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INTRODUCTION
LITERATURE
REVIEW
RESEARCH
METHOD
Subjects
Questionnaire
Analyses of Data
Representativeness
ANALYSES AND
RESULTS
CIS and Marketing
Plans
Hardware Usage
Software Usage
Frequency of
Computer Usage
Purposes of
Computer Usage
Communications
of Information
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MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEMS USAGE IN TAIWAN'S TOP 1000 COMPANIES. By: Li,
Eldon Y., Chen, Houn-Gee, Roan, Jinsheng, Journal of Computer Information Systems, 08874417,
Winter2000/2001, Vol. 41, Issue 2
Computers & Applied Sciences Complete
MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEMS USAGE IN TAIWAN'S TOP 1000 COMPANIES
ABSTRACT
Taiwan is a small nation with not so well endowed natural resources. Its
lifeblood lies in international trade. Effective marketing is of the utmost
importance to those companies who are facing local or global competition.
This paper surveys the marketing executives of the top 1000 companies in
Taiwan and reports the status of marketing information systems (MkISs) in
their companies. The results are compared with the U.S. status reported in
1995. One hundred and thirty-one companies participated in this study. The
data provide insights into the weaknesses of MkISs in Taiwan. Some viable
actions are recommended to improve the usage of MkISs and to reshape
the future of these systems in Taiwan.
Keywords: marketing, information systems, computer-based information
systems, environmental information, marketing mix decisions, marketing
management.
INTRODUCTION
The globalization of the marketplace in recent years has intensified
business competition throughout the world. Today's marketing executives
are facing an ever expanding and rapidly changing marketing environment (
30). They are receiving more information from both internal and external
sources through the help of improved computer technology and databases (
9). There is a definite need for marketing executives to process more data
for decision-making at all levels of managerial activities. In order to handle
the ever-increasing amount of internal and external information and to
improve decision quality, the need to establish an MkIS in one's company
is never before so great. This need is felt even greater in the island country
of Taiwan.
Taiwan is a small country about one-tenth of the size of California in the
U.S. Its population (21.9 million) is about two-thirds of California,
concentrating mostly on the western half of its main island. Its natural
resources are scarce: thus its national economy depends heavily on foreign
trades. In the last decade, Taiwan has gone through dramatic political and
economic changes and become a truly democratic society. Its currency,
the New Taiwan Dollar (NT$), has been appreciated over 20% against U.S.
Marketing
Management
Support for
Marketing-Mix
Decisions
Use of Decision
Models
Definition of MkIS
Perception Toward
MkIS
Performance of
MkIS
DISCUSSION
CONCLUSIONS
AND
RECOMMENDATION
TABLE 1 Profile of
Respondents
TABLE 2 Industry
Types of the
Population and the
Sample Companies
TABLE 3 Size of
the Population and
the Sample
Companies
FIGURE 2
Computer Software
Usage in MKIS
FIGURE 3
Environmental Data
Collected by MKIS
FIGURE 4 Sources
of Competitor
Information
FIGURE 5
Computer-Assisted
Decision Models
FIGURE 6
Satisfaction with
Marketing
Information
Systems
REFERENCES
dollar, from 40:1 to 32:1 exchange rate. The country has been a major
trading partner of the U.S. since the early 1950s. During the last 25 years,
it has gradually transformed its developing economy into a mature
economy ( 27). Albeit its limited natural resources, Taiwan has raised its
per capita GNP (gross national product) over one hundred fold in 40 years,
from US$81 in 1952 to US$8,742 in 1992 ( 8, 26). In 1996 and 1998, it
reached US$12,838 and US$11,982, respectively. The average annual
growth of GNP is 8.6% before the recent Asia Pacific economic crisis. Its
population was about 0.4% of the world population but its GNP is about 1%
of the global GNP. At the end of 1998, its foreign exchange reserve
(US$90.3 billion) was the third largest in the world, only behind Japan and
the People's Republic of China. Trading appears to be the lifeblood of this
country. Without trading, Taiwan could never have made the transition.
