Factors Affecting the Choice of Technological Strategies —The Cases of Touch Panel Firms

高科技產業變動迅速，產品生命週期短，產品價格隨著時間而快速下跌，技術演進速度快，一個公司能夠即時掌握到某一個世代的某一個關鍵技術，發展出關鍵的產品，就能得到數以倍計的獲利，然而今日的關鍵產品與技術，明日可能就成為落日黃花，在這種高度變動與競爭的環境下，僅有能持續採取最適化的技術策略以保持技術領先的高科技公司，才能真正的長期經營與獲利。 本研究之研究架構為外部因子與內部因子會影響各企業的技術策略，而技術策略則會再影響到企業中長期的營運績效，並以觸控面板公司為個案研究之。研究的結果發現： 一、 技術策略的確受到外部因子（外部技術環境與市場環境）以及內部因子（內部技術能力、技術來源、產品與研發策略、研發投資與資金、研發資源配置以及獲取及跟隨顧客未來需求之能力）的影響。 二、 採用不同的技術策略（前瞻者-急遽式創新、防禦者-急遽式創新及防禦者-漸進式創新），與往後的營運績效，有明顯的關連性。 綜合各個案於各不同時期之各項影響因子以及採取的技術策略，對應到相關的營運績效可發現，在既有的主流技術並無法滿足多數客戶的主要需求，且功能更佳的新技術尚未完全發展成熟、尚未標準化以及競爭者尚未採取此技術的情況下，加上資金足以負擔此新技術的研發與量產、可取得客戶的未來功能需求（或是潛在的功能需求）及有能力跟隨開發 、並可專注於單一領域之單一技術之單一產品上與客戶共同作長期之研發之情況下，適合採取前瞻者-急遽式創新的技術策略，此技術策略可帶來長期較佳的營運績效。此發現與本研究之研究架構一致。The high-tech industry changes rapidly. The life cycle of the product is short. The prices of the product fell rapidly with time. The technology evolution speed is rapid. If the company can immediately grasp a key technology and can develop the key products, the company can get a huge profit. However today's key products and technologies may become tomorrow’s useless products and technology. Only the kind of company that is able to continue to take the best technology strategies and maintain a leading position of technology can keep long-term business and profitability in this serious changeable and competitive environment. The research structure of this study is that the external factors and internal factors affect the technological strategies of each enterprise, and technological strategies will further affect long-term operation performance of the company. This study analyzed the cases of touch panel firms. The results are as below. 1. The technology strategies are indeed affected by external factors (external technology environment and market environment) and internal factors (internal technical capabilities, sources of technology, products and R&D strategy, R&D and capital investment, research and development resource allocation and the ability to obtain and follow the customer's future needs) effects. 2. The subsequent operation performance is indeed affected by taked different technical strategies (prospector - rapid innovation, defender - rapid innovation and defender - incremental innovation). 3. Comprehensive each case at all different times of the impact factors of technological strategy and to take corresponding to the relevant operation performance can be found the conclusion：The company take the technological strategy of prospector - rapid innovation can get long-term strategy and better operation performance in the condition of that the mainstream technology can not fully meet the needs of the major customers, and the new technology is not yet fully developed and standardized , and the competitor has not yet taken the technology , and has the sufficient funds to cover the development and production of this new technology, and can obtain customer’s future functional requirements (or potentially functional requirements), and focus on the single product of a single technology in a single field with customers for a long period of research and development. This finding is consistent with the research structure of this study