Title: An emerging approach for strategy evaluation in fuel cell development

Authors: Benjamin J.C. Yuan, Chien-Pin Wang, Gwo-Hshiung Tzeng

Addresses: Graduate Institute of Management of Technology, National Chiao Tung University, 7th Floor, Assembly Building 1, No. 1001, Ta Hsueh Road, Hsinchu, Taiwan. ' Graduate Institute of Management of Technology, National Chiao Tung University, 7th Floor, Assembly Building 1, No. 1001, Ta Hsueh Road, Hsinchu, Taiwan. ' Graduate Institute of Management of Technology, National Chiao Tung University, 7th Floor, Assembly Building 1, No. 1001, Ta Hsueh Road, Hsinchu, Taiwan

Abstract: This is the first research paper on the topic of Taiwan fuel cell development to combine the two theoretical (AHP and FMCDM) approaches. The conclusion suggests that the priority for Taiwan to develop fuel cells are the fields of 3C electronics, power generation equipment, motorcycles and automobiles. The difficulties the industry has encountered and faced, in turn, are the technology bottlenecks, insufficient R&D investment, high costs, unclear government policy and short supply of R&D professionals. Experts believe the top five strategic actions needed to address the problems are to realise the clean energy policy, establish a national level research programme, increase R&D budget, carefully select the niche products and to plan the operating demonstration or pilot zone. The result will serve as a reference for the government to stipulate relevant industry policy.

Keywords: strategy evaluation; AHP; fuel cells; fuzzy sets; fuzzy logic; fuzzy multiple criteria decision making; analytical hierarchy process; FMCDM; Taiwan; industry policy; clean energy policy; R&D funding; R&D investment; research and development; innovation; niche products; fuel cell development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2005.007336

International Journal of Technology Management, 2005 Vol.32 No.3/4, pp.302 - 338

Published online: 06 Jul 2005 *

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