創新企業競爭情報：臺灣中小企業的人力資源 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學商學院管理碩士學程碩士學位論文. 治. 政創新企業競爭情報：大. 立. 臺灣中小企業的人力資源. ‧ 國. 學 ‧. INNOVATION COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE:. sit. y. Nat. io. n. al. er. Human Resource of Taiwanese SME. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 指導教授：林月雲博士研究生：謝昕璞撰. 民國 104 年 07 月.

(2) Acknowledgement I would like to thank my advisor, Prof. Lin Yeh-Yun for guiding and supporting me over the year. You have set an example of excellence as a researcher, mentor, instructor, and role model. Her guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor. Beside my advisor, I would like to thank my thesis committee members: Prof. Han, Tzu-Shian and Dr. Hsiao Bo, for all of their guidance through this process; your discussion, ideas, and feedback have been absolutely invaluable.. 政治大 sleepless nights we were working together before deadlines, and for all the fun 立 we have had in the last two years. Many thanks to Chiang Che-Yi, Hsieh ShuI thank my fellow classmates in for the stimulating discussions, for the. ‧ 國. 學. Cheng, Shih Chih-Ming, Wang Ming-Tai, Huang Po-Ju, Long Chia-Li and other friends for always willing to give suggestions and lend a helping hand. ‧. when needed. I would also like to thank Chen Kuan-Yu, for cheering me on. sit. y. Nat. during the good times and bad.. io. er. Last but not least, I would especially like to thank my amazing family for the love, support, and constant encouragement I have gotten over the years.. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. In particular, I would like to thank my father Hsieh Tsung-Feng, my mother Hsu. engchi. Li-Chuan and my brother Hsieh Hsin-Ying.. i.

(3) Abstract With small and medium enterprises (SMEs) raising all over the country of Taiwan, thus forming a team that can perform up to standard to ensure the company stay in competitive form has become crucial. To stay competitive these SMEs find new innovative ways to be able to differentiate themselves from peers. Innovation can come from two sources, either by creating a service or product. In this paper, both service and product are used as sample studies. To have an innovative idea, there is a need for a team to carry the idea to action. However, team building is a long process. This process of team performance went through meeting for the first time, understanding each other and then being. 政治大 and confusions. Thus this paper brings about a new competitive intelligence, 立 “Human Intelligence” (HI), to help growing companies to build a team rapidly.. able to perform as one unit. During this process, there are bounds to be conflicts. ‧ 國. 學. HI’s aim is to create a process that allows companies to build teams. ‧. faster. HI’s framework follows the principle of competitive intelligence process framework of planning and direction, collection of data, analysis and. sit. y. Nat. dissemination. Through the study of 3 Taiwanese SMEs that have innovation of either product or service. This paper uses qualitative study to collect data and is. io. n. al. er. able to mine data from interview, internet research and on-site observation for. i n U. v. analysis. Using basic practical theories on team performance, HI is able to. Ch. engchi. determine which stage of team forming a company is in. Once the stage of team forming is determined, human resource practices give recommendation for the company, thus completing the process of competitive intelligence framework. The result of the Human Intelligence framework was able to provide insight to current team situation and offer a feedback or recommendation. This allows growing companies to form a team efficiently. Keywords: Innovation, Competitive Intelligence, Human Intelligence, SME. ii.

(4) TABLE OF CONTENT Abstract --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i TABLE OF CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ iii LIST OF TABLES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- v LIST OF FIGURES----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- vi Chapter 1. Introduction --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1 1.1 Research Motivation----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1 1.2 Research objective ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3 1.3 Research Procedures ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3 Chapter 2. Literature Review ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5 2.1 Innovation -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5 2.1.1 Innovation Process models -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. 2.2 Competitive Intelligence -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7 2.2.1 Market intelligence -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8 2.2.2 Technology intelligence -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------9 2.2.3 Competitor intelligence -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------9 2.2.4 Strategic intelligence ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------9. ‧. 2.3 Process of Competitive Intelligence---------------------------------------------------------------------------------9 2.3.1 Planning and direction -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------9 2.3.2 Collection ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10 2.3.3 Analysis ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10 2.3.4 Dissemination ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. sit. y. Nat. al. er. io. 2.4 Innovation Competitive intelligence ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10. n. 2.5 Intangible Assets for Competitive Advantage ----------------------------------------------------------------- 11. Ch. i n U. v. 2.6 Human Resource Competitive Advantage ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 12. engchi. 2.7 Team Performance --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14 2.8 Summary ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 Chapter 3. Research Methodology --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18 3.1 Case Study Methodology -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18 3.2 In-depth interview ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19 3.3 Research subjects------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 19 3.3.1 Company A -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20 3.3.2 Company B -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21 3.3.3 Company C -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 3.4 Interview Design ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 3.4.1 Data Collection --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 3.4.2 Outline interview questions ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 3.4.3 Interview Respondents ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 3.4.4 Interview Principle ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 26 Chapter 4. Result Analysis -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27. iii.

(5) 4.1 Case Analysis for Company A --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 28 4.1.1 Innovation --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 28 4.1.2 Human Resource Practices ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29 4.1.3 Human Intelligence --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 4.1.4 On-Site Observation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 30 4.2 Case Analysis of Company B ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 31 4.2.1 Innovation --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 31 4.2.2 Human Resource Practices ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 32 4.2.3 Human Intelligence --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 34 4.2.4 On-site Observation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 34 4.3 Case Analysis of Company C ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 35 4.3.1 Innovation --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 35 4.3.2 Human Resource Practices ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 36 4.3.3 Human Intelligence --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 37 4.3.4 On-site observation --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 38 4.4 Summary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 39 Chapter 5. Human Intelligence Framework ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 43. 政治大. 5.1 Analyzing Framework ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 43. 立. 5.2 Recommendation Framework-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 46. ‧ 國. 學. 5.3 Summary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 48 Chapter 6. Conclusion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 50 6.1 Contribution------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 50. ‧. 6.2 Limitations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 50 References ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 52. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Appendix A ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 58. Ch. engchi. iv. i n U. v.

(6) LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Historic overview of innovation management models -----------------------------------------------------6 Table 2. Nine key factors differentiating a loose team from an effective team ------------------------ 16 Table 3. Interview questions ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 24 Table 4. Interviewee’s Profile ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 Table 5. Company A Innovation Dimension ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 28 Table 6. Company A’s Human Resource Practice ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 Table 7. Company B Innovation Dimension ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 32 Table 8. Company B’s Human Resource Practice ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 34 Table 9. Company C Innovation Dimension ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 36 Table 10. Company C’s Human Resource Practice -------------------------------------------------------------------- 37. 政治大. Table 11. Brief Summary of interview ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 39. 立. Table 12. Summary of what Company A, B and C think of Human Intelligence ------------------------------- 40 Table 13. Sheard and kakabadse (2002) nine key factors versus company A, B, C. -------------------------- 40. ‧ 國. 學. Table 14. Effective Team Evaluation -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 42 Table 15. Human Intelligence results of Company A, B, C. --------------------------------------------------------- 48. ‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. v. i n U. v.

