Value Innovation Strategy of Taiwan Medical Tourism Industry
Date Issued
2006
Date
2006
Author(s)
Chang, Tzu-Wei
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
In the 1990s, Michael E. Porter, in “The Competitive Advantage of Nations” mentioned that innovation, like structural improvement of the whole body, calls for an adjustment of the strategy and system in response to environmental change. The capability of innovation is the key to competition. To win the competition, it is necessary to break up the old rules of the game, play up the novelty, open a new competition market, and create more market value. The effect of making up the disadvantages through innovation is much greater than that of creating new advantages. The key to a business’s innovation often lies in its ability to improve the disadvantageous factors of production. As these disadvantageous factors of production are visible bottlenecks and obvious threats, they can stimulate a business to search for new solutions.
By comparison, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne held the view that a business should base its development strategy on the innovation of value. They underscore that a business can use its core ability as the foundation for development, employ non-competitive means for innovation, and compete with similar businesses outside the industrial framework and even free itself from competition for a competition-free expanse of Blue Ocean. The Blue Ocean begins with customers whose economic needs are not satisfied. The focus of thinking should be shifted to answering the question of how to transcend the present economic needs. This calls for combining the individual functions of things not existing in the past for the development of the customer’s new economic needs.
Medical and health care has become a fastest growing industry in the world. The global medical care spending increased from US$3.3 trillion in 2001 to US$4.4 trillion (Chanda, R. 2004) in 2005. In recent years, the NHE/GDP ratio of major OECD nations has shown gradual increase. This shows the potential of the medical and healthcare market is still tremendous. The competition in the new century is one of quality and novelty, and international tourism is an industry bursting with vitality in the world. It is not only the most vital economic activity and source of income of developing and underdeveloped nations but also the index of modern nations’ total development. A recombination of the mode and goal of tourism will lead to the advance of new tourist products and put a new face on the tourist industry. New technology, new products, new market partition, and new concepts of management are emerging incessantly. The combination of tourism and medical industry will create new values in the tourism industry. Medical tourism is definitely tomorrow’s star industry in Taiwan’s economic development.
This is an exploratory research based on Porter’s concept of the competitive advantage of nations, competitive strategy and Kim’s and Mauborgne’s innovation theories. Through interviews with people concerned in medical and tourist industries, including policy makers, hospital operators, tourist agencies, and ordinary consumers, the study draws the conclusion on the potential, opportunity, development, and future prospects of Taiwan medical tourism industry.
Subjects
觀光醫療
創新價值
Taiwan medical tourism industry
Medical tourism
Value innovation
SDGs
Type
other