본 연구의 목적은 국내 제조업체를 대상으로 산업경쟁요인에 의한 경쟁상황을 규명하고 이에 따른 개별기업의 경쟁전략이 기업성과에 미치는 영향을 분석하는데 있다. 이를 위해 개별기업을 둘러싼 네 가지 산업경쟁요인을 정의하고 이들 산업경쟁요인에 의한 다양한 경쟁상황을 설정하였다. 그리고 각각의 경쟁상황별로 개별기업이 원가우위전략과 제품차별화전략을 선택하였을 때 상황별로 어떠한 전략이 기업성과에 더욱 긍정적 영향을 미치는지를 분석하였다. 연구결과를 요약하면 다음과 같다. 첫째, 산업경쟁요인의 개별적 존재유무에 따른 경쟁전략과 기업성과와의 관련성을 분석한 결과, 잠재적 시장진입자가 존재하는 상황, 또는 구매자의 교섭력이 높은 상황에서는 원가우위전략이, 반대로 잠재적 시장진입자가 존재하지 않는 상황, 또는 구매자의 교섭력이 낮은 상황에서는 제품차별화전략이 기업성과에 더욱 긍정적 영향을 미쳤다. 이러한 결과는 두 산업경쟁요인의 개별적 존재유무에 따라 경쟁전략의 실행효과 차이가 존재하며, 상황에 따라 기업성과에 미치는 영향이 상이함을 의미한다. 둘째, 복수의 산업경쟁요인 존재유무에 따른 경쟁전략과 기업성과의 관련성을 분석한 결과, 잠재적 시장진입자와 구매자의 교섭력이 동시에 존재하는 상황과 모든 경쟁요인이 존재하는 상황에서 원가우위전략이 제품차별화전략에 비해 기업성과에 더욱 긍정적 영향을 미쳤으며, 잠재적 시장진입자와 구매자의 교섭력이 포함된 세 가지 경쟁요인이 동시에 존재하지 않는 상황과 네 가지 경쟁요인이 모두 존재하지 않는 상황에서 제품차별화전략이 원가우위전략에 비해 기업성과에 더욱 긍정적 영향을 미쳤다. 한편, 대체재의 위협과 공급자의 교섭력에 따른 경쟁전략과 기업성과와의 관련성은 일관된 결과가 나타나지 않았다. 이러한 결과를 바탕으로 원가우위전략과 제품차별화전략의 실행효과가 기업성과 관점에서 각각 상이하며, 경쟁전략이 기업성과에 미치는 영향도 산업경쟁요인에 의한 상황에 따라 차이가 존재한다는 사실을 확인할 수 있었다.

Firms have faced the changing business environment and need to pursue a proper strategy in a competitive market for firm performance. Especially, to improve or raise firm performance, a competitive strategy should be suitable for the firm's circumstance. The purpose of this study is that analyzes the effect of suitability between industry's competitive forces and competitive strategy on the firm performance for manufacturing firms. From this study, we can analyze why firms pursue their competitive strategy for the competitive business environment, and what effect on firm performance by the competitive strategy. Furthermore, this study focuses on the relation between industry's competitive forces and competitive strategy, and also focuses on the relation between suitability of competitive strategy for industry's competitive forces and firm performance. For this analysis, we define four industry's competitive forces by which firms are surround, and set diverse cases of industry's competition by the forces. Eventually, this study analyzes which competitive strategy is more proper on the firm performance by diverse cases. This study considers four competitive forces to conduct the above mentioned analysis. We define new entrants, substitutes, buyers and suppliers as four competitive forces. These forces are combined with competitive strategy which is defined as cost leadership and product differentiation in this study. Firms can take one of two strategies for the four competitive forces. For empirical tests, diverse cases are classified as two categories. First, we can consider whether each competitive force exists or not, which means that we focus on the relation between just one of the four competitive forces and firm performance. Second, we can consider whether several competitive forces simultaneously exist or not, which means that we focus on the relation between multiple competitive forces and firm performance. First of all, on the condition that each of four competitive forces exists around firms, we make the 4-cases in which firms take cost leadership or product differentiation. On the other hand, on the condition that each of four competitive forces doesn't exist, we also make the 4-cases. We extend the empirical model focused on the cases that several forces exist simultaneously or not. On the condition that industry's competitive forces exist(one to four forces) and not exist simultaneously around firms, we make the 16-cases in which firms take cost leadership or product differentiation. This study considers two hypotheses to conduct the above mentioned empirical tests. The hypotheses of this study are as follows. First, when industry's competitive forces exist, cost leadership strategy is more suitable for firm performance than product differentiation strategy. Second, when industry's competitive forces don't exist, product differentiation strategy is more suitable for firm performance than cost leadership strategy. Therefore, one competitive strategy can be more suitable for firm performance than the other strategy depending on the condition that industry's competitive forces exist or not. In terms of the effect on firm performance by competitive strategy, cost leadership strategy effects on firm performance by the reduction of product cost, product differentiation strategy effects on firm performance by the rise of product price. This study considers the change of return