(7) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Research Procedure-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4 Figure 2. Slocum (2014) Base Model of Competitive Intelligence --------------------------------------------------8 Figure 3. Lev (2003) intangible assets culmination ------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 Figure 4. Slocum et al. (2014) Human Resource Management Practices --------------------------------------- 14 Figure 5. Illustration of Tuckman’s four stages of team development ------------------------------------------ 14 Figure 6. Company A Structure --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21 Figure 7. Company B Structure --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 Figure 8. Company C Structure --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 Figure 9. Incorporating Human Intelligence into Competitive Intelligence ------------------------------------ 27 Figure 10. Four Business Strategies& Associated Strategic Disciplines (Slocum et al. 2014) -------------- 43. 政治大. Figure 11. Human Intelligence Process: Environment --------------------------------------------------------------- 44. 立. Figure 12. Human intelligenceProcess: Team Dynamic vs Task --------------------------------------------------- 45 Figure 13. Human intelligence Process: Team Dynamic vs Individual ------------------------------------------- 45. ‧ 國. 學. Figure 14. Human Intelligence Recommendation : Environment ------------------------------------------------- 46 Figure 15. Human Intelligence Process ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 48. ‧. Figure 16. Human Intelligence Framework ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 49. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. vi. i n U. v.

(8) Chapter 1. Introduction 1.1 Research Motivation According to Taiwan “Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs”1, in 2013 the recorded number of SMEs in Taiwan is 1,331,182 with a growth of 2.09% from 2012, where 2012 has a growth rate of 1.48%. In addition, the number of employed employee in the SME market is 8,588,000. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) account for 60 to 70 per cent of jobs according to the data in “Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development”2, with a particularly large share in Italy and Japan, and a relatively smaller share in the United. 政治大 especially in those countries which have displayed a strong employment record, 立 including the United States and the Netherlands. Some evidence points also to the. States. Throughout they also account for a disproportionately large share of new jobs,. ‧ 國. 學. importance of age, rather than size, in job creation, young firms generate more than their share of employment. However, less than one-half of growing companies. ‧. survive for more than five years and only a fraction develops into the high-growth. y. Nat. firms which make important contributions to job creation. Small firms also tend to. n. al. er. io. competence.. sit. invest less in training and rely relatively more on external recruitment for raising. Ch. i n U. v. With emerging new competitive industries locally and internationally, small. engchi. medium enterprises (SMEs) need to find resources to stay above the water. Most common practice is information gathering and analyzing, thus the practice of competitive intelligence comes into place. Deschamps (1995) identified three types of competitive intelligence, all focused on the external environment and internal tangible advantage, where intangible advantage, such as human capital and social capital are not a “knowledge” base contributor to competitive intelligence. Buller and McEvoy (2012) disagrees, their research framework consider human capital and social capital to have a huge impact on competitive advantage through strategy. Human capital is generally defined as the knowledge, skills and abilities individually and collectively contained in the firms’ human resources (Becker, 1964). Whereas social capital refers 1. http://book.moeasmea.gov.tw/book/ http://www.oecd.org/cfe/smes/. 2. 1.

(9) to the nature of the relationships, such as social structures and processes, those that are among people internal and external of the firms (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). Luu (2015), using a Vietnam shipping company, pointed out that knowledge sharing within the organization is crucial to the enhancement of competitive intelligence. Luu’s (2015) research, found that where there is culture of sharing knowledge within organization, this culture can play a positive role in competitive intelligence scanning. Slocum et al (2014) pointed out that a company’s human resources function can provide an essential set of strategically relevant activities, where the research found out that human resource practice of recruitment/selection and training/development are instrumental in developing human capital. From these two researches, this paper draws upon the idea of finding innovative ways from. 政治大. human resource for SMEs to battle upon the competitive battleground.. 立. Competitive intelligence information laid the foundation of the firms’. ‧ 國. 學. innovation processes and competitiveness (Tanev and Bailetti, 2008). To analyze the information about the competitive environment is crucial for the organization to. ‧. successfully introduce new products, processes and services (Tidd et al., 2001; Salles, 2006). Starting a company within Taiwan, with limited resources and finding a. y. Nat. sit. competitive advantage over other companies can become a hard time. Where in the. er. io. past having the latest data can put a company one huge leap at a time, nowadays. al. v i n at a time. However, due to theseChuge amounts of data, it has also confused new starthengchi U up companies, this information are soaked up and reproduce as a mess within the n. having the information all over the web, has decreased that one huge leap to one step. company’s strategy. Thus this paper introduces a new “Human Intelligence” (HI) to the playground in addition to market intelligence, competitor intelligence and technology intelligence identified by Deschamps (1995). The term HI according to Wikipedia is the capacity in which it takes on a more psychological approach3. Where in the psychological approach takes on an individual form, of how far an individual is able to achieve. However, this paper uses this term from an organizational approach, to be more precise in a form of a team. The human in HI is referred to the practice of human resource management, rather than the biological term of human, homo-sapiens. 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_intelligence. 2.

(10) In Deschamps (1995) competitive intelligence, market intelligence focuses on the organizations now and future, competitor intelligence focuses on the resources of the competitors and technology intelligence is on what new methods or tools are available for analysis. HI will focus more on internal human resource practices, of which this paper hopes in return will help start-up companies to find an innovative idea to be competitive with other SMEs via building the right team members.. 1.2 Research objective This paper takes on a qualitative approach, where it aims to introduce an additional “Human Intelligence” to the competitive intelligence model identified by Deschamps (1995). This addition is to help start-up companies to deal with having. 政治大 assets, mainly human resource. 立 Where industries vary from one another, this paper. limited resource, yet still be able to find a competitive way within their intangible. ‧ 國. 學. hopes to provide an insight to how intangible assets, including innovation, leadership, team dynamics can be used to create competitive advantage for SMEs.. ‧. Thus based on the above purpose, this paper’s purpose is to propose a. Nat. io. sit. analysis which will serve as a guideline for Start-up Company.. y. framework under the terminology of “Human Intelligence” (HI) that bases on team. er. 1.3 Research Procedures. al. n. v i n Ch U This paper begins with the introduction. review covers three e n g c Next h i literature. topics: Innovation, Competitive Intelligence, and Human Resource Competitive Advantage. Using the collected data and interview, this paper explores three. companies for a depth analysis. This paper ends with a conclusion. Figure 1 illustrates the research procedures.. 3.

(11) Introduction •Research Motivation •Research Objective. Literature Review •Innovation •Competitve Intelligence •Human Resource Competive Advantage •Team Peformance. 政治大 Interview 立 •Research/Observation Data •Interview. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Nat. sit. y. Analysis. io. n. al. er. •Result analysis. Ch. engchi. i n U. Propose Framework. Conclusion. Figure 1. Research Procedure. 4. v.

