시장 세그먼트의 패러독스: 블록모델을 활용한 미국 항공 산업의 경쟁구조분석

The effects of market segments identified by similarities in resource bases or competitive strategies have been often investigated in the existing literatures. Nevertheless, scholars have neither been able to reach an agreement neither on method nor on theory concerning the dynamics of market segments, because diverse methods for the identification of market segments are not generally applicable to various different research purposes and also because there have been few attempts for the integration of various conflicting claims concerning the effects of market segments. In this regard, the current study attempts to propose a rigorous method for the configuration of market segments based on structural positions in inter-firm networks and subsequently analyze the effects of inter-firm interactions in and around market segments at three different levels. The current study uses blockmodeling that identifies differing positions in terms of structural equivalence, and argues that various existing theories that seemingly deal with competition among firms with similar resources are, in fact based on different logics each of which applies to a different level, by empirically examining the effects of market segments at three different levels – i.e. segment level, within segment level, and between segment level. According to the results of the empirical analysis that used 505 data points constituted by 58 U.S. airline companies, all the factors at the three different levels turned out to have significant effects on firm performances. That is, segment size at the segment level turned out to have a positive effect on firm performance, structural constraint at the within segment level turned out to have a negative effect, and between segment brokerage at the between segment level turned out to have a positive effect.