Product-, Geographic-, and Vertical Boundary Dynamics, and their Inter-Relationships under Foreign Competition Pressure

Abstract

Chapters 2 and 3 have laid the theoretical and empirical groundwork on the influence of foreign competition pressure on firm boundary dynamics. The remaining task that remains to be addressed in Chapter 4 is twofold: One, the study will integrate firms' product-, geographic-, and vertical scope dimensions in one theoretical framework, and assess the impact of foreign competition on firm boundary dynamics with an integrated empirical analysis. Two, it needs to assess the interplay between the three firm boundary dimensions in order to advance the understanding of complementarities versus trade-off relationships, which is an area that has received only limited research attention to date (Bowen and Wiersema, 2007; Matraves and Rodriguez, 2005; Davies, Rondi and Sembenelli, 2001).