(12) Chapter 2. Literature Review 2.1 Innovation Innovation is “the creation and commercialization of new knowledge” and “introducing new ways of doing things” (Porter et al., 2003). Where in today’s highly competitive environment, innovation has become a critical factor for companies to value so that they may hold onto competitive advantage (Ranjit, 2004). Although most researchers believe that innovation can only be created by large organizations, Amabil (1996) believes that the starting point for innovation to begin starts from an individual and team creativity. Innovation can be identified by the following. 治政 (R&D), production, management and activities that are大 incorporated in marketing 立 products, new services or selection and development of new products (Jiménez-. components: product innovation, technical design process, research and development. ‧ 國. 學. Jimenez et al., 2008).. As can be seen, innovation comes in a variety of types; product or services.. ‧. Innovation varies along five dimensions (Eveleens, 2010); they are the type and. sit. y. Nat. degree of novelty of the innovation, the type and size of the organization in which the innovation project took place and lastly, the environment/sector. The first dimension. io. er. is innovation type; Luecke and Katz (2003) Albury (2005) distinguish product,. al. n. v i n C (2008) speak of a fuzzy approach tohnovelty all innovations can be assigned e n gincwhich hi U. process and service. Second, the degree of novelty is considered. Jacobs and Snijders. along an axis from incremental to radical. Incremental innovation means to builds upon existing knowledge, where radical requires new knowledge and resources.. Albury and Mulgan (2003) distinguished incremental, radical and systemic innovation. Third, a distinction is made between innovations that took place in a private firm or in a public organization. Fourth, the size of organization is considered. Lastly, the environment/sector, this is where innovation was developed, in which if the work environment or organization culture provides employee to think in an unusual way.. 2.1.1 Innovation Process models Innovation process is defined as the development and selection of ideas for innovation and the transformation of these ideas into the innovation (Jacobs and 5.

(13) Snijders 2008). Andrew and Sirkin (2006) argue that the management of an innovation process is essentially like any other business process, though it comes with more risk and uncertainty. Innovation process models developed over time is due to the mentality that people regards innovation has not been the same over time. The main reason for this change is the change in the environment in which innovation takes place (Rothwell 1994). In Table 1, Eveleens (2010) gave an overview of three authors. Table 1. Historic overview of innovation management models. Illustrations Discovery of fire or discovery of America General Electronics, Bell labs. 政治大 Entrepreneurial. 立. laboratories (1860s). Technology Push (1950s -1960s). Focus on result; introduction of project planning, coupled to business targets (1930s -1970s). Science discovers, technology provides, man conforms. ‧. Market Pull (1960s – 1970s). Fordism, Mass Production. n. al. Ch. Technology management in context of financial risks, strategical planning and technological road maps (1980s). Propelled by scarcity; oil crisis, financial crises Japanese reverse engineering and manufacturing. Emphasis on learning and interaction with the market to satisfy existing and latent market demands (1990s). Huge Global networking firms. er. io. The “coupling” Model (1970s – 1980s) Integrated innovation Process Model (1980s -1990s) Integrated, Parallel, Flexible and connected model (1990s – present). sit. y. Nat. Opportunitydriven bridgebuilding model (Post Industrial). Jacobs and Snijders (2008). 學. Scientific curiosity driven. Rothwell (1994). ‧ 國. Verloop (2004) Trial and error approach (pre-historic). engchi. i n U. v. Source: Eveleens (2010) Based on Table 1, it can be seen that innovation models have become more complex, more interdisciplinary, more integrated and more connected with their surroundings - more links between organizations. It is important to note however, that it is not always better to pursue a later model; all models are still used today and in the. 6.

(14) right place. All sorts of innovation are created and carried out by people. That explains why human capital becomes so important in today’s economy emphasizing innovation.. 2.2 Competitive Intelligence Competitive Intelligence (CI) became an important practice among business since the early 1980’s, where during that time Harvard Professor, M. Porter used the technique of CI to analyze industries and competitors. The purpose for CI is to provide benchmarks, avoid surprises and identify opportunities (Du Toit, 1998). Competitive Advantage (CA) on the other hand is when an organization. 政治大 outperform its competitors (Wang, 2014).The pursuit of CA is arguably the central 立 theme of the academic field strategic management (Porter, 1996). Porter considered develops or acquires a set of attributes or executes actions, which allow it to. ‧ 國. 學. that in the long term, the extent to which a firm is able to create a secure position in an industry is a major factor of the success with which it will outperform its competitors.. ‧. Porter proposed general strategies by which a firm can develop a CA and create a secure position. These strategies are cost leadership, differentiation and focus. By. y. Nat. sit. adeptly following the cost leadership, differentiation, or focus strategies, businesses. n. al. er. io. can get significant and lasting CA over their rivals. i n U. v. Cost leadership is not based on offering the lowest price, but having the lowest. Ch. engchi. cost and henceforth increasing the potential for greater profit margins. Differentiation is a strategy based on proposing a unique product, either by design, branding, technology, features, or customer service. A focus strategy aims to satisfy the needs of a specific group of customers. Organizations that decide to follow a focus strategy should tackle their resources to increase their market share within their specific segment, and thereby achieve lower cost or differentiation within that segment (Yamin et al, 1997). CI essentially means to understand and learn what is happening outside and inside an organization, whereas CA is to create strategies to outperform competitors. Based on this, CI’s ultimate goal is to lead to CA, via collecting vital information and analyzing that information to allow organizations to create strategies. 7.

(15) Tao and Pian (2003) summarized CI as a collection of information which has a direct influence on the sale process and thus provides an advantage over competitors despite existence of lower reserves. CI is identified as knowledge of information that is transferred from data collected to organization (Rouach and Santi, 2001). Patterson (2000) from a systematic process defines CI as involving planning, gathering, analyzing and disseminating to gain external environment information, where the information gathered are to identify the opportunities that affects a company’s situation. Thus CI creates competitive advantage by identifying new opportunities and threats among the environment. Kinsnger (2007) believe that not only the study of critical factors of the modern environment that creates a successful CI, but also the study of all the relevant factors related to applied and operational stimuli are. 治政 Intelligence, Competitor Intelligence and Technological大 Intelligence. While 立 researching CI, Allmeh et al. (2014) researched upon the effects of competitive. necessary. Deschamps (1995) identified three types of CI, namely, Market. ‧ 國. 學. intelligence components, added strategic intelligence to their model. Thus this paper will be basing on the model for CI including market intelligence, technology. Nat. y. ‧. intelligence, competitor intelligence and strategic intelligence.. n. er. io. al. Competitor Inteligence. sit. Market Intelligence. Ch. engchi Competitive Intelligence. i n U. v. Techology Intelligence. Strategic Intelligence. Figure 2. Slocum (2014) Base Model of Competitive Intelligence. 2.2.1 Market intelligence To measure market intelligence Fleisher (2003) views that it contained of opportunities analysis in order to enter new market and according to the customer’s demand, priorities and approach, the quality assurance of products and services. This 8.

