Incubators Within University And Clustered Contexts: Cases Of National Chiao Tung University (Nctu) And National Tsing Hua University (Nthu) Incubators In Hsinchu, Taiwan

Research literature on business incubators has highlighted the significance of clustered locational contexts and networking as key to an incubator's success. Using the case study approach, this study aimed to test the validity of this framework for explaining the level of success of the National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) and National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) Incubators in Hsinchu, Taiwan – both of which are highly-networked, cluster-centric and university-based. In-depth interviews were conducted with the managers of both incubators, and these were followed by information gathering on university patents and knowledge transfers from the research and development (R&D) office at each university. Analysis found that the incubators' locational contexts determined the degree and manner of their networking, but their profitability and growth potential were influenced by many other factors working in combination. Satisfying their sponsors' requirements and serving their core functions through sound management and strategic planning appeared to be the key to achieving profitability and sustainability, with benefits for all stakeholders. These constructs provide directions for more research on the performance of incubators and other business entities that are located within university and clustered contexts

Is a mobile phone a disruptive innovation in the workplace?

Extant literature on technology adoption in the workplace generally analyses a single technology, thereby preventing us from a comprehensive understanding about the use of multiple technologies at work. As the usage of mobile devices becomes ubiquitous, knowing how the use of multiple technologies influence individual and group-related tasks is becoming more critical. Therefore, the objective of this study is to understand how managers perform their duties and functions and what technologies are utilized. This study adopts a qualitative study design by conducting in-depth interviews with eight managers employed in the public sector. We found four categories of convergence of mobile and fixed technologies in the workplace: supplementary, complementary, high-degree of integration, and full integration. The technology convergence is mainly influenced by the nature of the managerial work. Most importantly, mobile device is yet a disruptive innovation in the workplace, although its full integration with the fixed technology can be promoted

Online mobile content innovations and industry structure: implications for firms' strategies

Research literature indicates that successful market penetration and development using new technologies require technology entrepreneurs and managers to implement strategies that take advantage and overcome problems associated with important business environmental and product-specific factors. Using a conceptual framework drawn from important constructs in the Porter's competitive forces model and innovation literature, this study examines the Malaysian mobile content innovations and industry structure with the objective of understanding the variables that influence profitability of mobile content firms. To achieve the study's objective, extensive content analysis on all 43 Malaysian online mobile content firms' websites that were in operation in August 2008 was conducted and information on their innovations and industry structure from public domain were gathered. The study findings reveal important variables and linkages within, as well as those between, online mobile content firms' innovations and their industry contexts. These provide the basis for generating strategic propositions for the development of online mobile content firms as well as the overall mobile telecommunications industry. The study also concludes that deciding on the primary target market (PTM) is a critical consideration in mobile content business. Similarly important is for the mobile content firms, to evolve into transacting business entities, which activities will benefit all players in the mobile telecommunications service industry value chain

Biotechnology policy implementation from a systems perspective

This study utilizes Viable System Model (VSM) in diagnosing one policy implementation call Malaysian Biotechnology policy. The policy implementation is viewed from the innovation theory, which regards research and development (R&D) as the core of innovation commercialization, which in turn become the nucleus for a firm’s growth. Subsequently, the growth of firms as a group can lead to an industry’s development. This study conducted interviews with the agencies involved in the policy implementation and took advantage of the extensive information relating to the agencies that are available in the public domain, by using content analysis as the study’s methodology. This study enhances the understanding on the full use of VSM; it provides policy makers and implementers a guide in improving existing systems or designing new ones, while researchers are afforded an applicable theoretical conceptualization from a systems thinking perspective

Strategic posturing of Malaysian mobile phone service providers

The Malaysian mobile phone service started with only one service provider in the 1980s, which then increased to seven by mid 1990s due to government liberalization policies. Nonetheless, this number decreased to three in 2004, and this marked the beginning of an intense competition within the industry. Utilizing the case study and content analysis methodologies, we gathered data from the public domain and developed a case that describes strategic actions taken by members within the industry. Based on Miles and Snow's business strategy typology, we analyzed the case data by answering the questions of "How do the industry players compete?", and "What factors are important in shaping their strategies?" The research objective is to provide a conceptualization of strategic posturing by Malaysian mobile phone service providers. Our analysis show that the initial strategic moves of these companies are predominantly prospecting, and, later, analyzing, when the market reaches subscription saturation, and competition begins to intensify. Industry latecomers either arise as challengers or adopt a niche strategy as their strategic option. The adaptive actions of these companies are greatly influenced by institutional elements of the government's policies, market situation, and rivals' actions and responses. These actions are mainly tied to resources and capabilities of their large internationalized parent companies. Taken altogether, the perspective of adaptation, as well as the theories of organizational ecology and institutionalization, provides important theoretical grounds in explaining strategic posturing and factors that influence it