Specifically, exports and imports are the major contributors to Taiwan's
economy. The former has accounted for over 40% and the latter for over
35% of its GNP. The trade surplus with the U.S. as a percentage of its
GNP has been more than 10% since 1983 ( 28). Taiwan's export to and
import from the U.S. in 1999 were 30.90 and 19.69 billion U.S. dollars
respectively -giving a surplus of 11.21 billion. All these conditions indicate
that Taiwanese companies are strong competitors for their American
counterparts. They have been in direct competition with American
companies for the goods they sold in the U.S. and around the world.
The purpose of this study is to apply the MkIS model proposed by Li ( 15)
to exploring the current status of MkISs in Taiwan's top 1000 companies.
The results are then compared with those of the U.S. study reported by Li (
15) in 1995. This allowed us to identify the weaknesses of MkIS usage in
Taiwan. The rationale is that the advancement of MkISs in the U.S. does
not sit still. If the U.S. companies in 1995 had better achievement than
today's Taiwanese companies, by now they should be far better than their
Taiwanese counterparts. This condition indicates a major weakness of
Taiwanese companies. Such comparison should help the top management
in Taiwan to reshape the future of MkISs in their companies.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The use of information systems to support marketing functions may be
traced back to the 1960s. Before there was a term of "marketing
information system," marketers were using the computer to run the
mathematical models for solving marketing decision problems ( 14). In the
Fall of 1966, Kotler ( 13) published an article to propose an architecture for
building a "marketing information and analysis center" (MIAC) in a business
firm. One year later, Cox and Good ( 6) coined the term "marketing
information system" (MkIS). Since then, several more MkIS models have
been proposed ( 1, 5, 12, 16, 17, 20, 21, 13).
A review of MkIS literature reveals that there are various surveys of MkIS
usage in the U.S. ( 2, 4, 9, 15, 16, 17, 20, 2l, 22, 30). More recently, Li (
15) modified McLeod and Rogers' model ( 21) and proposed a
comprehensive MkIS model as shown in Figure 1. In this model, Li depicts
an MkIS as a computer-based system being supplemented by noncomputerized
systems. The system consists of input, process, and output
subsystems to support marketing management activities. Based on his
model, we may define an MkIS as an integrated system consisting of
several subsystems that gather and process data to produce information
about product, price, place, and promotion (i.e., the 4 Ps) in order to assist
marketing managers at all organizational levels in making decisions and
meeting the needs of customers. The top-level managers include corporate
vice presidents of marketing or sales who are responsible for strategic
marketing activities such as analyzing market structure and behavior, customer orientation and
advocacy, positioning the company in the value chain, deciding on strategic alliances, etc. the
middle-level managers include regional/business unit managers or directors who are responsible for
tactical marketing activities such as market segmentation and targeting, positioning the product,
deciding on when and how to partner, etc. the low-level managers include branch/office managers or
supervisors who are responsible for operational marketing activities such as responding to customer
needs, developing long-term relationships with customers and resellers, sales and sales-force
management, implementing and controlling marketing efforts, etc. ( 29, 33). A successful MkIS is
the one that supports the activities at all these three levels of management. Such a system is very
complex and has been regarded as the nerve center of a company. However, it is very expensive to
build and operate. This is perhaps why very few companies have implemented a complete MkIS.
Li applied the aforementioned model and developed a questionnaire to survey the top 1000
companies in the U.S. The results were compared with a similar survey reported in 1985 by McLeod
and Rogers ( 21). He found that the MkIS support for management levels and for marketing-mix
ingredients - product, price, place, and promotion - is becoming more and more balanced.
Furthermore, more and more PCs are being used to support MkIS. Information about governments,
economy, competitors, and prospects are not computerized as much as we need. The marketing
plan, in general, is not integrating with the CBIS plan as much as it should. The results of Li's study
will be very helpful to us. We shall compare his results with those of our current study.
RESEARCH METHOD
Subjects
The subjects of this study were the marketing executives from the top 1000 companies in Taiwan (
7). A questionnaire concerning the use of MkIS and a letter with instruction for completing the
questionnaire were sent to these marketing executives. Six weeks later, a second mailing was sent
to the non-respondents. Eventually, 141 executives (14.1%) returned the questionnaire within three
months. However, ten of them were unusable due to excessive invalid responses or missing values.
