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臺大管理論叢
第
27
卷第
1
期
85
How Competitors’ Actions Affect the Relationship between New
Product Launch Speed and Firm Performance in Multimarket
Contact?
1. Purpose/Objective
Multimarket contact (MMC) refers to the interactions among firms and their
competitors that simultaneously occur in many competitive areas (Wernerfelt and Karnani,
1987). MMC is an essential topic that is widely discussed in this research field (Chen and
Miller, 2012; Yu and Cannella, 2013).
Most studies on MMC focus on firm decisions regarding market entry and exit, as well
as adjustments in price. Certain action types and their effects on mutual forbearance under
MMC are rarely discussed (Fuentelsaz and Gómez, 2006; Haveman and Nonnemaker, 2000;
Rhoades and Heggestad, 1985). For instance, given the hypercompetition that results from
faster development of technology and shorter product life cycles (Chen, Lin, and Michel,
2010), firms emphasize new product development and timing to launch (Kumar and
Motwani, 1995; Nevens, Summe, and Uttal, 1990). This scenario raises questions of whether
firms may be influenced by MMC, thus slowing the new product launch speed, and whether
the performance could be directly influenced by the slowing of the speed to launch a new
product. Moreover, several moderate effects are observed in the actions undertaken by
competitors. This study focuses on the moderating effect of the action levels undertaken by
competitors on the MMC, new product launch speed, and performance of focal firms by
constructing the variable “number of competitors’ actions”.
In sum, the major issues addressed in this study are as follows: (1) the influence of the
MMC of focal firms on new product launch speed, (2) the influence of new product launch
speed of focal firms on firm performance, (3) the effect of the number of competitors’
actions on the relationship between MMC and new product launch speed, and (4) the effect
of the number of competitors’ actions on the relationship between the new product launch
speed of focal firms and their performance.
Yu-Ching Chiao
, Professor, Department of Business Administration, National Chung Hsing University
Chun-Ju Huang
, Ph.D., Department of Business Administration, National Chung Hsing University
Yu-Pei Huang
, Master, Department of Business Administration, National Chung Hsing University