Examining the interplay between non-market and market strategies: A study on political ties and R&D investment

Abstract

與政府建立政治連結長期以來被視為是企業非市場策略選項之一。然而，相關文獻對於政治連結是如何影響績效尚未達成明確共識，這意味著政治連結的效果或許可以從情境觀點來探討。本研以2002-2016年期間的臺灣上市公司為研究樣本，分析了7,982筆公司年資料，結果顯示：(1)研發投資(市場策略)對績效有正向的效果、(2)政治連結會正向調節研發投資對績效的關係、(3)在環境動盪程度較⼤的情況下，政治連結對研發投資與績效的調節效果會達到最高化。這些研究發現不但豐富了我們對於政治連結的理解，也提示著我們不應過度簡化市場或非市場策略對績效的影響。

Building corporate ties to the government has long been viewed as an important tenet of a firm’s nonmarket strategy; however, the literature thus far has not yet concluded the performance implications of doing so. The mixed findings pave the way for the contextual approach to the performance effect of corporate engagement in political ties. This study thus investigates the nuances of the complex balancing act between two types of strategy choices and environmental dynamism with a sample of 7,982 firm-year observations of publicly listed firms in Taiwan during 2002-2016. The results show that building corporate political ties per se cannot guarantee firm performance, but its synergistic effect with R&D investment leads to better performance. Furthermore, this synergistic effect becomes stronger for firms subject to more dynamic environments. The findings of this study not only enrich strategy research but also caution against polarizing either market- or nonmarket-oriented strategy.