A Case Research on the Industry Development and Technology Innovation Strategy in the Tantalum Metal Industry
Date Issued
2016
Date
2016
Author(s)
Lin, Yau-Min
Abstract
Along with the rapid development of science and technology, innovation has become the lifeblood of enterprise. Research on strategic metals industry and its innovation strategy and development has been a critical issue for China. The present thesis research tackle the issue of development of tantalum metal industry. We first evaluate the global tantalum resource reserves and consumption level, and the future demand of the tantalum metal products. Then, we undertake the PEST analysis and five-force model analysis to understand the global environment, sources of competitive advantages and disadvantages. By selecting appropriate innovation strategy, the tantalum industry has been gone through a well-developed route in the past. However, we also found that there are problems exists in Chinese tantalum metal industry, such as inferior industry structure, lack of core technology, lack of pricing power, low industry concentration, inadequate protection of the strategic resources, low technology and equipment level, low energy efficiency and environmental pressure, the insufficient research capacities, etc.. This research pinpoint that Chinese tantalum metal industry shall upgrade the industry from the following four aspects: to optimize the industrial configuration, re-structure the whole value chain, strengthen the collaborative innovation model in the whole industry, improve the overall strategic policy of the tantalum metal. Next, based on such overall understanding on the whole industry, we conduct an in-depth case study to explore future strategies of tantalum metal industries and companies. We found that the future industry growth will be driven by innovation, rather than by resource endowment. China shall capture increasing domestic demand by putting strategic emphasis on the industry development. The industry policy shall possess international viewpoint and initiate global configuration. In addition, China shall organize a group of technology leading companies, backed up with strong intellectual property rights, along the value chain, from mining, dressing and smelting and related areas of new materials, to compete in the global arena. We also suggest that government shall build a open platform for communication and cooperation for tantalum metal companies in order to achieve China dream by joint efforts.
Subjects
tantalum metal
industrial structure
technology innovation
business model
Type
thesis