DiGi.Com: strategies for capturing market share

In December 2009, DiGi.Com Berhad (DiGi), the core businesses of which included mobile voice and data services, was one of the three giant mobile telecommunication companies in Malaysia. The other two companies were Maxis and Celcom; these three companies fought fiercely in both postpaid and prepaid markets. The rivalry intensified after a new company, U Mobile, entered the market in April 2008, and with the introduction of the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in October 2008. MNP allowed customers to change service providers without having to change their phone numbers. With MNP, the customers were expected to be more willing to change service providers if it was cheaper for them to do so. Meanwhile, the entry of two new mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) into the Malaysian mobile telecommunications market started to pose a significant threat to the company. In February 2009, DiGi launched its 3G Internet PC broadband service, and thus began competing with Maxis and Celcom, and many other existing broadband providers, who had entered the market earlier. In November 2009, this competition intensified further when DiGi integrated 3G into its mobile phone services with a plan to increase its share from the current 26% to one third of the market share within the next three years. A similar goal was also set for its broadband business although the company predicted that it would need a longer period to achieve this objective. This case provides opportunities to discuss DiGi and its competitive environment and to make recommendations of appropriate strategies to be implemented by its new CEO in regard to his company’s predicament

Faktor penentu kelakuan pusingganti pekerja dalam firma IT berstatus MSC Malaysia

The resource-based perspective of entrepreneurship emphasises that highly-skilled employees are important resources in developing new products and in supporting high growth of technology-based firms. Therefore, human resources management issues, including reducing turnover and retaining employees are critical issues. The purpose of this study is to identify factors that influence the turnover behaviour among employees in Malaysian’s MSC-status IT firms. Its data-gathering method was survey with the firms’ human resource and top managers selected as respondents. A total of 500 questionnaires were mailed to IT firms with MSC-status. Out of this figure, 106 questionnaires were completed and returned, generating a response rate of 21%. The results indicate that five factors influence the employees’ turnover behavior, which are organisational, work-related, individual, employees-involvement and external factors. This study indicates that internal factors are the main effect in retaining employees in organizations, while to counter the influence of external factors on employees’ turnover, an organization could raise their salary, offer more attractive work-incentives, and provide more flexible working hours

Functions and inter-relationships of operating agencies in policy implementation from a viable system perspective

Existence of supporting entities and their cohesive operations are important elements in industry development policy undertaken in emerging economies, which are characterized by heavy government interventions and involved many agencies and institutions. One of the models that emphasizes on cohesiveness as a precondition for viability is the viable system model (VSM). In this study, we adopt the VSM in combination with theories of innovation and innovation system as our conceptual framework to describe and explain the functions and relational structure that exist among agencies/institutions and that of the agencies with their environment elements within one policy level system implementation. We select a biotechnology industry development policy for our analysis, the implementation of which has been designated as a strategic vehicle to support the economic development goals of an emerging economy. The findings, which generate a model of the policy-level system implementation, explain the operating agencies’ functions and their inter-relationships. The emergent model provides policy makers and implementers recommendations for improvements, as well as offers future researchers potential for comparison between existing performance of a policy implementation against its expected performance targets. The study concludes that the biotechnology industry development is an effort by the Malaysian government to institutionalize biotechnology businesses and industry. The perspective of systems thinking, in combination with theories of institutionalization, innovation and innovation system, provide important foundations in explaining technology-based industry development. All these findings highlight that the knowledge gain in explaining and interpreting the problem in focus is worthwhile, although the use of VSM as a research tool demands considerable efforts

Granulab: commercializing GranuMas

GranuLab Sdn. Bhd. (GranuLab) was formed in 2005 to host the development and commercialization of a patented synthetic bone graft substitute, made from limestone and pure chemicals, called GranuMaS. The GranuMaS technology was invented by a group of researchers, led by one from SIRIM. The research began in 2000, and in 2005, GranuLab founders identified a huge business opportunity for GranuMaS. They then developed the business opportunity, resulting in the transfer of GranuMaS technology to GranuLab, and in turn GranuLab being acquired by Sindora in mid-2007. By then, the founders had to think of its next course of action. But, they realized the need to first educate GranuLab’s parent company on managing a technology-based venture, particularly one that involved an invasive medical technology. This case describes the process of innovation of the medical technology, technology transfer, and entrepreneurship at GranuLab, leading to the commercialization of GranuMaS. It is designed to stimulate critical thinking of the process of innovation and entrepreneurship, and provide understanding of the process of a medical technology commercialization

Innovation and entrepreneurship in Malaysian mobile-phone-applications industry: implications for technology intelligence

The integration of technology intelligence within an innovation process can significantly contribute to the recognition, development, and exploitation of new business opportunities. In this study, we examined the innovation and entrepreneurship process within small firms in the Malaysian mobile-phone applications industry. The Malaysian mobile-phone industry presents huge opportunities to new businesses, yet its development is hindered by the highly monopolistic telecommunication industry structure and by Malaysia's largely underdeveloped supportive business contexts. It was found that product ideas originated from founders' own perceptive ability and/or interactions with industry experts, and they involved rigorous technology intelligence efforts