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臺大管理論叢
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5.5 Impact of Leaderʼs Attack
We test two types of leader attacks. In one setting, the leader regularly attacks the
follower. In another setting, the leader acts aggressively to clearly signal its intent to protect
its leading position. A comparison of the two attack types shows remarkable differences, as
illustrated in Figure 7. We can see that aggressive attacks make the follower less likely to
invest in innovation since it is under constant survival pressure. In this circumstance, the
follower makes a capability development trade-off in the short term at the expense of long-
term growth.
6. Implications and Discussion
Anecdotal evidence shows that a firmʼs superior operational process is generated and
evolves during interactions with its competitorʼs competing process over time (Fujimoto,
1999). By re-conceptualizing process capability development as a competitive move at the
firm level, we develop a dynamic computational theory of process competition (Sterman,
2000; Peng et al., 2008; Vancouver et al., 2010; Chen and Miller, 2012). This study depicts a
two-way interaction between inner-firm capability development trade-off (Operations
Strategy Perspective) and inter-firm competition (Business Strategy Perspective). To the best
of our knowledge, research on conditions and causal mechanisms that influence process
development and management practice under this interaction effect has not yet been reported
in the operations and strategy literature. We therefore ask a fundamental question: Under
which conditions can the new and best process development and management practice
emerge in a competitive environment?
6.1 Capability Development Trade-Offs as a Feedback to Process Competition
The conceptualization of process competition relies on a dual consideration of firm-
level capability development trade-offs and industry-level competition. On one hand,
competition shapes the firmʼs capability development trade-offs while pursuing survival and/
or growth. On the other hand, the trade-offs and the resulting operational performance feeds
back to the competitive environment.
Without this integration, the literature can only suggest that the leader will vigorously
defend its pioneer position against the followerʼs investment in imitative and small-scale
improvement capabilities (Chen et al., 2002). As a result, the intensity of competitive tension
rises sharply (Chen et al., 2007). Likewise, process innovation capabilities, due to their
associated high risk and resource commitment, result in a relatively long response lag, which