(16) is intelligence is like a road map of the current and future trends of what preferences the customers’ want, it allows new markets and innovative segmentation opportunities and can create a major shift in marketing and distribution (Deschamp, 1995) .. 2.2.2 Technology intelligence Frair and Horwitch (1985) defined the term technology intelligence as using tools related information communication technology. Where Thomson and Ngugi (2012) stated that technology intelligence is one the most important information fields for organizational innovation process, it is also a factor in sustaining innovative companies.. 2.2.3 Competitor intelligence. 政治大 obtained to allow more understanding 立 of the company, it is a set of procedures that. Li et al. (2008) refer it to that information of other company activities that are. in order to improve and develop business dynamic.. 學. ‧ 國. uses difference source to obtain difference experiences through direct or indirect ways. ‧. 2.2.4 Strategic intelligence. Strategic intelligence has being considered by Najafi (2010) as an concept that. y. Nat. sit. arises the issue from law, financial and tax, with political and economic issues.. er. io. Thomson and Ngugi (2012) believe that this type of intelligence is ranging from. al. v i n small inter organization communication . C h with high potential engchi U n. informal agreements to formal agreements, in which lead organization to expand via. 2.3 Process of Competitive Intelligence Kahaner (1996) states that competitive intelligence does not only serve as a function but is a total process, which includes four steps; Planning and direction, collection of data, analysis and dissemination.. 2.3.1 Planning and direction This is the starting process, thus planning will decide the success and fail of the process, where it is important to understand the user’s need; upon this depends the success of the process (Kahaner 1996). Time frame plays a heavy role too as it will. 9.

(17) determine the allocation of resources and which types of the collection process to use (Rouach and Santi, 2001).. 2.3.2 Collection Collection means collecting raw data and turning it into usable intelligence information. Rouach and Santi (2001) were able to distinguish three types of data; Firstly, white information, or known as open-source information. These are data that can found throughout the web, in public databases, newspapers and etc. Secondly, grey information, this covers private domain information such as trade shows or publication, these kind of public stunt data are usually ignored by competitors. The data are usually collected by salesman when going to competitors firm. Lastly, black. 政治大. information, is the information that is gained mostly through illegal means, such as computer piracy or telephone wire-tapping.. 立. 2.3.3 Analysis. ‧ 國. 學. This is what makes intelligence, by connecting seemingly unconnected information (Rouach and Santi, 2001). Rodenberg (2008) advocates the analysis, as. ‧. the added value of information is increasing from simple information gathering to. y. Nat. intelligence production. Rodenberg (2008) considers analyzing externally sourced raw. sit. data from industry experts, consultants and universities can produce intelligence. n. al. er. io. estimates, intelligence assessments, intelligence briefings and competitors’ forecasts.. 2.3.4 Dissemination. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. This is where analysis suggests recommendations to further the courses of action and distributes them to end users, such as managers (Rouach and Santi, 2001). Although Kahaner (1996) considers these four steps are enough, Fuld (1995) added a fifth step, storing and delivering, a security measures to ensure the information do not leak to the public and ruin the strategy set ahead. Ashton and Stacey (1995) added a sixth step in the process, auditing and system performance, where evaluation of the execution summary will be performed.. 2.4 Innovation Competitive intelligence Nowadays, more organizational resources for knowledge and innovation creation are required, especially with technological improvements, social change and 10.

(18) economic developments in a short period of time, rapid change of the business environment, shortening product lifecycle and increasing competition to allocate a greater share of the market (MacGonagle and Vella, 2004). In this circumstances, focusing and concentrating on the concept of competitive intelligence is to timely identify the opportunities and existing threat in the market and to prepare for taking advantage of opportunities and avoid threats (Thomson and Ngugi, 2012). The need for increased resources can be organized and may lead organization to create a competitive advantage systematically. Organization should allow time to develop innovation - a key source of CA creation and long term supporting of organizational performance. However, innovation is not possible except in the light of designing and implementing innovation process through competitive intelligence (Chen et al., 2009).. 治. 政 2.5 Intangible Assets for Competitive Advantage 大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. In order to achieve competitive advantage, firms need to search for valuable, rare inimitable and non-substitutable assets (Barney, 1991). Assets are ‘‘valuable’’ if opportunities and/or neutralize threats can be exploit, ‘‘rare’’ if the organization's. ‧. current and potential competitors can hardly have them, ‘‘inimitable’’ if they are. y. Nat. imperfectly imitable by other resources, and ‘‘non-substitutable’’ it cannot be. io. sit. substituted with other resources that are valuable but neither rare nor imperfectly. er. imitable. Grant (1991) identified different groups of properties, as durability,. al. n. v i n C h low tradability, inimitability, identified complementarity, scarcity, limited engchi U. transparency, transferability and replicability. Also Amit and Schoemaker (1993). substitutability, appropriability, durability and strategic industry facts; Collis and Montgomery (1995) considered inimitability, durability, appropriability, substitutability and competitive superiority as the sources of competitive advantage. In addition to tangible assets, many authors considered intangible assets, with knowledge and relational based as a potential source in competitive advantage (Argote and Ingram, 2000; Boisot, 1998; Dyer and Singh, 1998; Flamholtz and Hua, 2003). While tangible assets can be easily monetized and with financial and economical ratios have been defined, the valuation of intangible assets on the other hand has represented a challenge (Teece, 2000). By integrating the strategic. 11.

(19) viewpoints of an organization in the form of mutual influence among assets are methods to monetize intangible assets (Jhunjhunwala, 2009). Intangible assets constitute the fundamental determinants of the two factors: vertical disintegration is achieved through the replacement of intangible assets (such as distribution channels based on the Internet) to tangible assets, and through innovation gained through investments in intangible assets (Ciprian et al., 2012). In figure 3, Lev (2003) explains how global influence of information and the technological changes requires the importance of intangible assets.. 政治大. Intensification of competitiveness inducted by globalization and technological changes. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. al. Ch. engchi. sit. Intangible assets connected to human resources. Intangible assets connected to innovation. er. io. Intangible assets connected to organization. y. Nat. Fundamental transformation of enterprises, accentuation of innovation, vertical disintegration, intensive use of information techonologies. i n U. v. Figure 3. Lev (2003) intangible assets culmination. 2.6 Human Resource Competitive Advantage Porter (1985) considers human resource management as an essential support activity, when integrated with other value chain activities which are necessary for an organization to achieve and sustain competitive advantage. Thus the importance of human resource management to effective implementation is recognized. Perspective such as Barney (1991) and Phan et al. (2005) prominent the potential that explains the strategic importance of human resource as the resource base view of the firm. This resource-based view proposes that an organizations is defined by the resources that they control, thus it assumes that all competitors are different due to the human resource that they possess, which further explains the differences in performances 12.

