Generic Competitive Strategies and New Product Development Speed of SMEs in International Markets: The Moderating Effect of Market Turbulence

Competitive strategies have been considered as crucial strategic weapons to achieve better performance in international markets. However, few scholars have focused on effects of competitive strategies on speed of new product development (NPD). Particularly, fewer studies have combined small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in international markets with the turbulent market environment to explore the relationship between competitive strategies and speed of NPD. By conducting empirical study of 205 Korean SMEs, this study found that differentiation and cost leadership strategies are positively related to NPD speed. The findings also point out that both strategies do not all positively affect NPD speed under turbulent market condition. In a highly turbulent market environment, only differentiation strategy might influence more to NPD speed of SMEs; cost leadership strategy presents less impact on NPD speed. Consequently, the results of this study suggest that SMEs should develop and adopt an appropriate competitive strategy based on the environment where they target and their own development goals.