This left us with 131 usable samples, giving a response rate of 13.1%. Among these usable
samples, 42 were returned in the first wave while 89 were in the second wave. Table 1 displays the
characteristics of these respondents. Tables 2 and 3 indicate, respectively, the industry type and
the size (in net sales and the number of employees) of the companies in the population and the
responded sample.
Questionnaire
For comparison purposes, the questionnaire used in this study was adapted from Li ( 15). In addition
to the questionnaire items, several demographic questions were included in order to validate the
representativeness of the subject group.
Analyses of Data Representativeness
In order to examine the representativeness of the data, the demographic distributions (industry type
and company size) of the respondents (the sample) were tested against the same distributions of
the 1000 companies (the population). No significant difference at the 0.05 level was found in any
demographic distribution, indicating the sample is representative of the population. Next, a series of
chi-square and Mann-Whitney tests were conducted between the 123 respondents and the eight
respondents of unknown industry type and company size. No significant difference at the 0.05 level
was found on any question in the questionnaire between the two groups. This allowed us to include
the eight respondents in the study, giving us a sample size of 131 in total.
As for the non-response bias, a series of chi-square and "t" tests were then conducted between the
usable samples from the two waves of mailing. Since no significant difference at the 0.05 level was
found on any question in the questionnaire between the two waves of samples, we thus concluded
that there was no significant late-response bias and the two samples were regarded as coming from
the same population. This allowed us to merge the two samples as one for further analyses of
frequency distributions and cross tabulations.
ANALYSES AND RESULTS
CIS and Marketing Plans
Most of the responding companies (87%) had company-wide computer-based information systems
(CBISs). Many (71.9%) of these companies had formal written CBIS plans. Among the latter
companies, 65.9% of them indicated that their CBIS plans were influenced by their marketing
strategies. Moreover, 74% of the responding companies had formal written marketing plans. This
was significantly lower than the 89.4% of the U.S. companies. Among these Taiwan companies, a
surprising majority of them (97.9%) did exploit their information resources in their marketing plans.
In other words, 72.3% of the total respondents in Taiwan were integrating their information resources
with their marketing plans. This revealed that the top companies in Taiwan not only valued the
information resources in their companies but also were incorporating the use of these resources in
their marketing plans.
Hardware Usage
Most (87.8%) of the responding companies in Taiwan used the computer to assist their MkISs,
somewhat fewer than those in the U.S. (95.1%). The most popular type of computer hardware used
by the MkISs in Taiwan was PC or workstation (52%), followed by minicomputer (19%), mainframes
(14%), multi-user micros (13%), and supercomputers (1.3%). This might be due to the price
performance of a PC being much higher than that of a larger computer. Moreover, the cost of a PC
has been dropping dramatically during the recent years, making it more affordable for a user to own
one. In addition, the recent advent of client-server computing might have rendered the upswing of PC
computing.
Software Usage
The types of computer software being used in Taiwan were very different from those used in the U.S.
(Figure 2). Fourth generation languages or integrated software (1%) and conventional 3rd generation
programming languages (9%) were not used as much in Taiwan as in the U.S. (13% and 26%,
respectively). Moreover, many Taiwan companies were using other software (50%) such as word
processors and presentation software. This was probably due to the popularity and affordability of
office automation software in Taiwan such as Microsoft Office, Lotus Smartsuite, etc. Not many
companies were willing to pay for the high price of 4th generation integrated software running mainly
on minicomputers or other larger computers. Neither were they willing to pay for nor rely on
application systems written in less-flexible 3rd generation languages. As for the other types of
software, there were no significant differences with those in the U.S. One expected outcome was
that the use of artificial intelligence (A.I.) technology such as expert system shells and logic
programming languages was very minimal in both countries.
Frequency of Computer Usage
Many marketing executives in Taiwan (82%) were using computers daily. This was perhaps due to
the newly available access to the World Wide Web on the Internet that has been increasingly
popular in Taiwan since 1994. By now, the friendly graphical user interface on the World Wide Web
should have attracted more executives to use more of their computers.
