How do Followers Respond to the Leader's Competitive Actions? The Moderating Effect of Multimarket Contact
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Abstract
This study devoted to combine marketing activities (hereinafter referred to as competitive actions) of the firm in competitive dynamics for discussing how followers respond to the leader's actions? Furthermore, we also explore the probable influences under the situation of multimarket contact. We take chain convenience stores in Taiwan as the objective industry of this study, regarding 7-ELEVEN as the leading firm, whereas FAMILY MART, HI-LIFE and OK as the following firms. In this study, structured content analysis is adopted and the database of Knowledge Management Winner (KMW) is used. News of the competitive interactions within firms is collected from 2005 to 2011. This study focuses on the relationship between the tactical or strategic actions of the leading firm and the imitative responses of the following firms. According to the results, firstly, the more tactical or strategic actions the leading firm takes, the more imitative reactions the following firms will respond. Secondly, multimarket contact can weaken the relationship between the tactical actions of the leading firm and the tactical reactions of the following firms. Finally, the effect of the strategic reactions of the following firms on the performance is positively significant.
