能耐提昇、事業佈局與風險及報酬之關係

Abstract

本論文主要是以能耐基礎理論的觀點，探討廠商投入資源在能耐提昇與事業佈局活動的不同作法，對於企業成長的影響，並檢驗能耐提昇與事業佈局對於事業經營風險與績效的影響，從而建立以能耐為基礎的企業成長策略。研究架構上，本研究以產品能耐發展做為能耐提昇之主要衡量基礎，事業佈局則區分為垂直範疇延伸、與水平範疇延伸兩個方向，並以企業之投入資本報酬率、及其低於產業平均報酬水準之程度作為績效與風險的衡量指標，實證樣本則是以國內上市上櫃的312家電子資訊硬體製造廠商為範疇，收集其於1998-2006年間的營運資料以進行實證分析。 研究結果顯示，在能耐提昇方面，廠商投入資源在產品能耐提昇上，對企業的經營績效有負向的影響，但卻呈現邊際遞增之非線性關係，但產品能耐提昇對於企業的經營風險有正向的影響，但卻呈現邊際遞減之非線性關係；在事業佈局的構念上，廠商的垂直範疇延伸及水平範疇延伸增加，對經營績效會產生正向且邊際遞減的影響，對經營風險則會產生負向且邊際遞增的影響。本研究也發現，廠商的營運策略同時涉入產品能耐提昇與垂直範疇延伸上，能顯著的降低事業風險之外，同時能提昇廠商的營運績效。 至於事業佈局對於能耐提昇與經營績效與事業風險之干擾關係，結果顯示，廠商的營運策略以高度產品能耐提昇、高度垂直範疇延伸會產生高營運績效、低事業風險的關係。此結果顯示，廠商投入資源於能耐提昇時，應同時將能耐延伸與垂直與水平事業範疇，才能提高廠商營運績效，亦同時降低事業風險。 根據本研究結果，我們建議廠商在規劃成長策略時，應以能耐為規劃中心，配合外部機會的分析，思考如何透過策略性能耐提昇、以及能耐延伸，建構具有較佳獲利、同時較低風險的成長路徑，以確保企業的永續經營與競爭力。

Based on the competence-based view, the present thesis postulates that a firm’s activities that are dedicated to either upgrading or leveraging strategic competence will exert differential impacts on the firm’s risk level and economic return. Such an inquiry would lead us to establish a competence-based growth theory of the firm. To empirically implement this research inquiry, we identify two types of competence-based activities: competence upgrading and business configuration. In addition, we define two directions in which these competencies could be leveraged; they are vertical and horizontal scopes of business activities. We took a firm’s returns on invested capital as its economic profit measure, and the downside risk measure as its business risk measure. Our empirical investigation is based on the operating and financial data of 312 listed electronics and computer companies across 1998-2006. Overall speaking, our results show a high degree of consistency between theoretical predictions and empirical evidence. Product competence upgrading maintains a U-shaped relationship with firm’s economic return, while it has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the level of business risk. As far as business configuration is concerned, we found that both vertical scope expansion and horizontal scope expansion will have an inverted U-shaped relationship with firm’s economic return and U-shaped relationship with business risk. Taking both competence upgrading and business configuration into consideration, our empirical results show that upgrading product competence while leveraging those competence across a wider scope of value chain, a firm’s business risk will be substantially reduced while enhance an insignificant portion of economic return. To further examine the moderating effects of business configuration on the relationship between competence upgrading and firm performance, we conduct further comparative analyses. We found that high competence upgrading combined with high leveraging in vertical scope will reveal a high-return-low-risk outcome. The combination of competence upgrading and competence leveraging therefore could facilitate a firm’s achievement of low risk with high economic return. According to research findings, we suggest that firms should manage competence activities with external opportunities to constitute corporate growth strategies. Our results shall motivate a firm to construct a growth path based on competence upgrading and leveraging for higher return and lower risk to sustain competitive advantages.