(20) across organizations. Carmeli and Schaubroeck (2005) have argued that certain organization intangible sources of advantage, such as organizational history, culture, learning, and other human dimensions of organizations can be particularly important to sustaining competitive advantage, because they are valuable, rare and extremely difficult to imitate and substitute for. Buller and McEvoy (2012) have stated that when an organization chooses to grow through merge or acquisition, human resource management practices play a very important role. Early studies have agreed with this statement. For instance, Manichavasagam (2006) explains that human resource management is particularly important when organizations seeking to grow their international operations involving very different cultures from the home country. Empirical work suggests that HRM practices can positively impact firm. 政治大. performance (Combs et al., 2006), the specific ways in which these practices affect. 立. organizational outcomes are not clear. This uncertainty is due to the fact that studies. ‧ 國. 學. differ widely with respect to theoretical foundations, levels of analysis, definitions of human resource management practices, and measures of performance (Guest, 2011). Previous studies have dependent on measures of performance, some focuses on. ‧. various financial outcomes such as sales, profits and growth, others on organizational. sit. y. Nat. outcomes, such as productivity, quality and efficiency, and others on human related issues, such as attitudes, behaviors, intentions and etc. (Paauwe and Boselie, 2005). In. io. er. summary, there is a need for a more comprehensive theoretical framework and. al. n. v i n Ch and performance. Ultimately, organizations i U people, with the requisite e n gmust c hconnect empirical validation of the relationships among strategy, human resource practices,. abilities and motivation, to complex, dynamic, and fragile organizational objectives and work requirements in order to affect lasting performance outcome. In this regard, simply linking human resource practices to business strategy is not enough. As all business strategy aims, the ultimate goal is to achieve a profitable and sustainable positon, where the source to achieve that goal usually are tangible and quantifiable, such examples as products , technology, finances, location, operation and pricing. Intangible resource on the other hand, such as company’s people and culture are becoming more important (Slocum et al, 2014). Slocum et al’s (2014) research have found that human capital can be extracted from recruitment/selection and. 13.

(21) training/development, where social capital can be formed from performance appraisal and compensation as seen in figure 4. Human Resource Managemet Practices Strategy. Human Resource. Human Resource Practices Recruitment & Selection. Performance Appraisal. Compensation. Training & Developement. 政治大. Performance Outcomes. 立. Figure 4. Slocum et al. (2014) Human Resource Management Practices. ‧ 國. 學. 2.7 Team Performance. ‧. y. Nat. Understanding teams, collaborative learning, and team environments is. sit. becoming more important because advances in technology, globalization, and. er. io. organizations are moving toward utilizing more network structures and team-based. al. n. v i n Coperation is to accept that teams mechanism for enabling effective h e n gofcanhorganization i U. functions (Lipnack & Stamps, 1997). Team-based philosophy as the appropriate. are an effective way of making people productive when they work together. Clearly this is not true on the first day that a new team is assembled (Sheard and kakabadse. (2002). Tuckman (1965), proposed a model describing four stages in the development of a team forming, storming, norming and performing as seen in figure 5, in a new formed company it is necessary to gather loose group into an effective team.. Forming. Storming. Norming. Performing. Figure 5. Illustration of Tuckman’s four stages of team development. 14.

(22) . Stage1 Forming: In this stage, most team members are positive and polite. Some are anxious, as they haven’t fully understood what work the team will do. Others are simply excited about the task ahead.. . Stage2 Storming: The team than moves on into the storming phase where people start to push boundaries established in the forming stage and this is the stage where many team failed. Storming often starts where there is a conflict between team members’ style of work, this is due to people work differently in different manners, but these different methods is what will cause unforeseen problems, they may become frustrated.. 政治大 people start to resolve their differences, appreciate colleagues’ strength. 立 This is the time when team members starts bonding, by socializing Stage3 Norming: The team moves into the norming stage. This is when. 學. ‧ 國. . outside work and will gradually ask each other for help. Stage 4 Performing: The team now has a common goal in mind and. ‧. . will work hard without friction, it is easy for other members to join or. Nat. io. er. are working structure and processes.. sit. y. leave at this stage, as this will not disrupt the performance since there. al. n. v i n C h needs can be categorized shares certain common needs and those into three basic engchi U. It has been suggested by Adair (1986) that “group” at the most generic level. elements of task, group and individual. It is weird to call one of the categorized “group” when the generic level is also named “group”, thus for this paper the. categorized group will be named “team” to avoid confusion. Critchely and Casey (1984), who point out that the conditions for effective team-working relate to situations entailing high uncertainty and maximum choice, considered the situations in which teams will add value. From this, Sheard and kakabadse (2002) pointed out when a complex problem has a strategic element complicating the optimum solution, and a significant amount of planning is inevitable due to the complexity of the issues, then team working is the optimum organizational solution.. 15.

(23) In Sheard and kakabadse (2002) study, the research provided nine key factors for differentiating a loose team from an effective group as seen in table 2 below; Table 2.Nine key factors differentiating a loose team from an effective team. Key Factor. Loose Team. Effective Team. Clearly defined goals. Individuals opt out of. Understood by all. goals not understood Priorities. Split loyalty of. Cohesive team alignment. individuals to other groups Roles and. Unclear, with gaps and. 治 individuals 政 Individuals guarded 大Social system established 立 and accepted. responsibilities. overlap. Group dynamics. Individuals guarded. Social system established. ‧. Open dialogue.. Tasked focused. Influenced, but not. y. Formal. controlled by organization. er. io. sit. Nat. focused Stable support from a Tasked iv l C organizational n h e n g c h i U infrastructure. n. Infrastructure. Catalytic. and accepted. Communication Content. Directive. 學. ‧ 國. Self-awareness. Leadership. Agreed and understood by. Clearly defined goal is considered essential that the task be articulated to the team in terms of clearly defined goals. In this paper, clearly defined goal is one set of goal the company is aiming for. Priorities refer to where within any organization there are a wide range of options, many of which would be advantageous if pursued. In reality, due to the practical constraints of time, money and available resources, an organization must choose a small number of options from those available, make them the organizational priority and pursue only those. Thus in this paper, priorities will be based upon if each team members are pulling their weight to help the company gain profit. Roles and responsibilities and self-awareness are two key factors that are 16.

