| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立東華大學 === 企業管理學系 === 90 === The dimension stone industry of Taiwan began its operation in early 1960s in the Hualien area. During the 1980s, the booming of the housing market together with a change in certain construction regulations boosted a big wave of demand for dimension stone, which followed by an oversupply of the products in mid-1990s. The over-capacity of the industry, coupled with the accession of WTO for both Taiwan and the Mainland China, is expected to put the industry in an even more difficult position of operation in the future.
The main purpose of this study is to identify some relevant competitive business strategies for the firms of the dimension stone industry in Taiwan, through a thorough exploration of the trend and current conditions of the stone market for Taiwan, Japan, and the U.S. Our results show that stone consumption in both Japan and the U.S. reveals an increasing trend and should have greater room for Taiwan’s products to penetrate. However, certain adjustments in operation strategy and marketing planning for firms are needed in order to effectively capture the market opportunities. Our suggestions for individual firms are: 1) market-orientation; 2) product differentiation; 3) internationalization; and 4) integration. Market-orientation requests the firms to add more values to their products from the value-chain point of view by knowing the characteristics and needs of the target markets and quickly adjusting their production strategies. Product differentiation requests the firms to segment the markets and sell with different products accordingly. Internationalization asks the firms to put more effort on the development of foreign markets, especially the Japan and U.S. markets. Finally, integration calls for an effective use of information technology and the concept of knowledge management, and make good use of the complementary relationship between Taiwan and Mainland China for producing stone products.
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