A Study of Environmental Uncertainty Affecting Business Strategy and Design Performance in Taiwanese Design Firms

• Main Authors: Yi-ta Lu, 呂易達
• Other Authors: Tung-Jung Sung
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/61594644410312908034

碩士 === 國立臺灣科技大學 === 設計研究所 === 97 === Although the development of design industry is prosperous recently in Taiwan, it inevitably confronts relentless environmental challenges. In particular, the issue of the environmental uncertainty existed in the design industry is few explored in previous studies. Therefore, the major objective of this study is to examine the relationships between environmental uncertainty, business strategy, and design performance in Taiwanese design firms. The relationships were tested with data collected from 40 Taiwanese design firms that include 19 industrial design companies and 21 visual communication design companies. Based on literature review, this study proposes a research conceptual framework that links seven dimensions of environmental uncertainty proposed by Hoque (2004), three dimensions of business strategy offered by Chang et al. (2002), and four dimensions of design performance emphasized by Sung and You (2001). And, through factor analyses, this study extracted four dimensions of environmental uncertainty, such as technology, market, customer, and competitor, four dimensions of business strategy, such as quality image/follower, cost-oriented/ follower, product innovation/ preemption, and technical innovation/ preemption, and three dimensions of design performance, such as design adaptation, design efficiency, and design innovation. First, as for environmental uncertainty encountered by the design firms, this study found that the degree of “technology”, “market”, and “customer” uncertainty encountered by the visual communication design firms is significantly higher than the industrial design firms. And, the study found that the degree of “technology” uncertainty encountered by the design firms whose most of the clients are in the traditional industry or the service industry is significantly higher than that the design firms whose most of the clients are in the high-tech industry. Secondly, as for the assocations between environmental uncertainty, business strategy, and design performance, the findings reveal that “market” and “competitor” of environmental uncertainty have significant effects on “design adaptation” under design performance, while “competitor” is the major predicator. Thirdly, the results show that “market” and “competitor” of environmental uncertainty and “product innovation/ preemption” of business strategy have significant effects on “design innovation” under design performance. Furthermore, this study also found that the design firms with low environmental uncertainty perform better than the design firms with high environmental uncertainty on “design adaptation” under design performance. Moreover, the design firms with high cost orientation perform better than the design firms with low cost orientation on “design efficiency” under design performance. Finally, it is hoped that the outcome of this study could be a useful reference for a design firms which encounters environmental uncertainty to set its business strategies for achieving better design performance.