關係管理對研發委外作業績效之影響——以台灣生技產業委託研究為例

A Study on the Influence of Relationship Management to R&D Outsourcing Project Performance: Taiwan’s Bio-industry and Contract Research Organization

委外作業（outsourcing）乃企業常用來降低成本及增強核心能力的作法，過去最常委外的業務多屬例行性的非核心業務，例如客服中心、製造生產等。近年來開放式經營的管理方式出現，企業開始將研發及新產品開發等業務委外，進而帶動了以提供代客研發服務許多國家的委託研發產業。生物技術產業被視為明日之星，但生技產品的研發通常有時程長、成本高及過程複雜等特性。且我國生技廠商多為中小型企業，鮮少具有完整研發能力，故透過委作業完成研發不失為良策之一。然而委外作業的管理概念由內部延伸至外部時，會有許多管理問題產生，尤其是關係管理，過去的研究發現與供應商建立良好的關係有助於委外作業的績效產出。本研究旨在實證我國生技產業現有委外作業中關係管理對研發績效之影響，共調查收集到95家樣本生技廠商的問卷資料。經結構方程模型分析後發現，生技廠商在委外前的各項評估以及過程中的關係管理對其研發績效有正向的影響。透過雙方在研發專案中的共同投資、分攤風險、知識分享、共享成果等方式，不僅可建立密切或長期的關係，更有助於研發績效的控管。

It’s a common practice for enterprises to adapt strategic outsourcing to lower cost, increase capability, and improve the efficiency in business process operations. The increasing competition forces enterprises to start R&D outsourcing and new product development which were regarded as core competence. Recent studies focus on the outsourcing process-assessment under the strategic view of open management. Contract research organizations (CROs) are emerging rapidly and provide the services for outsourced R&D projects. The biotechnology industry is considered a rising star of the economy. Developing bio-tech products usually requires lengthy period, huge capital, and complicated processes, which make the CROs more active than other industries. Based on the R&D project criteria, enterprises evaluate the project and the capability of CROs before outsourcing. In practice, enterprises adapt different relationship management to handle their CRO’s. The previous evaluation and effective relationship management are helpful for improving firm’s R&D performance. The purpose of this empirical study is to investigate the influences of relationship management on R&D outsourcing performance. Research data were collected by structural questionnaire from Taiwan’s bio-industry. A total of 95 valid questionnaires were obtained. According to the analysis of linear structure model estimation, results revealed the following three findings: (1) previous evaluation has positive effect on the outsourcing project performance; (2) previous evaluation has positive effect on constructing the relationship of the biotech company and their CRO companies; (3) the connection of the relationship between biotech company and their CRO companies has positive effects on the outsourcing project performance. In conduction, the contract research is attaching importance to Taiwan’s bio-industry. Enterprises should make more effort on the relationship management of CRO’s by evaluating and selecting CRO for best practice on R&D performance.