(24) considered to capture the essence of what is important about individual team members from the teams’ perspective. In individual factor, this paper will focus on how much work each individual will need to do. Leadership, group dynamic and communication embody the aspects of team working. Team working is where this paper will pay attention, such as interaction between the founder and his/her employee. Since content and infrastructure are key factors of environment, infrastructure will be based upon on-site observation as the office layout and division will be the factor during interview. Environment was added by Sheard and kakabadse (2002) after the study of Mills et al. (2000). This is to ensure the factors covered all the ability of a team to function as a unit.. 政治大 From the above literature 立 review, innovation requires people to carry out. 2.8 Summary. ‧ 國. 學. the process. In today’s high changing environment, the need for innovation is one of the key elements in creating competitive advantage. Chen et al. (2009) pointed out there is a need of time for innovation to develop. By looking at Tuckman’s. ‧. (1965) four stages of team forming, it gives indication of able to increase the pace. y. Nat. of team forming by giving it stages, thus allowing the shortening of time in team. io. sit. development. Although Tuckman was able to give insight by staging, but advice. er. wise can be found in human resource practices. Human resource practices give an. al. n. v i n C h that during eachUstage of Tuckman’s team become efficient. This paper found engchi all-round system that allows organization’s workforce to stay motivated and. forming, there is a specific focus that human resource practice can be applied, that will allow the shortening of time in a more practical approach. To allow this to be applied there is a need to collect and analysis information from the internal organization. Using the information above, this paper shall use the process of CI to collect raw data, analysis data and display the information which will be known as HI. Using HI to theoretically help decrease the time needed for team forming and allow managers to build and manage a more efficient team.. 17.

(25) Chapter 3. Research Methodology 3.1 Case Study Methodology Qualitative research refers to any method except for statistical procedures or procedures arising quantifying findings. It can be from a person’s stories, person’s live, behavior observation, and research organizations (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). Interviewing with people to get some messages from respondents is one way to figure out the findings via verbal communication. Thus, the interaction with the respondent, then gathering the information is needed in the interview. Qualitative research aims to collect data for analysis and interpret the results. It is a tool during research, rather. 政治大. than emphasizing manipulation and controlling different variables.. 立. Qualitative analysis is the process of making sense out of the data (Merriam,. ‧ 國. 學. 2009). There are two ideas including inductive way and comparative way to analysis the research topic. To analyze is to find out the meaning from fragments of the research interview, and then take advantage of the results of meaningful part to. ‧. answer the research topic. Qualitative research is applicable on following five. sit. y. Nat. research purposes (Yin, 2003). (1) Understanding the meaning: the method tries to acquire the meanings of study events, situations, impacts of lives and the meaning of. io. er. actions that the study participants involved. (2) Understanding the specific situation:. al. n. v i n C h Define unexpected impacts of actions in this context. (3) e n g c h i U phenomenon and influence, understanding the specific context in which the activities of participants and the. and the then summed up the new theory. Although the qualitative research has not. been limited to the role of exploring nature, it is still an important qualitative strength of research methods. (4) Learning history of specific issue: the author can understand the course of events and actions of the issue with the qualitative research. Emphasizing that is one of the strength of the qualitative research methods which it is hard to find the same results with quantitative research experiments. (5) Development of causal connection explanation: some qualitative researchers questioned that the traditional concept of the definition of causation cannot use the qualitative methods to analyze (Britan, 1978; Denzin, 1970).. 18.

(26) 3.2 In-depth interview Through in-depth interviews, interviewer can understand the real thoughts and feelings of targeting object in the research. Through in-depth interviews, author of the research collects more extensive, more in-depth information and more unexpected results than the onetime assessment such as questionnaire survey. The interview mainly focuses on the oral conversation between interviewer and respondents and mainly within spoken conversation in order to achieve an exchange of views and construction of ideas. Interviewers can analyze interviewees' motivations, thoughts, attitudes and insights into a certain topic through interviewing. This kind of methodology is a positive social interaction. The interviewing data is the result of the. 治政 unstructured interviews and semi structured interviews.大立. interaction (Yin, 2003). There are three interview methods; structured interviews,. ‧ 國. 學. This paper uses a semi structured interviews. Whereas a structured interview is a highly control way to interview. Certain interviewing methods such as questionnaires include questions, sequenced and then recorded. Semi structured. ‧. interviews have three main characteristics. Firstly, there is a certain topic and few. y. Nat. questions, but interviewer does not need to stick to those specific questions. Secondly,. io. sit. before the interview, the interviewer can schedule some online questions. But, when. er. interviewing, interviewers can change or come out new questions in accordance with. al. n. v i n Ch U interviewer does not need to process can also change without restriction. e n gThirdly, c h i the interviewees’ responses. The way to ask questions and the sequence of the whole. use certain term or tone for interview, but according to the answer of respondent. (Hollway and Jefferson, 2000). As for unstructured interviews, there is no certain topic, conversation between interviewer and respondents are carefree (Yin, 2003).. 3.3 Research subjects Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) accounted for 98% of all firms in Taiwan and 78% of total employment in Taiwan in 2013, according to “Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs”. Additionally, high performance economies in the world such as Taiwan and Hong Kong, mainly depend on small and medium enterprises as their backbone, yet most of the research into innovation management has focused on large organizations. With the aim of this 19.

(27) study focusing on Human Intelligence (HI) for innovative growing companies, the companies that are interviewed either have an innovated product or the team structure turn out to be different. Each company relies heavily on their HR to allow the company to stand out among the crowd. Below are some brief backgrounds of the company.. 3.3.1 Company A Company A is classified in the manufacturing sector as a kitchen accessories manufacture, founded in 1995, Taiwan, New Taipei, selling their innovated product kitchen accessories, this product has been patented and currently the company is planning to start selling overseas (Japan, Korea, and United States). They currently. 政治大. only do partial manufacturing as other small parts such as magnets, steel frame and other material refinements are still outsourced. The current company size is 10 people. 立. including the factory floor. It used to be only a family-running business, but as the. ‧ 國. 學. business grew, the product even spread into China Town, California. Before the company started branding their products, the products use to be sold in dingy. ‧. hardware stores, but once the products start to fly off the shelves, the company started its branding campaign. In the beginning it was only word of mouth advertisement, but. sit. y. Nat. as the business grew, newspaper and television advertisement started to appear, more. io. er. importantly the rapid development of World Wide Web. Their most innovated and best-selling product by far is a protection filter for ventilators that is disposable and. n. al. i n U. v. easy to change. Since similar products don’t seem to exist, thus they are the only. Ch. engchi. reliable manufacturer for this product for the past 20 years.. Within the company there is the general manager (GM) /Founder, Factory Floor Manager, assistance general manager/Founder and engineer as shown in figure 6.. 20.

(28) GM/Founder. Factory Floor Manager. AGM/Founder. Engineer. Figure 6. Company A Structure. 3.3.2 Company B. 政治大 1997 as a magazine distributor, located in Taiwan, Taipei, with its core writing about 立 start-up companies. Due to its fall in sales, in 1999 it transformed into a consulting Company B is classified in the service sector as brand consultant, founded in. ‧ 國. 學. company for start-up businesses that aides newly developed business that has an “innovative” product. The company’s main service is corporate identity consulting, by. ‧. combining marketing, advertising, design and internet. Nowadays it has once again. y. Nat. changed its direction and aids businesses that have some years on the market. This. sit. company currently has two locations, one in Taiwan and the other in mainland China.. er. io. In this company there is a vast diversity of members, from creative thinkers such as. al. v i n C h information applications, from engineers whom are developing to the creative fashion engchi U n. writers and designers, to sales force, which is the consultant. They clients also vary,. designers in clothing line. Right now they are developing into Mainland China, due to China being a developing country where SMEs are sprouting up all over the place, which is their target audience. The interview was focused on the evolution of the Taiwan branch, which consists of an 8-people team, the general manager (GM)/founder, 2 vice general manager (VGM)/consultant, design art director/consultant, 2 activity project managers and 2 assistance consultants as shown in figure 7.. 21.

