This paper tries to extract the implication of the competitive strategy in the display monitor industry, with the theoretical framework of the environment and the industry analysis, mainly reviewing the demand and the related industrial factors as well as the industry's five competitive forces. Further, it applies the core competence concept or the resource based views to analyze the internal assets and the capabilities of corporate by reviewing the cases of the leading companies in the display monitor industry, such as NEC, Sony and Viewsonic, together with the major PC companies who also act as the major players in the monitor industry, such as Apple, IBM, Compaq and Dell.
This analysis shows the opportunity factors coming from the industry structure and its environments such as the ongoing innovation and the growth of the overall electronics and the PC industries as well as the increasing value added of the component industry and digital convergence trend. Further, the CRT monitor's position as the dominant design and replacing demand of TFT LCD monitors provide with opportunity together with the growing demand of the monitor industry itself. On the other hands, the higher level of concentration among major players in the monitor and PC industries might pose the threat for the monitor companies, combined with the monitor industry's higher level of fixed investments and decreasing differentiation of products & technologies. Meanwhile, Korean major monitor companies bid for the one of the biggest manufacturing shares in the world with large scale & global operation and vertical integration of the capital intensive CRT & TFT LCD panels. With these assets, they consolidate the supply chains with the major PC companies and capabilities of providing the improved total cost of ownership. However, this structure seems to be related with the lower brand share and marketing abilities. It might deteriorate the profitability without differentiation of the products, technologies and other complementary assets.
The TOWS matrix based on above analysis suggests that companies keep their large- scale operation with the merits of OEM business partly to maintain the leadership in the industry while nurturing the abilities to provide customers with higher level of total cost of ownership. It also requires of the enhancement of the product dimension to accommodate the trend of the information age. And, this higher level of total cost of ownership and product leadership would contribute still higher market position of the their own brand products to serve for the customers ultimately.
