Competitive Aggressiveness, Environmental Context, and Small Firm Performance

This study examined relationships between firm performance, the degree of aggressiveness a firm exhibits in its competitive orientation, and the environmental dimensions of technological sophistication and hostility. Subgroup (correlation) analysis was used to analyze data collected from 143 small manufacturing-based firms. The findings suggest that high-performing firms often exhibit an aggressive competitive orientation when faced with environmental hostility, while low-performing firms tend to be more passive when operating in hostile environments. No overall difference was observed in the correlations between competitive aggressiveness and environmental technological sophistication for the high- and low-performing subgroups. However, younger firms generally performed better when they were not highly aggressive in technologically sophisticated environments.