Purposes of Computer Usage
The top four purposes of using computers in Taiwan were, in sequence: processing data (83%),
producing reports (83%), retrieving data (82%), and storing data (80%). These were identified to the
top four purposes reported in the 1995 U.S. survey. The large difference between the two countries
was in "responding to inquiry" (U.S. 60% versus Taiwan 41%). It was probably due to the fact that
printed reports were more popular than on-line screen output among Taiwan's marketing executives.
Nevertheless, this picture would most likely change in the near future; more and more executives
would get used to and use more of on-line inquiries.
Communications of Information
Traditionally, office communications in Taiwan were mainly through the phone (or voice mail)
system. In addition, most respondents (96.9%) were transmitting data between the organizational
units. Surprisingly, most of them were using facsimiles (84.7%) to communicate with their peers.
Only 41.2% were using electronic mail systems in Taiwan; compared to 68% in the U.S. four years
earlier. The use of computer conferences (9.2%) and videoconferences (6.1%) were limited in
Taiwan. As for the more advanced information technologies such as hypertext, hypermedia
conferences, they were not much (less than 4%) used. Moreover, many companies in Taiwan
(84.1%) routinely routed marketing intelligence information to those managers with a need to know.
Information Content
Based on the number of top-ranking responses, the marketing executives in Taiwan regarded
internal accounting/data processing as the most important (54%) source of information for MkISs,
following by marketing intelligence (29%), and marketing research (17%). This was consistent with
the perception of U.S. managers earlier.
The types of environmental data utilized by an MkIS include data about customers, prospects,
competitors, national economy, and governments. Most companies in Taiwan had offices primarily
assigned to collect information about customers (88.5%) and competitors (81.7%). Many fewer
companies (36.6%) had offices devoted to collecting government information. However, Taiwan
companies were not utilizing the environmental data as much as the U.S. companies (Figure 3).
Neither did they computerize such data as much as the U.S. companies.
A similar pattern occurred in using the sources of computer information (Figure 4). Taiwan
companies were not utilizing as much as the U.S. companies the possible sources of such
information. To know their competitors, the companies in both countries were using corporate
annual reports most often. While sales call reports were very frequently used in the U.S. (72%), they
were least frequently (18%) used in Taiwan. Computerization of sales call reports exhibited the
same contrast.
As for preprocessed information, such as sales forecasts, distribution trends, market share,
inventory statistics, etc., 51.9% of the responding companies were making them available for realtime
access. This was much lower than the U.S. companies (70%). However, many companies in
Taiwan (77.1%) were having economic-trend estimates included in their marketing forecasts.
Support for Marketing Management
The U.S. companies were providing balanced support to different levels of managers. Ironically, the
MkIS support in Taiwan went mainly to top-level managers (62%) while middle level (25%) and low
level (13%) managers received much less support. This was significantly (p<0.00003) different from
the situation in the U.S.
In terms of supporting management functions, most support went to planning activities (52%),
followed in sequence by controlling (26%), directing (15%), organizing (5%), and staffing (2%). This
sequence was consistent with that of the U.S.
Support for Marketing-Mix Decisions
The marketing-mix decisions are related to product, price, place, and promotion. Most MkIS support
in Taiwan went to pricing decisions (41%) and product decisions (38%). Promotion decisions (11%)
and place/distribution decisions (10%) received much less support from the MkIS.
Use of Decision Models
There are many types of decisions made by marketing managers. The four most frequent decision
models used by Taiwan managers were: computing operating budgets (65%), new product
evaluation (63%), pricing strategy (62%), and product decision (53%). This was consistent with the
usage pattern of U.S. managers.
Although these decision models were the top four most likely models to be assisted by computers
in the U.S., product deletion and new production evaluation were less likely to be computer-assisted
in Taiwan (Figure 5). Approving credit, computing economic order quantity, and computing reorder
point were more likely to be computer-assisted in Taiwan. In contrast, identifying facility location,
selecting advertising media, and assigning salesperson to territories were more likely in the U.S.
Definition of MkIS
In the survey questionnaire, there were five definitions of MkIS given:
1. "A data bank that gathers data from the environment and makes that data available to a
model bank of computer programs. The model bank produces output that is communicated to
the manager on a display unit."