(29) GM/founder. VGM/consultant. Design Art Director/Consultant. 立. Activity Project Managers. 政治大. 學. Figure 7. Company B Structure. ‧ 國. Assistance Consultants. 3.3.3 Company C. ‧. Company C is classified in the service sector as visual design team, founded in 2010, their service includes brand identity, packaging design, web design, poster. sit. y. Nat. design, information system design and book design, currently located in Taiwan, Taipei. A 3-people company group that has won the Red dot Design Award in 2010. io. n. al. er. with innovative design in packaging for medicine. The service itself is doing. i n U. v. innovation for their client, aiding the clients to stand out among peers. The founder of. Ch. engchi. this company was born and raised in America, giving this fact; it is not hard to imagine that finding employees within Taiwan may pose a cultural difference, which results in communication barrier, since it was once an 8-man team, now down to only 3 once again. The team includes art director, project manager and executive assistance as shown in figure 8.. 22.

(30) Art Director. Executive Assistance. Project Manager 立. 政治大. Figure 8. Company C Structure. ‧ 國. 學. 3.4 Interview Design 3.4.1 Data Collection. ‧. As this paper is based upon SMEs in Taiwan to find a competitive advantage. sit. y. Nat. through competitive intelligence and human intelligence, with determinants that help start-up innovative companies to build a team through human resource and. io. n. al. er. information gathering, thus introducing a new terminology Human Intelligence. The. i n U. v. data collected are through means of interview, onsite observation and website knowledge.. Ch. engchi. 3.4.2 Outline interview questions In reference to table 3, part 1 of the interview question reference to Teece (2010), where the question tries to gain insight to innovation business model that are used to evaluate against the current business ecosystem, the following are what the part 1 questions are aiming to find out; (1) As innovation requires the provision of complements, is the necessary complement already available to the consumer with the convenience and price that is desirable (or possible)? (2) Strategic requirements are likely to be different in the pre- and post-paradigmatic periods. (3) Both lateral and vertical integration and outsourcing issues need to be considered. Contract theory/transaction cost economics is a useful lens through which to view many of 23.

(31) these issues. So is dynamic capability theory where Blyler and Coff (2003) identified the specific role of social capital in a dynamic capability and linking social capital to rent appropriation patterns. That also proposes social capital as an essential component of a dynamic capability in that it enables resource management. Part 2 questions are directed to human resource practices, mainly to find out what changes were made due to environment or culture influence. It is also to find out what roles does the company’s human resource play in its innovation and how does it profit. Where part 3, aims to see what importance aspects part a team needs, the determinants that need to be analyzed to ensure that the team will be successful during its run time.. 政治大. Table 3. Interview questions. 立. Part 1 : Innovation. ‧ 國. 學. 1. How does the product or service bring utility to the consumer? How is it likely to be used? 2. Where is the industry in its evolution? Has a ‘dominant design’ emerged?. ‧. sit. y. Nat. 3. What are the (contractual) structures needed to combine the activities that must be performed to deliver value to the consumer? Part 2: Human Resource Practice. n. al. er. io. 1. How has the dynamic of a team influenced the structure of the business model? Has it changed over time due to different team structure or different company development stage?. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 2. What would you say is the core culture of the business? How does it influence day-to-day activity? 3. What is your ideal team? What are the characteristics of your team members? What is the reason behind the dynamic of the team initial? 4. As a team leader, have you transformed your way of leadership over time? Why or why not? What kind of transformation have you undertaken? 5. During the training phrase for newly recruited what would you say is the most important culture they have to learn? Why these culture? 6. Does the combination of team and organization culture, play an important role within your competitive intelligence development? Why? Part 3: Human intelligence 1. If you are given the term “Human Intelligence” what elements do you think 24.

(32) are analyzed? 2. On a scale of 1-10, how will you rate your team performance? Why?. 3.4.3 Interview Respondents Purposive sampling could also be used with both qualitative and quantitative research techniques (Tongco, 2007). This research uses purposive sampling for the qualitative research. The method means that interviewer could find the samples fit for the research based on personal judgement, after a deep research (Wu, 1995). The principle of the chosen interview respondent is as followed: 1. One of the key person when the company started, to be more precise. 政治大 team building elements. The key person would be the attraction of how 立 the innovator, since HI is directed more toward innovation company. the team started.. ‧ 國. 學. 2. Has led more than one team, this is to ensure that the respondent has. ‧. met problems while carrying out an assignment.. y. Nat. Table 4 shows the basic information of the respondent, as each of the. io. sit. respondent are all the founder or co-founder of the company, from when the company. n. al. er. started. They all have insight and hardship of when the company was formed how it managed to raise up through the market and sustain.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Table 4. Interviewee’s Profile. Company. Position Title. Age. Gender. Years of Company. A. General Manager/Fou nder Vice General Manager/cofounder Art Director/ Founder. 49. Male. 52. 38. B. C. Total Employee Number. 20. Team dynamic changed before? Yes. Female. 18. Yes. 8 (Taiwan). Male. 5. Yes. 3. 25. 10.

(33) 3.4.4 Interview Principle According to Yin (2003), the principals of the purposive sampling interview for acquiring the information are as follows. (1) Researcher need to remind interviewee all content he/she illustrates will be keep in secret, this is to allow interviewee to speak freely (2) Always use neutral and short terms to lead the questions during the interview. This is to ensure that the interviewee does not get mislead. (3) The order of the questions will be adjusted based on the different interview situations and the answers from interviewee.. 政治大 encourage interviewees to talk 立 but not to guide them to the answers wanted on. (4) In order to let the interviewee be involved deeply, interviewer need to. ‧ 國. 學. purpose. It is very important not to release any opinions in the interview. (5) The interview environment must be comfortable and non-stressful. ‧. environment.. sit. y. Nat. (6) When interviewing, interviewers should respect to what the interviewees say and give interviewees the freedom to respond in an open way. Interviewer should. io. er. not question an interviewees’ answer.. al. n. v i n C hwill be recorded for (7) All the interview process subsequent research. engchi U. 26.

