Jonathan C. Ho

A Strategic Technology Planning Framework: A Case of Taiwan's Semiconductor Foundry Industry

The increasingly important role that technologies play in todays business success is well known. To ensure proper selection and development of the key technologies, a deliberate technology plan is needed. In this paper, a strategic technology planning framework is proposed. A hierarchical decision model and its sensitivity analysis are presented as two major steps of the framework to provide effective technology assessment and to generate technology scenarios. The hierarchical model links an organizations competitive goals and strategies in evaluating the technology alternativespsila overall contributions to business success; the sensitivity analysis helps to forecast and implement possible future changes in the economic environment, industry policies, and organization strategies. With the proposed framework, organizations can start to implement their technology plans synoptically and follow up with incremental adaptations as necessary. A case study on Taiwans semiconductor foundry industry is presented to demonstrate the model in detail.

Forecasting VoWLAN technology for the Taiwan mobile telecommunication industry

Disruptive innovation is always a great challenge to the management of incumbent firms, especially in fast-changing industries. In this study, scenarios were developed to facilitate strategic decision-making by incumbent mobile telecommunications firms that confront the threats of disruptive technology of voice over wireless local area network (VoWLAN). Combining various possible outcomes of uncertain conditions and strategic alternatives available to the incumbent firms, six scenarios were developed: incremental evolution, disruptive evolution, cost deterrence, fierce competition, market pre-emption and market convergence. The results show that a passive ‘do-nothing’ strategy by incumbent firms leads to failure if the disruptive technology is inevitable. However, firms can slow the pace of disruptive technology by applying a price-cut strategy and enjoy several years of profits in the process. Industrial insights and strategic implications obtained from all the scenarios are discussed.

In‐depth tourism's influences on service innovation

Purpose – In‐depth tourism is a new traveling pattern, which combines thematic traveling experience and personal knowledge. This paper aims to analyze the industry characteristics and approaches to develop and promote in‐depth tourism from a service innovation perspective.Design/methodology/approach – The paper introduces the concept of in‐depth tourism and presents two case studies depicting the practices of this new approach. The paper also includes training and exercises on in‐depth tourisms implementation.Findings – A three‐dimensional framework consisting of customer value, regional resources and competences, and technology adoption (e.g. information and communication technologies) is developed to guide service innovations in the tourism industry.Practical implications – The new theoretical framework and set of training exercises provide management with the tools to effectively create and promote service innovations through in‐depth tourism.Originality/value – The paper introduces the concepts and p...

An integrated framework for managing knowledge-intensive service innovation

This paper develops a service innovation framework that takes into account both industry- and firm-level strategies. The main emphases in the industry level are value proposition – identifying potential industry demand and earnings, value deployment – positioning the firms in the value networks to expand value and value appropriation – exploiting resources and capturing the benefits of service innovation (i.e., the 3V Innovation Model). At the firm level, the key processes are new service design, development and delivery (i.e., the 3D Innovation Model). The 3V Innovation Model provides a guidance to assist firms in identifying and securing their product-market positions, defining the supply chain and network relationships, and appropriating the gains from service innovation. The 3D Innovation Model presents firms with specific processes for implementing service innovation. Business model innovation serves as a linkage between the industrial-level 3V and firm-level 3D models for implementing and realising the economic value from service innovations.

Factors underlying personalisation adoption: case of mobile telephony

The advents of many information and communication technologies (ICTs) have enabled firms to personalise products for consumers. Successful development of such personalisation products is the challenge to R&D managers. Additionally, existing products that are shared among a group of users can also be personalised and become individually owned products. This research first defines personalisation as a process, through which products are adopted to personalise consumer goods. Derived from adoption theories of innovation and personalisation, this research aims to explain the adoption of products for personalisation. Using mobile phones as the example, the developed theoretical framework is empirically tested. The findings indicate that some classical attributes of innovations including relative advantage, ease of use and observability are influential to personalisation adoption. Additionally, user disposition, emotional effect and feeling of ownership are found new to the adoption of personalisation. Discerning the attributes of personalisation products and their relationships with consumer adoption would help innovative firms create successful new products.