2. "A group of subsystems that gather information from the environment (customers,
competition, government, etc.) and use that information to help the manager answer certain
basic questions - What is our current situation, where do we want to be, what are the
constraints, and what action should we take?"
3. "A group of subsystems - each representing an area of marketing activity - product, price,
distribution channels, and promotion. Each subsystem helps the manager formulate and
execute marketing programs."
4. "A group of four subsystems. Three are concerned with gathering data (marketing research,
marketing intelligence, internal accounting). One subsystem includes decision models that
convert the data into information."
5. "A group of subsystems - some gather data and some process it. The data gathering
subsystems are marketing research, marketing intelligence, and internal accounting. The
processing subsystems produce information about the major marketing activities - product,
price, distribution channels, and promotion."
The executives were asked to select one of these five definitions or to give their own. The fifth
definition was selected as the most popular in both countries (Taiwan 36% and U.S. 37%) and the
second definition was significantly less popular in Taiwan (8%) than in the U.S. (23%). In fact, quite
a few Taiwan managers (20%) indicated that their MkISs were simple systems that allow users to
inquire or update data in the systems and require no decision modeling capability of the systems.
Perception Toward MkIS
When the executives were asked to think of their MkISs, 30% of them first thought of reports while
19.2% thought of data retrieval. This was consistent with their U.S. counterparts (31%). Significantly
(p<0.01) different from the U.S. executives, Taiwan executives thought of less data storage (0%) and
different managers' information needs (13%), but more of computer equipment (11%) and data/file
processing (14%).
Performance of MkIS
Li, McLeod and Rogers ( 17) suggested that the performance of MkIS be measured by both user's
satisfaction with the MkIS and the competitive advantage created by the MkIK. Figure 6 reveals that
more Taiwanese (69%) than American (55%) marketing executives thought that their MkISs had
created some sort of competitive advantage for their companies. In addition, more Taiwanese (53%)
than American (32%) marketing executives were satisfied (somewhat to very satisfied) with their
MkISs. Almost all these satisfied executives in both countries (91% in Taiwan and 94% in the U.S.)
agreed that their MkISs had given them competitive advantage. Many of the somewhat or
moderately dissatisfied executives also thought that their MkISs had created competitive edge.
Those who were very dissatisfied did not think so at all. The latter was consistent with, but the
former was different from, the perception of U.S. managers.
DISCUSSION
Contrary to our expectation, the current status of MkISs in Taiwan was quite laudable, comparing to
the 1995 U.S. status. Although the MkISs in Taiwan had some significant weaknesses, it was
encouraging to see that many marketing managers were experienced computer users. They were
using computers (especially PCs) or terminals on a daily basis, primarily for storing, retrieving,
processing data and producing reports. They utilized and computerized many decision models
necessary for marketing function. These included allocating budgets, new product evaluation,
product deletion, and pricing strategy. They were using mostly facsimiles to communicate or
transmit data between different remote offices. They also were routinely routing marketing
intelligence information to those managers with a need to know and included economic-trend
estimates in their marketing forecasts.
Similar to the U.S. companies, the sources of marketing information in Taiwan included internal
accounting/data processing, marketing intelligence, and marketing research. However, marketing
research and marketing intelligence sources were not used as much as internal accounting/data
processing source. Many Taiwanese companies had offices dedicated to maintain data about
customers, competitors, and government. This was perhaps due to the low cost of labor that made
having a dedicated office more affordable in Taiwan.
The two most commonly used software products in Taiwan were word processing, spreadsheet, and
data management software. Many of them had company-wide CBISs as well as formal written CBIS
plans. They also had formal written marketing plans that were linked with the CBIS plans - a sign of
a mature CBIS growth stage ( 18, 25). Many marketing managers were satisfied with their MkISs.
Comparing with the 1995 status of the U.S. companies, the companies in Taiwan seem to have the
following weaknesses.
1. Some structured decision tasks in marketing such as approving credit, computing economic
order quantity, and computing reorder point were more likely to be computerized in Taiwan
than in the U.S. These tasks are routine, repetitive, and tedious. They are the basic MkIS
applications and perfect candidates for automation. It seems that Taiwan companies
emphasized on automating immediate cost saving low-level marketing management
activities, much more than the U.S. companies.
