Competitive pressure and technological degree of the product portfolio: Implications for firm performance

Abstract

This paper seeks to illuminate empirically a class of drivers of firm performance hitherto neglected in the economic literature. To accomplish this objective, we distinguished three elements: sales volume, participation in technology alliancing, and successful patent issuing. Our findings suggest that competitive pressure posed by larger rivals in an industry affects sales performance negatively, but the possession of absorptive capacity can counter this deleterious effect. Findings regarding the effects caused by a product portfolio with high technological content are mixed. Depending on the performance measure applied, the results show evidence of adverse outcomes for sales, U-shaped effects for participation in technology alliancing and inverted U-shaped results for patenting. We obtained our raw data from the 2006 and 2008 PITEC database, which is the Spanish equivalent of the EU Community Innovation Survey. Our sample embraces more than 3000 firms.