The Purpose of this thesis is to examine the technology acquisition strategy of Korean firms in high-tech industries and its success factors. This thesis primarily focused on research questions as follows: 1) How Korean firms acquired advanced technology overcoming their poor technological base and what are the differences in the strategy and success factors from those of firms in Developed Countries? 2) What are the important factors among competitive environment and internal resources to determine technology acquisition strategy and what are more critical factors to succeed in technologically and commercially ? 3) To succeed in high-tech industries, how firms could acquire outer-technology and how firms could accelerate in achieving competitive technologies ? And what is the needed role to government to support firms in competition ? This thesis adopted two-step approach to examine research questions: case study and statistical analysis. First of all, this thesis reviews the related literatures, such as the competitive environment of high-tech industries, technology acquisition strategy, and the factors of technological and commecial success. Through literature reviews, it becomes clear that technology outsourcing is the most effective and prevalent alternative in turbulent and piercely competitive environment such as high-tech indutry, and especially to the late-comers such as firms in newly industrialized economies. The remarkable characteristic of high-tech competition is the timing factor to achieve competitive edge, so key success factors can be classified as timing, product performance, and cost. Next, it analyses four case products of one large diversified firm, which is eager to penetrate in high-tech businesses as follows: VLSI: The firm aggressively acquired advanced technology by establishing R\&D center in Silicon Valley, and broke through technological barrier in the earlier stage supported by the strategic intent of top management. Now the firm became one of the world-class competitor and has many collaborative relations with foreign competitors through strategic alliances or cross licensing. Electronic Time Division Exchange: The firm entered this business through M\&A and technology licensing in the stage of technological discontinuity. The firm also rapidly accumulated technological capability by participating in cooperative R\&D projects inclluding ETRI (Governmentsponsored research institute). In the present days, the firm is trying to export to less developed countries. Personal Computer: The firm developed new products by imitating the products of developed countries in the earlier stage. Later the firm choosed technology acquisition strategy both of internal and external sourcing. But the commercial performance is low due to delay of new product development and relatively low level of product performance. Hand-held Phone: The firm develop internally more eager than other Korean firms. But commercial performance is low due to competition with the most superior product in the world. The foreign competitor has the monopolistic patents and the speed of competitive product development performance can enable advancing competitors. The major findings are as follows: In the successful cases, the firm entered speedily with low risk through acquiring external resource through M\&A or technology licencing. And in the earlier stage, the firm reached high level in technological capability by aggressive internal R\&D. In the later stage, the firm internationalize and makes relations with world-class competitors based on strong competitive edge. But in the failed cases, the firm couldn't or didn't acquire external resources, and couln't catch-up competitors and remained in the poor position in the core technology. This thesis suggests a research model of technology strategy and success factors, including competitive environment, resource capability, technological/commercial success, based on the literature review and case study. And strategic types of technology acquisition and hypotheses are also suggested. After refining questionnaires by interviewing with industy specialists, he collected datas of 32 high-tech products and tested hypotheses by statistical analysis. The Major findings of hypotheses testing are as follows: 1) The suggested hypotheses are mostly supported, excluding a few ones about timing of technology acquisition and the factors determining commercial success. 2) The technological capability is more important factor to determine technology acquisition strategy than competitive environment, so this study supports resource-dependency perspective. 3) The technological success is more dependent on the aggressiveness of technology acquisition than sourcing, and the capability than acquisition strategy. 4) The commercial success is higher in case of high level of technological success and the environment factor is not so important to determine commercial success level. In the short, technological capability is the key factor to the success in high-tech industry, so speedy acquisition of core technology by outsourcing is important in the earlier stage. In the later stage, it should be focused on aggressive internal R\&D. The firm can participate in global competition based on technological capability and can finally internationalize through strategic alliance or foreign investment. In the process of acquisition, accumulation, and utilizing competitive edge, it is prerequisite factors to success such as strategic intent of top management, absorptive capacity, capability of planning and information analysis of technology etc. This is an exploratory study on the technology acquisition strategy of a Newly Industrializing Country. The thesis contributes in the study of high-tech industries by finding out patterns and success factors of technology acquisition strategy. And it provides some useful suggestions to the firms of Newly Industrializing Economies such as change in the technology acquisition strategy by considering competitive environment and technological capability. But this thesis has also several shortcomings and requires in-depth and comparative researches in the later time. This study is about one large corporation, the causal relationship could not be explained explicitly. Especially it is necessary to compare with the technology acquisition strategy of small high-tech firms, of firms in Developed Countries and to study the process of technology acquisition and accumulation. The case study and hypotheses testing provide several business strategy and policy implications as follow: 1) Entering new and high risk businesses, acquisition of external resources is effective strategy and firms should adopt 'utilization strategy' rather than 'ownership strategy'. 2) Technological capability is the critical factor to the long-term success, so firms should focus on internal R\&D, by which they can rapidly reach world-calss level in competitive edge. 3) In high-tech industries, timing is the most critical factor in determing technology acquisition strategy and commercial success. Firms should choose strategy considering speed of technological advancement in both of environment and internal capability. And firms should do best speed up in absoption of outsourcing technology and accumulating internal technology. 4) Finally, government should aggressively sponsor R\&D activities of firms by funding or providing initial demands. In this case, government should enhance competitive environment and make firms to lead cooperative R\&D because speed by considering importance of speed in high-tech competition.
