Authors: Barbara Jankowska; Katarzyna Mroczek-D?browska; Marian Gorynia; Marlena Dzikowska
Research background and its relevance for past and/or future work. Corporate groups are specific types of business networks that generate particular advantages for firms. They allow corporates to reduce costs, develop the pool of the resources and increase the flexibility of operations and responses to external shocks among others. The above mentioned benefits are of even greater importance during the times of any economic turbulences. The involvement in an corporate group is to support the firms attempts to perform well. The relevance of the study is linked to the manifestation of the potential role of being an affiliate of an corporate group for the resources, capabilities and performance of the group affiliated firm during the economic crisis. Purpose of the paper The aim of the paper is to twofold. First, we try to investigate if the sources of competitive advantage – resources and capabilities are better in case of group affiliated firms. Second, we check whether the involvement in an corporate group matters for the performance of the firms. Methods Using critical in-depth literature studies and conducting the primary empirical research with the use of CATIs method we strive to verify the following hypotheses – a corporate group affiliated firm has better resources and capabilities than a non-group affiliated firm (H1) and – a corporate group affiliated firm having access to better resources and capabilities has better performance throughout the period of economic crisis and shortly after than the non-group affiliated firm (H2). The empirical research encompasses almost 700 firms from the manufacturing sector in Poland during the global economic crisis and shortly after that. Around half of them is affiliated within corporate groups. To investigate the issue we use the following methods of statistical analysis – descriptive statistics, nonparametric tests and the correlation coefficients. Main contribution of the paper Having in mind the specificity of corporate groups as business networks and the challenges faced by firms during the economic crisis, firstly we demonstrate whether there are visible differences in the sources of competitive advantage among firms affiliated within corporate groups and firms operating separately. Secondly, we investigate whether the involvement in the corporate groups has an impact on the performance of the firms in the period of the global economic crisis and shortly after that. The contributions are normative and methodological in nature. The findings demonstrate that corporate group affiliation can upgrade the sources of competitive advantage of firms even during the economic crisis and shortly after and that the affiliation matters for the firm performance. The empirical research exposes the need to develop the concept of embedded competences.
Journal: n.a. (n.a. – n.a.)
Web Address: n.a.
Publish Year: 2016
Conference: Poznan, Poland (2016)