Strategic Response to Industry Structure Change - A Case Study of TSMC and UMC

• Main Authors: Wu, Shien-Yang, 吳顯揚
• Other Authors: Hung, Shih-Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/80030412915993048031

碩士 === 國立清華大學 === 高階經營管理碩士班 === 92 === The birth of foundry industry stimulated the vertical dis-integration of IC industry. As the foundry industry evolved along its life cycle of embryonic, growth to shake-out stage, the operation focus of foundry business migrated from manufacturing-centric, to technology-centric and now the customer-centric. Various strategies were adopted at each stage by the incumbents to cope with the changes in the industry environment for the business growth. The purpose of this paper is to discuss and examine how Taiwan firms (TSMC and UMC) who compete in the highly dynamic global semiconductor industry, are able to create a new wafer foundry sector using their unique strategies. Table I. summarizes our arguments. The growth of these two firms is evidenced by their revenue increase over years as shown in Fig.1. The effective use of leverage in building technology competence and expanding production capacity has facilitated TSMC and UMC to establish their leading positions in the worldwide foundry business. Looking ahead, strategic alliance and business innovation become the indispensable means to stay competitive and sustainable for the future challenges.