附件一：少力設計
1. Creating a hybrid mode of talent sourcing: Typically, television firms and talent agencies would incubate a dedicated group of artists and incorporate division to manage these
artists’ performance contracts. The challenge is that artists might not want to sign a comprehensive contract with television companies because they could miss out opportunities offered by other television firms. SET signed comprehensive contracts with selected artists and sourced alternative talent pools. In this hybrid mode, SET developed its exclusive artists with versatile talents. For instance, an artist could begin with idol drama performance and extend to pop-music singing, or vice versa. Moreover, the artisan contract incorporated renowned chefs, bakery champions, and food program hosts into various parts of drama production, while extending their career to celebrity endorsement. The volume-performing contract sourced lead actors/actresses from model agencies to reduce search costs. Behind this practice is a principle of resource hybridizing.
2. Preserving inside while maintaining outside: Keep an in-house department to
maintain scriptwriters to ensure consistent drama outputs. However, domesticated scriptwriters often suffered from inspiration dried up. Nonetheless, if a television firm outsourced tasks to external scriptwriters, the output constantly mismatched with the firm’s required production specification and theatrical styles. SET targeted at Internet novel writers and offered a 140-hour free course to nurture the selected scriptwriters. This pool of trained freelancers understood the firm’s required specifications and story-telling styles, and could work in team to create drama scripts that are readily to be adapted by the firm’s production teams. This year-round course incubated a community of drama production experts. The course served as a platform to maintain talent reservoir in which SET could readily draft specialists according to different drama needs and production schedules. Behind this practice is a principle of resource reserving.3. Syndicating titles through sundry channels: Most television firms only run single channel and thus suffer from the lack of capacity. They thereby could not accommodate enough advertisers to sustain income revenues. SET syndicated drama productions in its drama channels while placing advertisements in a portfolio of sundry channels. The sandwich
method broadcasted a title through three time sequences. Collectively, this syndicate model accumulated favourable ratings for promoting overseas licensing. This enabled an alternative business model by selling SET’s intellectual properties. Behind this practice is a principle of resource syndicating.
Implication and Conclusion
Corporate growth is sustained by regular resource investment; however, most corporates are either in shortage of resources or unable to obtain resources required (Penrose, 1959). A core obstacle for corporate growth could be resource constraints. Against such background, most firms would need to maximize whatever is available at hand to overcome resource constraints. The theory of bricolage suggests ways to deploy frugal resources, yet it is still not entirely clear how may strategists tinker with resources (Baker & Nelson, 2005; Bechky &
Okhuysen, 2011; Dutton et al., 2010). Theoretical contribution of this research is thus of
twofold: on one hand, this study investigates how strategists engaged in ‘resource reconstruction’ (as a form of bricolage) and their strategic moves in developing innovative solutions for overcoming constraints; on the other hand, this research aims to distil the organizing patterns of such bricolage. In this regards, we suggest that this form of bricolage could become an alternative mode of organizing in entrepreneurial firms.Furthermore, our study speaks to the movement of ‘Strategy-as-Practice’ (Jarzabkowski
& Whittington, 2008; Vaara & Whittington, 2012). In line with this movement, we pay more
analytical emphasis on strategists’ practices and their cognition. In this research, we propose that the ‘Strategist-as-Bricoleur’ angle may enrich Strategy-as-Practice literature, when strategists behold only parsimonious resources. In such frugal business contexts, strategists require a set of new skills to manage resources. They need to learn to rejuvenate, effectuate and reconstruct resources. By exercising skills of bricolage, future strategists would need to mobilise inactive resources seeking multiple applications of a resource, and redefine the meaning of a given resource. Our study illustrates three distinct practices of resource reconstruction, and makes the reconstruction process more visible to executives. In this way, the ‘Strategist-as-Bricoleur’ approach stipulates a form of ‘strategizing’ under constrained situations and suggests how the collective strategists could respond to constraints creatively.Practically, this study suggests new mode d’emploi for managing entrepreneurial bricolage. It calls attention to recognize the new role of strategists and their ability to respond to constraints at a disadvantage. This study shows that apart from creating something from
nothing, it is also important strategists to recreate something from everything. The future strategists, be them in small or large enterprises, would inevitably face dearth of resources.
Our study offers a useful guide for strategists in manoeuvring their finite amount of resources into viable innovations in order to outperform their competitors under difficult situations.
The three organizing patterns, resource hybridising, resource reserving, and resource syndicating, indicate valuable lessons not only for executives in audio-visual or creative/cultural industries, but also offer strategists who need to innovate within thrifty business contexts. The three practices of bricolage would commence an exploratory journey to search for more versatile approaches to resource reconstruction. By understanding how strategists making-do with resources, we begin to appreciate the wisdom of ‘less is more’, whilst our study further reveals the ‘less for more’ possibilities to enable the miracle of Midas touch.
