The growth and capability development of electronics manufacturing service (EMS) companies

This paper describes the firm growth model in electronics manufacturing service (EMS) companies and its link with their internal capability developments. This research work, based on multiple in-depth case studies of EMS companies during the last 3 years, explores the EMS business and its capability growth processes in a supply network environment. It demonstrates that EMS companies usually start by selectively penetrating and positioning themselves along the supply chain. Business growth takes place along three intertwined dimensions: production, supply chain and capability development. The paper proposes the growth model of EMS companies from a capability perspective, which itself can be broken down into four stages of resource and capability development: penetration, accumulation, evolution and adaptation.