카테고리 다각화와 전략적 균형이 인터넷 포털의 성장에 미치는 영향

The study investigates the effects of category diversification and strategic balance on growth of Internet portals. In Korea, Internet portal market has been under dynamic and turbulent competition since 2000. Foreign-based portals such as YAHOO were dominant in 1990s. But domestic players such as DAUM and NAVER squarely became top players around 2000, strengthening their competitive advantage over time. The paper tries to answer the question of what determines differential growth rates among Internet portals in Korea. First, it examines the effect of category diversification on growth of Internet portals. The paper suggests the first hypothesis H1: The greater the category diversification, the greater growth of Internet portals. Second, it examines the question, whether strategic balance theory combining both mimetic isomorphism and differentiation argument holds in the context of Internet portal industry in Korea. Therefore, the paper tests the second hypothesis H2: The relationship between strategic similarity and Internet portal growth will be inverted U-shaped. Based on weekly web traffic data on eighteen Internet portals during the period between 2001 and 2004, the study employs the portal-specific fixed effect panel data model to test suggested hypotheses. The empirical results show a positive effect of category diversification on growth rates and support strategic balance theory, i.e., inverted U-shaped relationship between strategic similarity and growth rates. The paper’s finding on the positive effect of category diversification on portal growth is consistent with the existing literature on diversification. Category diversification is a kind of within-industry diversification, i.e., a related diversification into on-line Internet business, the benefit of which a number of studies have supported for. From the results testing strategic balance theory, it is shown that Internet portals are competing by differentiation from others and seeking legitimacy through mimetic isomorphism toward other players at the same time. However, in Korean portal market, competitive pressure from being similar seems to play a greater role than institutional legitimacy effect does. The inverted U-shaped curve implies that when a portal’s strategic similarity is above a certain level, competitive pressure increases as strategic similarity increases. The inflection point is quite a low, so that usually strategic similarity plays as competitive pressure rather than institutional benefit for legitimacy.