on asset as the dependent variable(meaning the firm performance) and diversified situations(meaning the combination sets from industry's competitive forces and competitive strategy) as independent variables. we assume that cost leadership and product differentiation are the two competitive strategies which firms can pursue to industry's competitive forces(new entrants, substitutes, bargaining power of buyers, and bargaining power of suppliers). For the classification of the two competitive strategies, we use the Z-score by factor analysis which is implemented by PBR and R&D ratio. we also set various operational definitions on the existence of industry's competitive forces and various cases by combination sets for independent variables. we select firm size and industry as the control variables. This study tests as the above mentioned hypotheses by multiple regression analysis using 925 manufacturing firm-year data(1998-2009), which are listed on Korea Exchange(KRX) and fit to implement this examination. The research models for the analysis are consisted of two main aspects. First, we focus on the competitive strategy for the existence of each competitive force. On this aspect, independent variables are set for 8-cases by the existence of each competitive force. Second, we consider the competitive strategy for the simultaneous existence of multiple competitive. On this aspect, independent variables are set for 16-cases by the existence of multiple competitive forces. Hence, we analyze the relation between competitive strategy and firm performance for the two aspects. The summarized results of this paper are as follows:First, in the case that each of new entrants and bargaining power of buyers exists, cost leadership strategy affected the increase of firm performance more than product differentiation strategy. On the contrary, in the case that each of the two forces doesn't exist, product differentiation strategy affected the increase of firm performance more than cost leadership strategy. Second, for the empirical tests on the simultaneous existence and nonexistence of industry's competitive forces, in the case that new entrants and bargaining power of buyers exist simultaneously, and all of the four forces exist, cost leadership strategy affected the increase of firm performance more than product differentiation strategy. On the other hand, in the case that three forces(including new entrants and bargaining power of buyers don't exist simultaneously, and all of the four forces don't exist simultaneously, product differentiation strategy affected the increase of firm performance more than cost leadership strategy. In conclusion, in the case that new entrants and bargaining power of buyers(including the case that each of the two forces exists) exist, or all of the four forces exist simultaneously, cost leadership strategy affected the increase of firm performance more than product differentiation strategy. On the contrary, in the case that new entrants and bargaining power of buyers(including the case that each of the two forces doesn't exist) don't exist, or all of the four forces don't exist, product differentiation strategy affected the increase of firm performance more than cost leadership strategy. This study contributes to existing researches related to competitive strategy and firm performance as follow respects. First, this study considered the reason of pursuing competitive strategy for the industry's competitive forces around firms and we explained the different effect on firm performance from the two competitive strategies. Although many researches deal with Porter's theory, there are not many studies which prove why firms select their competitive strategy and how the strategies effect on firm performance. Second, we examined the differences of the effects on firm performance by the diverse situations of combination sets from competitive strategy and industry's competitive forces. The results from this study mean a very important fact in view of the competitive strategy that effects on firm performance for the industry's competitive forces. Finally, this study provided the empirical modelling approach and the practical messages on the proper competitive strategy for industry's competitive forces.

Industry's competitive forces, Cost leadership strategy, Product differentiation strategy, competitive strategy, firm performance