financial leverage strategies play an important role to uphold the growth trend of these companies. This is quite different compared with the manufacturing companies whose important growth strategies are through market penetration and expansion of product portfolio. With all these observations, our paper provides suggestions for SMEs to nurture a sustainable growth model and recommendations for further research in this important area.