A study of the relationships between service quality and Satisfactions in semiconductor test outsourcing

半導體製造活動價值鏈中，半導體測試是重要的一環。半導體整合元件製造大廠為各種策略考量，於是漸提高向專業測試廠商尋求代工的比例，加上Design House產業蓬勃發展，也因此造就全球測試產業快速成長，甚至表現比整體半導體產業還優異。台灣半導體測試業為全球專業委外測試產業龍頭寶座。然而全球外在競爭環境威脅，而且在產業進入障礙低、競爭對手不斷增加、競爭日益強烈的情況下，終將直接衝擊台灣半導體產業在全球的地位。本研究欲從交易成本理論對測試委外服務品質和委外滿意度加以探討，以提供業界持續發展參考。 回顧過去委外相關研究發現，主要集中在：(1)企業是否應該委外或自製；(2)如何在統御結構下進行委外管理；(3) 採用討論或提出觀點說明的方式，少數真正採用實徵性研究驗證理論架構。因此，本研究專注於半導體測試委外的範疇，對委外進行探討，本研究架構乃為探討交易成本對服務品質和委外滿意度之影響，針對半導體測試產業型態及測試委外的需求建立研究架構與假設，並據以定義研究變數及制定問卷，經調查回收後做資料整理與統計分析。 經過資料分析，本研究在半導體測試委外產業的主要研究結果有三：一、在半導體測試外包產業中「交易成本」對於「服務品質」有顯著影響；二、「交易成本」對於「委外滿意度」未有顯著影響；三、「服務品質」不但對「委外滿意度」有正向的影響，同時亦扮演「交易成本」對於「委外滿意度」正向影響的「媒介變數」(mediator)。 根據上述的研究結果，本研究提出三點建議給予實務界參考。包括：一、以產能外包模式轉為整合模式外包，以降低不確定成本，提升服務品質；二、對於資產獨特性與不確定性質越高的委外案，承包商應提升對服務品質各方面的重視； 三、企業往後應慎重考量交易成本的影響。IC testing is a critical part of the semiconductor manufacturing value chain. In response to a variety of strategic considerations, large-scale IDM semiconductor manufacturers have increasingly sought the service from the professional testing firms. This, plus the rapid development of external IC design houses has created conditions for a global testing industry growing even more rapidly than the semiconductor industry as a whole. Taiwan’s specialized IC testing firms lead the global testing industry, but this dominance is increasingly threatened by external competition and low barriers to entry, and may eventually have a direct impact on the outlook of Taiwan’s IC industry. This study investigates transaction costs in terms of quality and customer satisfaction for external IC testing operations, and aims to provide the industry with a reference for sustainable development. Previous research in outsourcing has primarily focused on whether a company should outsource or keep operations in-house, or how to manage outsourcing within existing command structures, while a small number of empirical studies have used theoretical or case study methods to validate the use of theoretical frameworks. Therefore, this study focuses on the outsourcing of semiconductor testing operations to investigate how the structure and characteristics of transaction costs affect outsource service quality and satisfaction, with an aim to establish a research framework for investigating the semiconductor testing industry and outsourcing requirements. Towards this end, relevant variables have been defined and incorporated into a questionnaire which was used to source data for statistical analysis. Through statistical analysis, this study arrives at three primary conclusions regarding the outsourcing of semiconductor testing: (1) in the outsourcing of semiconductor testing, transaction costs have a significant impact on service quality; (2) transaction costs do not have a significant impact on outsourcing satisfaction; and (3) service quality is positively correlated with outsourcing satisfaction, and also plays transaction cost property in the positive correlation of outsourcing satisfaction and mediator. Based on these findings, this study raises three suggestions as a reference to practitioners: (1) move from a production outsourcing model to an integrated outsourcing model to reduce uncertainty costs and improve service quality; (2) for outsourcing cases with a higher degree of asset specialization and uncertainty, the contractor should focus especially on raising all aspects of service quality; and (3) enterprises should carefully consider the impact of transaction costs