기술적 역량의 효과 증진방안: 고객, 해외, 사회 지향적 경영활동과의 적합성을 중심으로

With technological competence based on a series of R&D activities, firms try to gain and sustain differentiated competitive advantages. However, technological competence as a foundation of implementing differentiated strategies is not a sufficient condition to gain or sustain competitive advantages. To achieve the expected outcome of a business activity to enhance technological competence, it would be necessary to examine how the business activity is aligned with other activities. The main objective of this study is to identify conditions under which the effectiveness of a business activity targeted for technological competence can be further increased. For this purpose, we empirically test whether firms’ performance can be further increased through aligned business activities that are oriented toward their customers, foreign markets, and the society at large. We use samples from the energy industry characterized by rapid technological changes. The empirical results confirm the positive contribution of technological competence to firm performance. The positive contribution is found to be stronger for firms that are more oriented toward their customers and the society at large. It should be also noted that firms’ orientation toward the society at large has a pure-interaction effect, which remains significant in the full model. Taken together, this study reveals that gaining social legitimacy from diverse stakeholders, along the value chain from the manufacturing differentiated products based on technological competence to deliver them to the customers, can play an important role in enhancing the effectiveness of a business activity for technological competence.