A Study on the Relationship between Organizational Critical Activities and Business Typology

• Main Authors: Wen-Hsiu Hsu, 許文琇
• Other Authors: Wei-Hsi Hung
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/29516443849075776403

碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 資訊管理所 === 97 === 　　Organizations perform a numbers of activities in order to achieve its business objectives. An Organizational Critical Activity (OCA) is “an organizational priority that is recognized as being essential to short, medium and long-term success in that industry, has been significantly resourced, and receives regular senior management monitoring and direction”. These activities are extremely important for organizations to succeed. Miles and Snow (1978) divided business strategies into three typologies: Prospectors, Analyzers, Defenders, and Reactors. The business typologies will influence focused activities and resources allocation in organizations. This research proposes that businesses with different Miles and Snow’s typologies should perform OCAs differently. 　　To examine this proposition, this research particularly focuses on the OCAs in three functional areas in organizations: “Research and Development”, “Marketing” and “Manufacturing”. It took the High-Tech Industry in Taiwan as the study object, and interviewed 15 general managers and two senior executives to nominate OCAs related to the three functional areas of the High-Tech Industry. Based on 12 OCAs identified, AHP questionnaires were utilized to test if businesses with different business typologies perform OCAs differently. 　　The result showed that Prospectors set up the OCAs of the “Research and Development” domain as the highest priority, whether the OCAs are “Developing New Products”, “Developing New Services” or “Developing New Technology”. However, each Miles and Snow’s typology has different focus on the OCAs of the “Marketing” domain. First, Analyzers set up “Conducting Marketing Research”, “Expanding Branches” or “Advertising” as the highest priority. Second, Prospectors set up “Expanding International Customers” as the highest priority. Third, Defenders set up “Molding Brands” as the highest priority. Last, Defenders set up OCAs in the “Manufacturing” domain as the highest priority, whether the OCAs are “Guaranteeing the Quality of Products”, “Improving the Efficiency of Products and Services”, “Improving the Efficiency of Internal Management” or “Controlling Cost”. Hence, the results show that businesses with different typologies perform OCAs differently. 　　It is hoped that this research can help the High-Tech Industry revises their strategies and further choose the appropriate OCAs when they encounter the intensified global competition. In the future, the results of this research can be retested in other industries, and hopefully provide help for strategy development of the industries.