The Effect of the Fit Between Product Architecture and Competitive Action on Business Performance: An Empirical Study of the Taiwan IT Industry

Ing-Shane Yung () and Chin-Fa Tsai
Additional contact information
Ing-Shane Yung: Department of Business Administration, National Chiayi University, No. 580, Xinmin Road, West District, Chiayi City 60054, Taiwan
Chin-Fa Tsai: Department of Business Administration, National Chiayi University, No. 580, Xinmin Road, West District, Chiayi City 60054, Taiwan

International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), 2016, vol. 13, issue 04, 1-25

Abstract: This study combines product architecture and competitive action by using a survey of the Taiwan IT industry. The analytic framework is applied to the theory of situational management to observe whether there is a good fit between product architecture (modular or integral), and inter-firm competitive action (homogeneous or heterogeneous), which corresponds to the level of business performance. This study thus seeks an in-depth understanding of the relationship between product architecture and competitive action, as well as confirmation for the development direction and competitive model of Taiwan’s IT industry, where some important characteristics have been found. First, to establish the competitive advantages, the product architecture needs to match the competitive action. Second, a firm usually adopts homogeneous action when its product architecture tends to be modular products; inversely, it usually adopts heterogeneous action when its product architecture tends to be integral products. Third, homogeneous competitive action has a mediating effect on modular architecture and business performance. Overall, this study provides a theoretical analytic framework to better understand the interactive relationship between product architecture and competitive action.

Keywords: Product architecture; competitive action; IT industry; homogeneous action; heterogeneous action (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0219877016500188
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:ijitmx:v:13:y:2016:i:04:n:s0219877016500188

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S0219877016500188

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM) is currently edited by H K Tang

More articles in International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().