2. Taiwan companies used and computerized environmental data much less than the U.S.
companies. Specifically, data about competitors and economy were not entered into
computerized databases as much as that in the U.S. not many companies were collecting
data about economy and governments. This indicates that the companies in Taiwan were not
using the available information efficiently and effectively. They should enter more marketing
information into computerized databases and use more information technologies to make the
needed information readily available at their fingertips.
3. The companies in Taiwan used less external clipping and reporting services for competitor
information than those in the U.S. Such kinds of services were neither prevalent nor highly
regarded in Taiwan. This is perhaps due to the value of information being very difficult to
estimate. Taiwanese managers appeared to prefer the free information provided by
newspapers, magazines, competitors' publications, or competitors' customers. They even
preferred conducting their own market research activities than paying some outsiders for the
needed information. Such mentality might not change until the information service providers in
Taiwan earned their credibility and the cost of time and effort became too much to spare for
the companies.
4. The MkIS support for management and marketing mix decisions in Taiwan companies was
less balanced than that in the U.S. The support of MkIS in Taiwan went mostly to top
management for planning activities such as allocating budgets, new product evaluation,
product deletion, and pricing. Based on Li, McLeod, and Rogers ( 17) and Li ( 15), a
successful MkIS should have a balance of MkIS support for marketing management and mix
ingredients. Certainly, any level of marketing management (e.g., top level) is as important as
any other level (i.e., middle or low level). Likewise, any marketing mix ingredient (e.g.,
product) is as critical as any other ingredient (i.e., price, place, or promotion). The total
success of a marketing system relies on the performance of all management levels and all
mix ingredients. Therefore, the companies in Taiwan should strive for a balance of MkIS
support in these two areas.
5. Not many managers in Taiwan (13%) thought of "different information needs" as their first
impression about MkIS support, much fewer than the U.S. managers (23%) do. As the CBIS
professionals are being trained to accept meeting users' requirements as the most important
factor of CBIS success, most marketing managers, and perhaps all other users, in Taiwan
are not used to this concept. They tend to take whatever information their MkISs can provide
for granted. This calls for a nation-wide educational program to change the way the MkIS
users evaluate both their information needs and the information systems that meet these
needs.
6. Many more companies in Taiwan than in the U.S. lacked formal written marketing plans. For
many years, corporate America has been criticized by its Japanese counterparts for making
a decision so quickly that it usually takes a very long time to implement the decision
because of unforeseen obstacles ( 32). If this is true then many top companies in Taiwan
appear to be worse. They might act even without proper planning. This is evidenced by over
one-fourth (26%) of the top companies in Taiwan not having formal written marketing plans. It
is vital for these and other companies in Taiwan to know that planning is as important as
implementation. A formal written plan is an indispensable communications tool. As marketing
teams and staff are often changing, the plan can be easily reviewed and understood by those
who follow. The plan also serves as the guidelines for implementation. Without this plan,
neither implementation nor communications will be effective, and the project will most likely
fail.
7. Taiwan companies used less 4th GL/integrated and 3rd GL software than those in the U.S.
Relatively speaking, 4th GL software is very expensive in Taiwan. In addition, 3rd GL software
requires special programming skills that a typical marketing manager does not have. This
reveals that the companies in Taiwan were investing on information technology and providing
programming support to marketing managers much less than those in the U.S.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This study reveals that the MkIS status of top companies in Taiwan was somewhat similar to 1995
U.S. status, despite some obvious weaknesses. As time goes by, the MkISs in Taiwan are likely to
become more balanced in supporting marketing management activities, similar to their U.S.
counterparts. Environmental information would be more utilized and computerized. More marketing
managers would regard information as a precious corporate resource. More investment would be
placed on information technology, its related resources, and user education to foster the
effectiveness of MkISs and the quality of marketing decisions.