Applying sensitivity analysis to the strategic evaluation of emerging technologies in taiwan semiconductor foundry industry

In a recent study, Chen developed HDM (Hierarchical Decision Model) Sensitivity Analysis, a comprehensive sensitivity analysis for Hierarchical Decision Models 1 . This paper applies that analysis to a technology evaluation model built by Ho to evaluate the strategic impact of new IC (integrated circuit) manufacturing technologies in the Taiwan semiconductor foundry industry. Sensitivity analysis on Ho’s model tested the model’s robustness under changing experts’ opinions. It demonstrated the impacts of changes at the policy and strategy levels on decisions at the operational level.

Technology evaluation process and its influential strategic factors: cases in Taiwan's semiconductor sector

Firms capable of catching the strategic values of technologies have competitive advantages over their rivals. Technology evaluation, as an organisational process, is the essential capability to comprehend the values of technologies in their very early emerging stages. This study defines a technology evaluation process in terms of activities, method, and participants in the process, and uses this definition to explore different types of technology evaluation processes. With case study research method and data from the semiconductor industrial sector in Taiwan, three types of technology evaluation processes are verified, namely, the emergent autocratic strategist, deliberate consensual economist, and deliberate consensual analyst strategies. Technological trajectory and firm size are found to influence a firms technology evaluation process and its types of innovation. The established explanations of the relationships among technological trajectory, competitive posture, innovation type, and technology evaluation process may guide high-tech businesses to develop a better technology evaluation capability.

Aligning key success factors with value activities: Case of the analogy IC Design Industry

Each industry has unique managerial factors that have a critical impact on a firms success. These factors, known as key success factors, are the characteristics, conditions, or managerial variables that need to be maintained to achieve prosperity in a given industry. Although techniques for identifying KSFs have been developed, the determination of their priorities will help management allocate resources. Furthermore, connecting KSFs to a firms major value activities will assist management in planning the firms business. This article proposes an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) which integrates and operationalizes the theories associated with the KSFs and value chain for the above purposes. The proposed process is applied to the analog integrated circuit (IC) design industry to illustrate its efficacy.

Evaluation of electricity storage technologies for renewable energy production: A proposed model

Growing public awareness of CO2 emission and depletion of fossil fuel has raised the level of our reliance on wind, sun and other sources of renewable energy. In order to utilize renewable sources of energy efficiently share of intermittent electricity produced with renewable energy is increasingly important. This research ai ms to develop a technology evaluation model to analyze several promising electricity storage technologies. Subject technologies including electrochemical supercapacitors, flow batteries, lithium-ion batteries, superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) and kinetic energy storage. /n addition to these currently available technologies, some under developing ones are also incorporated in the model. Although energy density and power density are the most prominent criteria used to assess electricity storage technologies, other evaluation criteria such as deep-cycle life and/or chargedischarge cycles, operation costs, safety, and other technological characteristics are also the concerns. A research methodology which combines Scenario Analysis, SA and Multi-criteria Evaluation Model, MCEM is developed. The proposed research process uses expert panel to identify decision criteria and decision elements in the MCEM by a group of experts who have profound technological knowledge and experiences in the technologies. Next, applying scenario analysis process, decision uncertainties are identified and scenarios are constructed. Under each given scenario, the expert panel utilizes judgment quantification method to rank the subject technologies in the MCEM. The research result should be able to facilitate decision makers in the industry of renewable energy to streamline investment in developing and/or adopting electricity storage technologies.

National and Industrial Strategies for Value Creation in a Global Context

The development and growth of Taiwans industries, especially the semiconductor and electronics industries, has been emphasizing overwhelmingly on cost-leadership innovation and strategy. Although such capital-intensive, volume-driven and cost-down strategies have been successfully measured by industrial and economic growth, the amounts of value created and captured in global value chain and innovation networks are insignificant. We apply the framework of creation and capture of value to analyze the industrial value creation strategy in newly industrialized countries for the last four decades. We examine their past industrial policy and business strategy, and argue that the transformation of policy and strategy must gear toward creating and capturing higher value in the global innovation network. Several managerial and policy implications are also discussed.