Samsung Case Study

External Environment

Economic

Samsung is categories as electrical and electronics (E&E) industry by providing the electrical appliances such as LCD TV, portable media player, computer monitor and many more. The electronics industry has been witnessing a phenomenal growth in Malaysia over the past few years. According to the business news (The Star), it indicates that for electrical and electronics (E&E) sub-sector is estimated to have a strong growth of 5.5% based on the Malaysia’s economic report 2014-2015. The particular reason is because of the high demand for material such as electronics components, communication, computer peripherals, semiconductors and so on. (The Star, 2014) Apart from that, this E&E industry is part of the leading industries as it accounts 24.5 % to the manufacturing sector in the Malaysia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). (MATRADE, 2015) This shows that Malaysia is moving steadily in the E&E industry which is a favourable environment for Samsung to develop well and sound in this field industry.

Environmental

Environmental issue in Malaysia have become notable concern among the government, societies and non-government organization (NGO). This is because industrial impacts on environmental such as global warming, ozone depletion, air pollution which leads to climatic changes and environmental problems. Therefore, the green concept initiatives are well encouraged among the manufacturing industry in order to minimize the environmental deterioration that is caused.

Once more, this provides a great opportunity for Samsung to work together to improve the eco- friendly nature. Samsung have been working with suppliers of raw materials and parts. All the suppliers have passed the Eco- Partner Programme and Samsung collaborates with them to reduce the hazardous substances through setting up environmental management systems (Samsung, 2015). This shows that Samsung emphasise concern and attention on environmental management. This can be clearly seen through its initiative on producing eco-design products such as high efficiency LED scanner printers. Furthermore, Samsung had been launching variety of innovative eco-products in the markets and also obtained the global recognitions of ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 188001 through Samsung’s quality and environmental awareness in the manufacturing process.

Internal Environmental

Research and Development (R&D) and Technological Capabilities

Investment in Research and Development (R&D) has become necessary for all the technological organization due to the rapid advancement of changes in technology products. It is essential for every technological organization in order to be competitive and ensure its survival. Samsung is a one of the global leader in screen technologies, TVs, washing and drying machines design through its abilities to continue in pursuing for more innovative products to its customers. This organization recognized the need to be innovative as an important key element to attract and retain its customers. Therefore, Samsung has established innovative research and development team. This team are made up of product managers, engineering expertise and researchers. The talented researchers and engineers are one of the Samsung’s strongest assets where consist of more than quarter of all Samsung workers of 42, 000 people. These people are working on research and development every day. This team merely concentrate on research and development of new innovative technology and provide solutions (Samsung, 2015). Every year, Samsung will invest 9% of their sales revenue in R&D activities (Samsung, 2015). Besides that, Samsung’s research ability for high efficient technology had earned the ENERGY STAR label (Government-backed symbol for energy efficiency) for its products such as televisions, clothes washer, computer monitor and refrigerators. The product has the ability to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants to the environment. It also allow consumers to identify the right energy efficient products that give them savings on energy bills without affecting the performance, features and comfort. (Samsung, 2015)