國道客運業策略群組、營運績效與移動障礙相關性之研究

Abstract

本研究係以策略群組的觀念及技術來探討國道客運業者的策略型態，包括區隔國道客運業的策略群組，分析各不同國道客運業群組間營運績效是否有差異，以及探討各不同國道客運業策略群組間之移動障礙類型與程度。 本研究依據客運業之產業特性，並參考Porter（1980）之13項策略構面及Dess & Davis（1984）所提之21項策略變數作為本研究之策略分類架構，研擬出16項策略變數，分別為「積極爭取國道新路線的開發」、「親切周到的乘客服務」、「對乘客提供額外服務的能力」、「對人員的教育訓練」、「現有車輛的品質水準」、「票價水準可和同業競爭」、「善加利用車輛及駕駛的生產力」、「作業活動的創新與改善」、「行銷技巧和方法的創新」、「拓展多樣化的配銷通路」、「僅服務特定的地理區域」、「對同業動態與市場相關資訊的掌握與應變能力」、「建立品牌的重要性」、「在產業內的聲望」、「國道客運在起迄兩端的接駁便利性」、「拓展公司規模的重視與投入程度」等16項策略變數。 本研究要求21家客運公司的高階經理人勾選其對各策略變數重要性之知覺。再應用因素分析將16個策略變數萃取成五個策略構面，分別為「創新服務與品牌導向」、「規模導向」、「生產力及市場掌握能力導向」、「支援能力」、「競爭票價」。 本研究利用區別分析檢定群組的穩定性，區別率高達100%，顯示群組的穩定性極佳。另外，經多變量變異數分析發現，這五個群組間在整體策略構面上具有顯著性差異，而在個別策略構面上，群組間在「規模導向」、「生產力及市場掌握能力導向」、「支援能力」、「競爭票價」等四個構面上具有顯著性差異，顯示各個群組的確依循不同的競爭策略。 並以這五個構面將國道客運業21家公司區分成六個群組。另外，參考Fielding（1987）分析運輸系統營運績效的概念架構，以及考量國道客運業的特性，研擬出七項營運績效變數。 群組內績效會有高低的原因取決於公司執行策略能力不一，或是因應外在環境變化的能力不同所導致。在統計學上，本研究驗證了「產業內各公司策略不同，較好的策略會導致較佳的績效結果」，亦即有明顯策略傾向的群組，其營運績效指標大部分在產業平均值以上，而不具有明顯策略傾向的群組或策略不適配產業環境的群組營運績效則在產業平均之下。 國道客運業的移動障礙來源包括規模經濟、產品差異化、成本優勢、資本需求和政府政策等5項，但最主要的來源是政府管制政策。此外，長期來說，教育訓練是基本的工作，所以能做到有效賦權的公司將有人力資源的長期優勢。

This study use strategic groups theory and technique to investigate strategic pattern in scheduled bus service on national freeway, including cluster firms, test whether operational performance difference exist among strategic groups, and analysis mobility barriers type and degree of each strategic group. After reviewing Porter’s strategic dimensions and Dess & Davis’ strategic variables, this study developed sixteen competitive strategic variables associated with the characteristics of bus service industry. There are “Developing new route in freeway aggressively”, ”Kindness and thoughtful customer service”, ”The ability of providing additional customer service”, ”Education and training to employee”, ”The quality of vehicles”, “Competitive price”, ”The productivity of vehicles and drivers”, ”Innovation and improvement in operating process”, ”Innovation in marketing techniques and methods”, ”Developing diversified channels of distribution”, ”Serving special geographic markets”, ”The control and react ability of forecasting market growth and the situation in the industry”, “The importance of brand identification”, “Reputation within industry”, ”The convenience of transfer and feeder in freeway”, ”Emphasis and initiate on developing firm size”. We asked the CEO of 21 firms to select their perception of each strategic variable with questionnaire survey. This study got five strategic dimensions extracted from the sixteen strategic variables stated above by applying factor analysis method. There are “Innovation service and brand identification orientation”, ”Scale orientation”, ”Productivity and control ability of market information orientation”, ”Support ability”, ”Competitive pricing”. Then we use these five strategic dimensions to cluster the 21 firms into six groups. This study used discriminant analysis method to test the stability of grouping. The discriminant rate reach 100%. The result illustrate that the stability of groups is good. Besides, by multivariate analysis of variance, we found there is significant difference among strategic groups in overall strategic dimensions. Furthermore, in each strategic dimension, there is significant difference among strategic groups in ”Scale orientation”, ”Productivity and control ability in market information orientation”, ”capability in support”, ”Competitive pricing”. It demonstrated that each group follow different competitive strategy. By reviewing Fielding’s transportation system performance structure and according the characteristics of bus service, we developed seven operational performance variables. As a result, individual firm in the same strategic group, may have different operational performance because of their capabilities in perform strategy, or in reaction to outside environment changing. In statistically, this research demonstrated “There exist different strategies among firms, and good strategy induced better operational performance within industry”. That is the group which has significant intended strategy, its operational performance is above the average of industry mostly. And the group which doesn’t have significant intended strategy or its strategy doesn’t fit the environment of industry, its operational performance is below the average of industry mostly. The mobility barriers in scheduled bus service on national freeway include “Economies of scale”, “Product differentiation”, “Cost advantage”, “Capital requirements”, and “government policy”. But the most important source is government regulation policy. Furthermore, firms which adopt employee empowerment strategy efficiently, will have long-term human resource advantage.