Resilience as a source of survival stategy for high-technology firms experiencing megacompetition

A dramatic surge in information technology (IT) around the world and an evolving global economy are subjecting firms to megacompetition, thereby compelling them to develop a resilient structure for survival. The construction of a co-evolutional structure between enhancement of core competences and agile correspondence to dynamically changing external circumstances, including dynamic change in customer preferences and competitive conditions, is thus essential. While technological innovation for developing new functionality is a strategic option, given the huge risks and uncertainty indigenous to technological innovation, a high level of dependence on this process can lead to a vulnerable structure. The fluctuating nature of external circumstances can also have the same result. Thus, sustainable firm development can only be expected using systems resilience incorporating a stable innovation orbit. Prompted by this postulate, this paper attempts to identify a resilience structure for high-technology firms that are experiencing megacompetition through a comparative empirical analysis of factors governing operating income to sales for R&D intensive Japanese pharmaceutical and electrical machinery firms over the last two decades. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.