As information technology innovation is susceptible to changes in government policy and
institutional factors ( 3, 10, 11, 19, 22), the future of MkISs in Taiwan might be affected by the
changes of policies, regulations, and economic conditions in that nation. In August 1994, Taiwan's
government began establishing its "national information infrastructure" (NII) - an information
superhighway across the island. A network comprising of ATM (asynchronous transfer mode)
switches, fiber optic lines, and Ethernet-to-ATM hubs, was completed in February 1996. The latter
devices serve as the "on-ramps" to the information superhighway for the existing myriad of Ethernet
local area networks on the island. At the end of 1998, Taiwan's Internet service subscribers have
reached 3.01 million, up 700 times from 4300 in June of 1995. Today, the network has direct
broadband Internet connections with Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and the U.S. (
24). Moreover, Taiwan's national legislature in January 1996 demolished the monopoly of Chunghwa
Telecom, the only state-run telecommunications provider in the past. New foreign or domestic
companies are venturing into the market installing networks with high-speed hybrid fiber coaxial
cable. The other change in the field is the cable TV network. According to the Government
Information office, the proportion of Taiwan's households connecting to cable networks soared from
25% to 75% since cable TV was legalized in 1993 ( 31). Such big and fast strides in technological
advancement would not be possible if Taiwan's geographic size were not small. All these conditions
might allow Taiwan to become an intelligent, networked island capable of accessing, transmitting,
and conferencing hypermedia information across the island and around the world sooner than we
thought. Its companies might have better competitive edge against their American counterparts in
the future. To cope with this pressure, it is imperative for corporate America to stay at the forefront of
decision and information technologies, especially of network connectivity and accessibility.
Nevertheless, as noted by Li ( 16), implementing latest reformation technologies is not enough to
achieve a successful MkIS. Most of all, we must effectively manage and utilize information
resources to gather, manage, and process information needed by marketing managers during their
decision making processes. If the companies in both countries could follow this practice, we might
see some increasingly intense but healthy competition between them in the years to come.
TABLE 1 Profile of Respondents
Legend for Chart:
A - Category
B - N(*)
C - %
A B C
Industry Type
Services 28 22.8
Products 95 77.2
Job Title
General Manager 6 5.0
Assistant Vice President 9 7.4
Manager 48 39.7
Assistant Manager 13 10.7
Section Chief 24 19.8
Marketing Specialist 21 17.4
Length of Employment in
the Functional Area:
0 to less than 5 years 62 52.1
5 to less than 10 years 40 33.6
10 to less than 15 years 9 7.6
15 to less than 20 years 6 5.0
20 years and over 2 1.7
Length of Employment in
this Industry
0 to less than 5 years 27 23.5
5 to less than 10 years 37 32.2
10 to less than 15 years 23 20.0
15 to less than 20 years 10 8.7
20 years and over 18 15.7
Length of Employment in
the Company
0 to less than 5 years 34 29.1
5 to less than 10 years 37 31.6
10 to less than 15 years 24 20.5
15 to less than 20 years 10 8.6
20 years and over 12 10.3
(*) Due to missing response, the total of each category might not
equal 131.
TABLE 2 Industry Types of the Population and the Sample Companies
Legend for Chart:
A - Type of Industry
B - Population N
C - Population %
D - Sample N
E - Sample %
A B C D E
Food processing 72 7.2 9 7.3
Textile and apparel products 77 7.7 8 6.5
Petroleum, chemicals, plastic, 97 9.7 13 10.6
rubber products
Electronic, electrical, and 202 20.2 30 24.4
computer related products
Steel, metals, and machines 122 12.2 12 9.8
Transportation equipment 34 3.4 7 5.7
Paper, cement, lumber, wood, 73 7.3 9 7.3
leather, and other manufacturing
Transportation 36 3.6 3 2.4
Wholesale, retail, and general 32 3.2 3 2.4
merchandise stores
Import and export trade 76 7.6 6 4.9
Banking, insurance, and 38 3.8 5 4.1
investment
Construction and engineering 38 3.8 2 1.6
EDP service, auto dealer, and 104 10.4 16 13.0
other services
Total: 1000 100.0 123(*) 100.0
(*) Due to missing mail-ID numbers, the industry types of eight
participating companies could not be identified.
