Samsung Case Study

Register to read the introduction… In the North America flat-panel television market, for example, it has 18.9 percent of the overall market while Sony has a 10.4 percent share. As a leader, its follow-up approach may not be adequate anymore. Many believe that now that Samsung is a leading manufacturer in the electronics market, it needs to change its “follower” mindset. In the early years of this decade Lee (2002) mentioned that the “follower attitude” was a problem of the entire electronics industry of Korea. According to him, “Korean firms are found to generally act as if they are followers, rather than leader, by taking a reactive strategy formulated after competitor‟s actions” (Lee, 2002). As noted by Chang (2008), in the past Samsung‟s products were immitation of late versions of products introduced by the market leaders. Since the inception of the “New Management Movement,” however, the company started to invest more on new products development. The company launched a “strategic product system” to develop new products.
Samsung is now in a good position to invest in new products creation. The company has qualified human resources and possesses financial resources to finance research. In 2007 the company reported spending approximately US$ 5.58 billion in R&D (Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., 2008). As a result of its improvement in R&D, the company has received 46 innovation awards for 2009. “Samsung award-winners include eight mobile phones, seven mobile phone accessories, six HDTVs, two laser printers, four digital cameras, two digital camcorders, an …show more content…
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