how sumsang a later comer become leader

Samsung Group was found in 1938, while Samsung Electronics as one of its subsidiaries was found in 1969 and the company made a joint venture Japan’s Sanyo in the same year. By doing this, it allowed Samsung-Sanyo have the competence to produce black-and-white television in 1970. During this decade, Samsung Electronics also acquired Korean Semiconductor and Korea Electronics Information Co. in 1977 and 1979 respectively. Land, factories and the financial support from government could consider as tangle resources for the company from firm resources’ perspective. On the other hand, competences, that are technology and capabilities, the company obtained through joint venture and acquisition, which can be considered as intangible resources. Government may play an important role behind these activities because of their support of chaebols’ development.
The following decade witnessed the company strengthening its R&D competences with the open of R&D Center in Suwon and Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology(SAIT) in 1980 and 1987 respectively. In 1983, the company began to produce personal computers(PCs). This event shows that competences Samsung Electronics had commanded with producing black-and-white television and acquiring Korean Semiconductor. Especially in acquiring Korean Semiconductor, this allowed Samsung to obtain the technology of semiconductor which is an crucial component and key trends in electronics industry. In these ten years the companies also merged with Samsung Semiconductor Co. Home appliances, telecommunications and semiconductors were selected as core business lines in 1988 shows the establishment of a clear strategic goal. Thus, a clear route of the companies’ development presented in front of us, that is, Samsung Electronics’ development began with doing low-tech works in the context of globalisation of production and global markets(for example, OEM products), combined with some important competences obtained by cooperating with foreign