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Table 1: Fieldwork Arrangement Overview
Methods Informants Period Times Hours
Executives at SET 2012/09/11 2 4
Story Lab R&D Staff at SET (four employees)
2013/7~9 36 36
Teaching Faculty Members in Story Lab’s Courses (six key lecturers)
2013/7~9 6 6
Partner of SET (Cable Television Co.), Vice President
2013/05/24 1 2
Partner of SET, Film Producer 2013/3/14 2013/5/22
2 4
Partner of SET (Wireless Television Co.), Planning Division Manager
2013/3/25 1 3
Partner of SET (Wireless Television Co.), Deputy General Manager
2013/05/01 1 2 Personal Interviews
Officers in Ministry of Culture 2013/6 2 4
Site Audit Onsite visit to drama production 2013/05 1 4 Participating in the Story Lab Course
(for Script Writers)
2013/7~9 60 120
Focus Group with Industry Experts 2013/12/15 1 6 Golden-Horse (Film) Award
Ceremony
Taiwan Pop-Music Award Ceremony 2012/6/23 1 8
Total Immersion in the Field 116 335
Table 2: The Case Firm’s Strategic Response to Constraints External Constraints Core
Resources
Strategic Responses
Brain drain: the leading artists were allured to more affluent markets.
Artists Flexible manoeuvring of artist contracts:
1. Comprehensive performance contract: Incubating dedicated artists for internal drama production.
2. Artisan contract: Creating a new genre of artist through variety shows.
3. Volume-performing contract: Sourcing suitable lead actors for idol dramas by setting up strategic alliances with fashion model agencies.
Production backlog:
Scriptwriters Nurturing communities of practice:
1. Organizing scriptwriting competition to attract Internet novel writers;
2. Offering extensive free courses (140 hours) to train scriptwriters to familiarize with the firm’s production specifications.
3. Incubating communities of practice so as to establish a platform for forming mission-oriented taskforce.
Shrinking market:
The domestic market size was relatively small; too many competitors
contested for limited advertisers.
Cable TV Channels
Portfolio planning of television channels:
1. SET acquired five additional greener channels so as to provide portfolio services to advertisers.
2. SET employed a ‘sandwich’ approach to reduce production costs while broadening broadcasting periods.
The firm could leverage on favourable ratings to negotiate higher overseas licensing fees and obtain invitations for commercial performance.
Table 3: How Resources were Reconstructed
Core Resources
Conventional Approach After Reconstruction Organizing Patterns
Artists Incubate dedicated artists and incorporate a talent agency division to manage performance contracts. However, if artists sign contracts with cable television firms, they might let other performance opportunities slip through their fingers. Most television firms encountered the problems of sourcing leading artists.
Creating a hybrid mode of talent sourcing: SET kept minimal comprehensive-contracts with selective artists and leveraged outside talent pools. SET employed artisan contracts and volume-performing contracts to introduce semi-artists (artisans in various occupations) and transient artists (debutant fashion models who only work for SET within three-year periods).
Resource Hybridizing:
Incorporate three different contract models and allow them to support each other. To reconstruct resources by hybridization, resources from multiple sources are converged to support a core task.
Scriptwriters: Keep an in-house department to maintain scriptwriters to ensure consistent drama outputs.
However, domesticated
scriptwriters often suffered from inspiration dried up. Nonetheless, if a television firm outsourced tasks to external scriptwriters, the output constantly mismatched with the firm’s required production specification and theatrical styles.
Preserving inside while
maintaining outside: SET offered a 140-hour course to nurture the selected scriptwriters. These trained freelancers understood the firm’s required specifications and story-telling styles, and could work in team to create drama scripts to the firm’s specification.
This course also built a drama eco-system that includes a community of experts. SET could readily draft taskforce to support drama production.
Resource
Reserving: This is similar to the concept of reserve army officers. By keeping
scriptwriters outside, the talents may maintain creativities and SET could mobilize such resources in ad hoc fashion.
Cable Television
Channels
Most television firms only run single channel and thus suffer from the lack of capacity. They thereby could not accommodate enough advertisers to sustain income revenues.
Syndicating titles through sundry channels: SET syndicated drama productions in its drama channels while placing advertisements in a portfolio of sundry channels. The sandwich method broadcasted a title through three time sequences.
Collectively, this syndicate model accumulated favourable ratings for promoting overseas licensing. This enabled an alternative business model by selling SET’s intellectual properties.
Resource Syndicating: SET employed two syndication approaches. First, it placed
advertisements in a syndicate of channels. Second, it sold a series of drama programs to various television