Research On Industrial Value Chain Theory And Its Application In Chinese VoIP Industry

Voice over Internet Protocal(VoIP) is attracting serious attention from industry and academia due to its profound influence on traditional telecom industry, and forms a newly emerging industry globally after the mature of broadband and voice techniques. Directly affecting telecom industry, Internet industry, and providing significant references to Internet TV(IPTV) and NGN, VoIP shows a prominent strategic position in every nation worldwide. Most developed countries are investing much on regulation, R&D and marketing to gain global competitive advantage. On the other hand, as the powerful tool of competitiveness research, Porter's value chain theory is needed to meet the requirement of industry development at Internet times more and more, especially for the research on newly emerging industries such as VoIP.In this dissertation, industrial value chain(IVC) theory system was constructed, based on which China's VoIP IVC was analyzed and research on China's VoIP industrial competitiveness was undertaken. The detailed achievements are shown as follows:First, IVC theory was developed. The concept"value chain theory jungle"was proposed and the contrast research was made on the development of this jungle. The preliminary framework of IVC theory system was constructed to play the role of theoretic cornerstone of this paper. The unified IVC theory framework was brought forward to present guide for IVC's future development.Second, IVC models were constructed. The concept"value potential energy"was presented and its mathematical model was built up. By analyzing the three forces determining value potential energy, the original driving forces behind the whole process of value movement was explored, which will be taken as a means of measuring outer competitive advantage of an IVC. Also, based on graph theory and linear algebra,"industrial value matrix"was brought forth and the relevant mathematical model was constructed. After that, three main indices– throughput ratio, reliability and information degree– were presented to measure the inner competitive capability of an IVC.Third, the China's VoIP IVC was analyzed. The formation forces of VoIP industry were analyzed in detail by three approaches. The proposed"seven mode"classification instead of previous"three mode"can technically present new theoretical references for the industrial policy makers. Starting from analyzing the components of VoIP IVC, the seven VoIP operating modes were combed and their structure models were built up. The specific features of VoIP IVC were analyzed and the existing relevant problems in China were summerized.Fourth, the research on China's VoIP industrial competitiveness was undertaken. After the analysis of competition factors and SWOT, such approaches as value potential energy model, industry evolutionary theory, Porter's"five force"model, case study, etc. were utilized to evaluate industrial competitiveness of China. It was found that there is huge value potential energy in China's VoIP industry but its national and international competitiveness are both unsatisfactory. Some factors constraining the competitiveness of China's VoIP industry were discussed.Last but not least, some advices on China's VoIP industrial development were proposed, which consists of controlling value potential energy to create more social welfare, applying third party regulation and eliminating monopoly to break the deadlock of industrial development, enhancing VoIP industrial competitiveness by developing main VoIP IVCs, getting prepared for the network convergence. Finally, the consideration for the global boom of VoIP industry was mentioned.Based on the presented IVC theory system in this dissertation, it was concluded that: (1) The development of China's VoIP IVC is not competent; (2) Even though there is tremendous value potential energy in China'VoIP industry, neither its national competitiveness nor its international competitiveness is satisfactory; (3) The lagged regulation progress and telecom monopoly is the crux of the slow development of China's VoIP industry; (4) Some advices including"controlling value potential energy","third party regulation"and"augmenting telecom's income"present references to solve the above problems.