A study on the business models of application software firms

• Main Authors: I-Huang Huang, 黃益煌
• Other Authors: 李吉仁
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/38217361642264384043

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 國際企業學研究所 === 93 === It has been over 40 years since the application software industry established in Taiwan. In 1993, Taiwan government delegated IDB (Industry Development Bureau) to undertake an initiative of 2020 plan, whose goals is to help to publicly list 20 software companies by 2000 in Taiwan. Although the goal was eventually achieved, the majority of these listed software companies failed to deliver a satisfactory scorecard. Compared with the booming development and global competitiveness of IT hardware industries, the development of software industry is far from policy expectation. According to the industry report, the projection of the total IT output in 2005 will be up to NT$160 billion, but the software industry only accounts for 10% of the market. Overall, the relative weight between IT hardware and software in Taiwan is almost reverse of the global 2-to-1 structure. The purpose of this research is to focus on a specific sector of the software industry, the application software industry. Specifically, we analyze how software companies design their value-adding activities and structure their value nets, trying to generalize how internet influences the development of the e-commerce and those companies. By doing so, we will be able to sugget business models to capture venturing opportunities for Taiwan’s software companies. This research concluded that application software companies must adopt “customer-centered approaches” to design their value net and create value-oriented business mindsets, effectively integrating all kinds of innovative business models. Thus, software companies can take the best advantage of their individual core abilities and bring up feasible and innovative business models. Implications for practioners and policy makers in software industries are also discussed.