기업의 글로벌 통합 요인이 성과에 미치는 영향: 기술습득과실행역량의 매개효과를 중심으로

This study examines how global integration affects firm performance from a contingency perspective. Prior work has tended to emphasize the direct effects of global integration on firm performance, with lesser attention paid to understanding why global integration influences firm performance. This is important in view of the growing body of literature highlighting the mediating roles of technological learning and implementation capability in securing firm performance. Therefore, the objective of the study is to test the mediating roles of technological learning and implementation capability on the relationship between global integration (such as people-based integration, informationbased integration, formalization-based integration, and centralization-based integration) and firm performance. First of all, we review the organizational integration literature and present the conceptual framework underlying the study. This is followed by the development of the research hypotheses. To test the proposed hypotheses, data collection was completed using the Internet and the drop-and-collect survey method. Sample selection was based on manufacturing companies engaging in international business. The sample frame randomly included the 1,000 companies and data on 230 firms were collected (a 23% response rate). Non-response bias was tested by comparing early respondents with late respondents. A comparison of the mean values for each variable across the two groups revealed no significant differences, supporting the assumption that respondents were not different from non-respondents. We performed a Harmon one-factor test to diagnose the possibility of bias due to common method variance. The results from the Harmon one-factor test showed that the highest covariance explained by one factor is 18.82%, indicating that common method biases are not a likely contaminant of our results. The scale composite reliability for each construct was quite satisfactory. The average variance extracted for each construct exceeds the acceptable level of 0.50. The results of hypotheses testing based on the empirical analysis show the full mediating effects of technological learning and implementation capability on the relationship between global integration (i.e., people-based integration, information-based integration, and formalization-based integration) and firm performance. However, technological learning and implementation capability do not mediate the association between centralization-based integration and firm performance. The results uncover that people-based integration, information-based integration, and formalization-based integration lead to firm performance. The positive impacts of them on firm performance are attributed to technological learning and implementation capability. By contrast, centralization-based integration does not result in firm performance through technological learning and implementation capability. The study suggests several implications. First, managers should pay attention to the effort to enhance technological learning and implementation capability to maximize the impact of global integration on firm performance. Second, people-based integration, information-based integration, and formalization-based integration except for centralization-based integration should be employed to improve technological learning and implementation capability. Our research has limitations. We acknowledge that we did not collect data from the Korean MNCs. This, in hindsight, constitutes a limitation of the present study. Second, the study is subject to the limitations created by employing a single respondent instead of multiple respondents from participating firms. A potential avenue for future research is the assessment of additional mediators on the relationship between global integration and firm performance.