(34) Chapter 4. Result Analysis In reference to the goal of this paper, to define a new framework human resource practice framework for startup companies into the competitive intelligence base model that is in introduced in literature review. The interview questions are to determine the determinants that are key terms - HI and to propose a working framework for start-up companies that aim to be innovative as shown in figure 9.. Market Intelligence. Competitor Inteligence. 立. 政治大 Techology Intelligence. sit. io. n. al. Strategic Intelligence. er. Nat. Human Intelligence. y. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Competitive Intelligence. Ch. i n U. v. Figure 9. Incorporating Human Intelligence into Competitive Intelligence. engchi. Below are the case analysis for company A, B and C. Innovation will be summarized using the five dimension of innovation by Eveleens (2010) that was mentioned in Chapter 2.1. The five innovation dimensions are the type and degree of novelty of the innovation, the type and size of the organization in which the innovation project took place and lastly, and the environment/sector. Human resource practice will be summarized using the foundation of recruitment and selection, performance appraisal, compensation and training and development. Human intelligence is to know what a leader would think of the terminology HI. Lastly, onsite observation will be summarized to use as support for the nine-factor table later on.. 27.

(35) 4.1 Case Analysis for Company A 4.1.1 Innovation For Company A, their innovation was stumbled upon via the current founder. The innovation is kitchen accessories product. Although it was created by the current general manager, it was his wife that urged him to open the shop. For this reason for the past 20 years the general manager was fully focused on developing the product. Due to the focus of developing the product, the salesforce was then left to the current assistance manager (wife). The business model of this company is simple, the company changes. 政治大. according to the environment; Even though it has changed according to its environment, their product still need to do a check to ensure that customers are getting. 立. 學. ‧ 國. the right product;. “Due to our product come in various sizes, before we ship them to our customers, we need to ensure that they are getting the correct sizes…”. Nat. y. ‧. Table 5. Company A Innovation Dimension. Type of novelty of the innovation. Product (Manufacturing). er. al. sit. Company A. io. Dimension of Innovation. v i n C the Type of the organization in which Private Company h e n innovation project took place gchi U Radical. Size of the organization in which the innovation project took place. Small < 50. Environment/sector. Founder encourages new ideas. n. Degree of novelty of the innovation. Table 5 above summarizes the company’s current innovation dimension. From here, due to the company based its business model on the market’s needs, the novelty of this company is radical. A radical business model means that their individual functions will be cross-functional. For example their information technology department might have to manage their website, while at the same time working on packaging design or writing out manuals. It may also be due to this flexible model that they are able to incorporate different divisions into their manufacturing division. 28.

(36) 4.1.2 Human Resource Practices “In the beginning it was family run business, with one or two factory floor workers, but due to demands and the rise of internet, new members had to be considered, the additional members have me worried, due to we are only a manufacturer, we do not advertise or sale personally…” Due to the change in needing additional members, the founder found it to be worrying that he doesn’t possess the required knowledge to manage and lead the additional team members, but as the need became a urgent, the general manager rather changed his style of leadership to a more subtle one, but the general manager still have to ensure that big decision still needs his approval; “…I cannot management what I don’t understand, but big decisions still have to go through me, for example when the IT department want to join a platform, they will need to prepare a presentation for me , I would not ask how to operate, but rather why we need to join.”. 立. 政治大. To the general manager, quality seems to play a huge role in this company,. ‧ 國. 學. due to the general manager said that the most important culture is to strive for the best quality. This in return can be reflected upon the ideal team, which would be a team. ‧. that never ceases to stop innovating; this is due to the personality of the general. y. Nat. manager who likes to innovate new things to present to the market. While researching. sit. this company’s product, they have already created and patented 3 types of filters for. er. io. different purposes. Another is communication, as the general manager pointed out,. al. v i n general manager wanted to redoC a batch of stock, it was h e n g c h i Ueasier cause the family share n. that in the past it was just family but now there are outsiders, where in the past if the. the same value, but with outsiders it may turn out different as to them, may seem like a waste of time for one tiny mistake; “To me right now the ideal team should be like me, enjoy learning and developing new products, as to the characteristic of the team the best is if they can fill in for one another, but most importantly is patient….” Table 6 below summarizes company A’s human resource practice.. 29.

(37) Table 6. Company A’s Human Resource Practice. Human Resource Practice. Company A. Recruitment & Selection. There is no selection involved. As long as there is someone able to do the job. As in the past it was just family members.. Performance Appraisal. Quality of work and presentation.. Compensation (Award System). Unclear. Thru employee has to add shifts.. Training and Development. Strive for quality of product. 4.1.3 Human Intelligence. 治政大 products, the industry in Taiwan, but due to new ideas and ways of promoting 立new employees to help with the unknown field that they industry’s SME need to gain Taking the above into account, manufacturing industry seems to be a stable. ‧ 國. 學. are unfamiliar with, such as information technology or promotion. To this company Human Intelligence (HI) is the action where people socialize or interact with one. ‧. another to gain information.. sit. y. Nat. “The personality of a person exchanging information in-between colleagues…”. io. er. 4.1.4 On-Site Observation. Company A has one factory plant that is situated in a remote area just outside. n. al. i n U. v. Taipei, Taiwan. Upon entering to reach the office, one must walk down the entire. Ch. engchi. factory plant where the interview was held. While walking down the path there are a couple of scenarios. 1. There is a big trash can just next to the production line, filled with sealed products, upon further inquiry those are the deflects. 2. The information department is just a one man team in the corner of the office sector; the desk is piled with textbook about website design. 3. As each member of the office call each other by first name and are happily chatting away by the coffee machine. Even when the general manager walked by they do not seem tense.. 30.

(38) 4. Each order that comes in must be double checked with the customer, where only one lady was doing the work. Comparing observation with the interview there are couple of conclusions that one can derive. As the General Manager said that the core culture of the company is based on quality standards, the (1) scenario must be what the manager sees as poor quality. With a new department as the General Manager said is the information department as he has now working knowledge of that field, but by inspection of the information manager desk (2), it seems he/she, too, has no deep knowledge of that field. Whereas (3) in the office by referring to someone first name represents a close friendship or are able to feel free around one another, where even when the general manager walked pass they smiled and greeted, this refers to a non-hostile working. 政治大. environment. As mentioned above, it requires a lot of man power to just get the order. 立. right for the company’s business to customer sector (4).Further observation; there was. ‧ 國. 學. only one person who was on the phone consistently while checking the orders. The process was long and problems tend to arise as the customers may think this is a prank call. There are also a few customers whom they cannot get in touch with, therefore to. ‧. them personal orders are a hassle compare to just supplying them to stores and having. sit. y. Nat. the customers choose themselves. The reason they started personal orders was due to the rise of the internet, but due such eruptive decision to start virtual stores they are in. io. n. al. er. short of information, technicians, as the current manager for the online store was the. i n U. v. general manager’s daughter who does not have the knowledge to manage the virtual stores.. Ch. engchi. 4.2 Case Analysis of Company B 4.2.1 Innovation Company B in Taiwan, are considered to be pioneers, doing something that has not being done. They have innovated a new way for SMEs to have a branding chance along with the big brands out there today. According to Chapter 2.1, Porter (2003) stated that innovation is to do things in a new way and able to commercialize it. Thus for Company B, its “new way” is to provide a service that allows their client to be competitive in return their service is commercialized.. 31.