台灣工業電腦產業中策略聯盟成效之研究 –以研華公司為例

Abstract

工業電腦產業是一個可以享有平均30%至40%高毛利的利基市場。自從研華與華碩於2005年跨足PC與IPC電腦產業以策略聯盟的形式合作後，許多PC領導廠商也爭相效仿以策略聯盟或是併購的方式跨足IPC產業，來強化其競爭力並有效提升其毛利率。雖然PC與IPC產業有相似的技術，但其在設計模式、行銷通路乃至目標客群均大相逕庭。 研華與華碩六年合資成立的研碩(Advansus)於2012年六月結束聯盟關係，研碩並成為研華百分之百股權持有的子公司，雙方均聲稱聯盟即便結束，未來仍會加強其合作關係。係因歷史學術研究與文獻探討都在此聯盟營運期間發表，策略聯盟的績效無法在聯盟生命週期(ALC)當中被有效評估。此外，一個事件的結束往往會讓人自然與失敗的刻板印象做連結。本研究主要將以Franco於2011年提出的主觀績效評估方法，來試圖評估此策略聯盟的績效並驗證聯盟的結束是否成功或失敗。 透過次級資料的蒐集並與和碩進行半結構式深度訪談的結果，許多議題都獲得進一步的解釋。總而言之，因為最初成立聯盟的原因已被達成，這六年策略聯盟的結束可以被視為意圖式的結束。另外，因為華碩與研華所豎立的合作標竿，後來許多廠商爭相以聯盟或是併購的型態來跨足工業電腦產業，整體來說此次跨消費性電腦與工業電腦產業的聯盟合作可以被視為一個成功的典範轉移。再者，和碩與研碩在聯盟結束後，仍將會繼續保持友善的客戶關係，因此也可以合理推論此聯盟的結束為友善的分離。

IPC industry is a niche market with high profit margin averagely ranging from 30% to 40%. Since the first astonishing news of the strategic alliance between Advantech and ASUS initiated in 2005, many leading PC players aspire to enter into IPC industry through alliance or acquisitions to strengthen their competitiveness and to raise their profit margins efficiently. With similar technology, however, the design mode, marketing channels and target customers are quite different between PC industry and IPC industry. Advansus, the 6-year joint venture between ASUS and Advantech terminated and becoming Advantech’s wholly-owned subsidiary in June 2012, both parties claim they will strengthen their future cooperation after the termination. Undoubtedly, strategic alliance or merger and acquisition seem to be the short cut to the IPC markets. Because historic studies or prior theses were published during the operation stage of strategic alliance, at that time the performance of the strategic alliance could not be evaluated within the Alliance Life Cycle(ALC). Besides, when it talks about termination, the stereotype thinking of termination will be mostly associated with failure. Therefore, this thesis manages to evaluate the performance of the strategic alliance by using the subjective performance evaluation presented by Franco(2011) and verify if the termination means failure or success. Through secondary data collection and semi-structured in-depth interview with Pegatron, many issues have been further clarified. In conclusion, the termination of the six-year strategic alliance could be classified as intended termination for the initial purpose has been achieved. Besides, holistically, this strategic alliance across PC and IPC industries is a successful paradigm that many companies followed their steps to form alliance relationship or trying to enter the IPC industry by acquisition. Furthermore, Pegatron and Advansus still maintain friendly vendor-customer relationship after termination, so it could be reasonably inferred the alliance end with an amicable separation.