| Author: | Ko, Lap-kwong David |
| Title: | Business strategy, technology development and characteristics of Asian firms : an empirical study of the Hong Kong electronics industry |
| Degree: | D.B.A. |
| Year: | 2003 |
| Subject: | Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations Electronic industries -- China -- Hong Kong Strategic planning -- Asia Family-owned business enterprises -- Asia -- Planning |
| Department: | Graduate School of Business |
| Pages: | 146 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | This research explores the phenomenon of firm performance as it relates to the business strategy, characteristics of Chinese Family Business in Hong Kong's Electronic Companies, and technology strategy adopted by these firms. The motive to do this research is that there has been very little work on business strategy in export-oriented "developing economies -latecomer economies as referred by Zahra and Covin (1993). There has also been little work on technology policy/strategy in Hong Kong, although there have been many suggestions that Hong Kong firms "need" to change and up-grade their business strategies. Added to this, Hong Kong firms have interesting characteristics (Chinese Family Business, CFB), which may be related to their business and technology strategies. Performance may be determined by the strategies they adopt. In this research, the key dimensions of "technology strategy/policy" are identified, including Imitation, Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) and Original Design Manufacturing (ODM), which are important in Hong Kong, but which have not been explored much in the literature. Hong Kong firms were selected in this topic since as China is found to become the world's manufacturing base and a lot of that industry, especially in Electronics Industry that this is an important topic. The research answers two major questions as listed below: 1. The first research question concerns the relationship between the organizational characteristics ascribed to the Chinese Family Business (CFB) and the business and technology strategies adopted by Hong Kong's manufacturing firms. In particular, it is suggested that firms embodying the characteristics of a "traditional" CFB might be pre-disposed towards some strategies while ill-disposed towards others. To what extent are there relationships between the characteristics, which define the CFB, and the major dimensions of business and technology strategy? 2.Does the adoption of less traditional business and technology strategies lead to improved performance in Hong Kong's electronics sector? The major findings in this research were that firms embodying the characteristics of a "traditional" CFB naturally pre-dispose towards certain resource allocations. A firm, which has a short-term outlook and high degree of paternalism and personalism, is well configured to achieve efficiency and price leadership by closely monitoring production and commercial tasks. However, it is ill disposed towards activities, which require a longer-term view and a more outward focus, like environmental scanning, marketing intensity and increasing product and market scope. These results show that the structural and perhaps cognitive nature of the organization gives it a pre-disposition towards or away from certain types of approach to competition. The second major findings show that higher performance will be achieved by firms who seek to compete through the adoption of "updated" business and technology strategies. There are highly significant associations between key dimensions of technology strategy and all three dimensions of business performance. Overall, in this research, we believe that greater attention to ODM, and Process Innovation and less attention to Imitation all appear to have positive effects on performance. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
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| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b17331018.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 5 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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