Under the fierce competition global environment, manufacturing firms must engage in product innovation and enhance product quality continuously to meet consumer demand. The aim of this paper is to explicate the causal relationship between product innovation and product quality. We construct a game theory model to show that the barrier to a firm’s engaging in innovative activities, the fixed cost of innovation, is overcome only if a firm produces high-quality products. After analyzing the strategic interactions of high-quality firms, low-quality firms and consumers, the findings of this paper indicate that product quality may determine product innovation.

面對競爭劇烈的全球環境，製造廠商必須持續地從事產品創新、提昇產品品質以滿足消費者的需求。本研究目的在於闡述產品創新與產品品質之間的因果關係，文中藉由賽局理論模型的建構，呈現固定成本投入對於廠商從事創新活動所造成的阻礙，並進行高品質廠商、低品質廠商以及消費者之間的策略互動分析。根據研究結果，本研究發現廠商的產品品質愈高，愈有助於廠商從事產品創新活動。