중소기업의 핵심역량과 경쟁전략이 기업의 경영성과에 미치는 영향

The effects of SMEs core competency and competitive strategy on their business performance

The purpose of this study is to examine the causal relation between SMEs’ core competency and competitive strategy, to analyze the effect of competitive strategy on their business performance, and therefore to make some contributions academically and practically. To this end, 255 SMEs were analyzed for the hypothesis test. As the result of empirical analysis, it is shown that, regarding the effect of core competency as an antecedent variable on business performance, SME’s marketing capability and technology capability both are not significant to its short-term financial performance. In addition, in terms of the relation between core competency as an antecedent variable and competitive strategy as an independent variable, SME’s marketing capability and technology capability both have significantly positive effects on cost leadership strategy and differentiation strategy. It is also shown that industrial environment as a moderator variable affects partially how SME’s core competency is related to its competitive strategy. Moreover, in terms of the relation between competitive strategy as an independent variable and business performance as a dependent variable, SME’s competitive strategy affects positively its business performance except the effect of cost leadership strategy on customer performance. Based on these relations between core competency, competitive strategy, and business performance, it appears that cost leadership strategy is more suitable for SMEs with relatively high marketing capability, and that differentiation strategy is more appropriate for those with relatively high technology capability in the correlation of strategy with capability. It also indicates that implementing cost leadership strategy relatively stronger rather than differentiation strategy is required to achieve high financial performance.