Assessment of Financial Performance with Patent Research and Development: Logistics Industry

[[abstract]]傳統上對物流作業與管理而言，其僅具儲存搬運作業功能的實體配送物流作業與功能而已。雖然物流普遍並不被認為為專利發展的領域，但如何在如此競爭的環境下保有競爭優勢，物流業者不得不追求創新，不能忽視專利所帶來的強力衝擊。本研究以DEA進行物流業之專利技術創新與財務之績效評估，研究發現，物流創新專利的技術生命週期，有趨向成熟穩定的發展。隨著技術的進步，參與物流創新發明的人數也更多。在世界前10的物流創新技術國家中，仍舊以美國為主，但是近幾年亞洲國家在推動物流成長上來看，也有不錯的表現，其中日本與台灣的物流創新技術也有相當的發展。 由於專利產出的差異，形成了各公司研發能力的落差。從物流創新技術來看，在研發能力的取決上，仍是以是否有專利產出為主要考量。但是在物流創新技術專利發展上，除了需要從專利產出數努力外，尚需要從專利的品質上來著手，方得以在這個物流創新技術領域上達到真正的領導地位。從專利技術層來看，以物流或供應鏈資訊系統技術居多，因此不管是在物流或供應鏈流程管理上，電子資訊技術都扮演著重要的角色。從本研究在專利分析的資料上發現幾乎在物流創新技術上多偏重在資訊系統的發展，故技術依存度是相當高的，亦即技術獨立性並非是這些公司專利產出的主要考量因子。 在結合專利分析與財務績效指標上，透過DEA模式發現，在效率改善上，規模報酬的確是影響物流技術創新業者財務績效改善的基本條件。從交叉效率排序的改善上，可以支持本研究的論點。透過DEA A&P模式可以發現，在某些重要影響因子上，無效率公司在財務績效評比上有欠缺及需要改善的地方。而經由DEA E-W分析，可以提供一家想著力於物流技術創新發展的公司一些改善財務績效的方向。從差額分析可以看出，財務因子能夠滿足基本的專利指標，但卻達不到財務績效的產出；換句話說，從專利的投入因子來看，其大都能夠滿足專利及財務績效的要求。所以導致受評單位表現不佳的明顯可以看出，是財務因子的投入不當。在效率投入產出因子的分析上來看，本研究亦顯示出一個重要的管理意涵，亦即無效率公司在經由投入因子著重的優劣分析後，可以作為未來經營上的參考。而透過效率投入產出因子的分析也證明了本研究的推論，「在本研究中，物流技術創新產業在重要的專利投入因子指標評估，對於財務績效方面的影響是相當明顯的。」 關鍵字：專利分析、物流創新技術、財務績效評估[[abstract]]Traditionally for the logistics operation and management it has merely the operation and function of physical-distribution logistics that is with the function of the storage and transportation operation To keep the competitive edges in an environment full of competition the logistics companies have to innovate and cannot ignore the huge impacts brought by patents The current study applied DEA to evaluate the patent technology innovation and financial performance of the logistics companies In the study it was found that the technology life cycle of logistics innovation patents inclined to develop maturely and steadily The number of the participants in the invention of logistics innovation is growing with the improvement of the technologies U S A is still the major one among the top ten countries that are with logistics innovation technologies In recent years Asian countries have performed well also in improving the growth of logistics And both Japan and Taiwan have developed quite a lot on logistics innovation technologies The R&D ability differs from company to company due to the difference of patent output In respect of logistics innovation technologies patent output is still the main factor in determining R&D ability However to actually lead in this logistics innovation technology field efforts on patent quality in addition to patent output quantity are still necessary for the development of the patents of logistics innovation technologies Most of the patent technologies are the information system technologies for logistics or supply chain For that reason the electronic information technologies play an important role on the management of the logistics procedures or supply chain procedures The data on patent analysis indicated that most of the logistics innovation technologies had a focus on the development of information systems Therefore technology dependence was huge which denoted that the technology independence was not the main consideration factor for the patient output of those companies In combining patent analysis and financial performance indices scale reward was found indeed through DEA on efficiency improvement a basic condition for influencing the financial performance improvement of the companies with logistics technology innovations The improvement of the sorting made by the cross efficiency method demonstrated the opinions of the current study Through DEA A&P it was observed that for some important influencing factors the financial performance of the inefficient companies had to be improved The DEA E-W analysis was able to provide a company that would like to focus on the development of the logistics technology innovation some directions for improving the financial performance The slack variable analysis showed that the financial factors were able to satisfy the basic patent indices but unable to achieve the output for financial performance In other words in view of the input factors for patents most of them satisfied the requirements on patents and financial performance Therefore the significance that caused the bad performance of the appraised units indicated the improper input of financial factors Through the analysis of the output factors for the efficiency input this study also showed an important management meaning which expressed that the advantage and disadvantage analysis focused by the input factors could be a reference for the future management of the inefficient companies Moreover in this study the analysis of the output factors for the efficiency input demonstrated the induction that as to the companies with logistics technology innovations the influence of the evaluations of the important factor indices for patent input on financial performance was quite significant Keywords: patent analysis logistics innovation technology financial performance evaluatio