台灣中小企業在整體經濟表現中,為數眾多並且扮演重要的角色。這些中小企業通常沒有太多資源,彼此雖有合作但卻又相互 (高度) 競爭。觀察這些廠商的廠商行為,許多研究者都發現他們會和其他廠商合作,形成聯盟甚至大如群聚的組織。在這些聯盟組織中有些創造出驚人的績效,在國際競爭的場域上大放異彩。本研究主要想關心是如何突破資源的限制,成就如此驚人的業績? 國內探討產業群聚或廠商聯盟行為的相關文獻諸多,大多從地理理論或是廠商集合行為的觀察出發,但卻少有從策略管理的基礎理論,例如聯盟布局的角度加以研究。本研究主要透過對台明將廠商及群聚中的協力廠商深度訪談,一方面從資源創造的角度去探討:在高度競爭市場中群聚廠商應如何創造資源;另一方面則用交易費用的觀點去觀察:群聚廠商中的協力廠商如何發展專業分工。透過實際訪談,我們發現以下事實。一、高度競爭的產業結構雖然對許多廠商產生重大的競爭壓力,但相對地,卻也提供了管理群聚或是廠商聯盟的豐厚協調資源;二、專業分工的發展,是群聚廠商或聯盟布局廠商成長的必要條件;三、在聯盟布局或產業群聚的高度成長階段,報酬遞增本身會引導廠商朝向專精的能耐發展,而在發展群聚廠商的專精能耐時,對交易費用有效調節,則是決定廠商專業能耐,以及群聚或是聯盟布局是否能夠持續產生報酬遞增的關鍵。
SMEs have made an important contribution to Taiwan's rapid economic growth. Despite their mutual cooperation but higher degree of competition, these SMEs often have limited resources. By observing the behavior of these companies, many researchers have found that they always cooperate with other firms to form an alliance or even a cluster-like organization. Some of these alliances have outstanding performance in the field of international competition. The objective of this study is to investigate how these alliances make such outstanding success under resource constraints? In Taiwan, lots of literature concerns industry cluster and alliances. Nevertheless, most of such literature focuses on geographical theories or observes the behavior of firm gathering, and little of it studies the basic theory of strategic management, such as alliance portfolio. Through in-depth interviews with TMG manufacturers and the collaborative firms among the cluster firms, this study, one the one hand, surveys from the perspective of resource production: how can cluster firms produce resource in a highly competitive market; on the other hand, it observes from the perspective of transaction costs: how can the collaborative firms among the cluster firms develop the professional division of labor? Through actual interviews, we have come up with following findings. First, a highly competitive industrial structure may cause a significant competitive pressure; however, relatively, it may provide abundant resources to manage and coordinate cluster. Second, the development of the professional division of labor is the mandatory condition for the growth of cluster or alliance portfolio companies. Third, in the fast growth stage of alliance portfolio or industry cluster, the increasing awards will foster the specialized capability of the firms. While developing the specialized capability of cluster firms, effective coordination on transaction costs is the key to judge the specialized capability of a firm and whether cluster or alliance portfolio can continue to produce increasing returns.