TABLE 3 Size of the Population and the Sample Companies
Legend for Chart:
A - Size of Company
B - Population N
C - Population %
D - Sample N
E - Sample %
A B C
D E
Annual Net Sales (in NT$):
Less than 999 million 101 10.1
19 15.4
999 million to lees than 1.15 billion 99 9.9
13 10.6
1.15 billion to less than 1.364 billion 100 10.0
5 4.1
1.364 billion to less than 1.5963 billion 100 10.0
10 8.1
1.5965 billion to less than 1.9475 billion 100 10.0
9 7.3
1.9475 billion to less than 2.4605 billion 100 10.0
8 6.5
2.4605 billion to less than 3.12 billion 100 10.0
11 8.9
3.120 billion to less than 4.4105 billion 100 10.0
19 15.4
4.4105 billion to less than 7.71 billion 100 10.0
14 11.4
7.71 billion or more 100 10.0
15 12.2
Total: 1000 100.0
123(*) 100.0
Number of Employees:
Less than 100 129 12.9
6 4.9
100 to 146 70 7.0
9 7.3
147 to 219 98 9.8
7 5.7
220 to 299 102 10.2
8 6.5
300 to 390 100 10.0
18 14.6
391 to 516 101 10.1
16 13.0
517 to 670 97 9.7
13 10.6
671 to 950 102 10.2
15 12.2
951 to 1626 101 10.1
17 13.8
1627 or more 100 10.0
14 11.4
Total: 1000 100.0
123(*) 100.0
(*) Due to missing mail-ID numbers, the sizes of eight
participating companies could not be identified.
DIAGRAM: FIGURE 1 Framework of a Marketing Information System
FIGURE 2 Computer Software Usage in MKIS
Legend for Chart:
A - Type of Computer Software
B - US 1995 (N = 72)
C - This study (N = 131)
A B C
Expert system shells 0.2 0.1
A.I./logic programming 0.3 0.3
4th G.I./integrated 13 1
Statistical analysis 8 6
Conventional/3rd G.I. 26 9
Database management 21 15
Modeling/spreadsheet 26 18
Other 6 50
FIGURE 3 Environmental Data Collected by MKIS
Legend for Chart:
A - Type of Environmental Data
B - US 1995: Utilized
C - US This study: Computerized
D - This study: Computerized
E - This study: Utilized
A B C D E
Customers 93 100 66 84
Prospects 35 65 25 51
Competitors 37 77 15 51
National economy 17 41 8 12
Government 11 37 8 12
FIGURE 4 Sources of Competitor Information
Legend for Chart:
A - Type of Environmental Data
B - US 1995: Utilized
C - US This study: Computerized
D - This study: Computerized
E - This study: Utilized
A B C D E
Corp. annual reports 9 74 7 60
Purchased reports 24 71 8 42
Clipping service 8 54 5 25
Sales call reports 25 72 2 18
Chi-square test for Utilized: p < 0.01:
for Computerized: p < 0.05
FIGURE 5 Computer-Assisted Decision Models
Legend for Chart:
A - Type of Decision Model
B - US 1995 (N = 102)
C - This study (N = 131)
A B C
Operations budgeting 42 40
Pricing strategy 43 35
Approving credit 9 31
Economic order qty. 15 27
Reorder point 8 26
Product deletion 30 22
New product evaluation 32 17
Routing deliveries 9 8
Facility location 17 5
Ad. media selection 14 5
Salesperson assignment 22 5
Chi-square test p < 0.0001
FIGURE 6 Satisfaction with Marketing Information Systems
Legend for Chart:
A - Categories of Satisfaction Scale
B - US 1995: Satisfaction
C - US 1995: Competitive Edge: Yes
D - This study: Satisfaction
E - This study: Competitive Edge: Yes
A B C D E
1 = Very dissatisfied 7 0 11 0
2 = Moderately dissatified 16 3 18 8
3 = Somewhat dissatified 29 11 18 13
4 = Neutral 17 11 1 0
5 = Somewhat satisfied 19 18 37 33
6 = Moderately satisfied 12 11 15 14
7 = Very satisfied 1 1 1 1
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~~~~~~~~
By Eldon Y. Li, California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, California 93407; Houn-Gee
Chen and Jinsheng Roan, National Chung Cheng University Taiwan, R.O.C.
Copyright of Journal of Computer Information Systems is the property of International Association for
Computer Information Systems and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or
posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may
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