A meta-analytic review of competitive aggressiveness research

Competitive aggressiveness has been at the center of competitive dynamics literature for decades, however there is no consensus as to its primary drivers and performance consequences. Thus, we present the results of a meta analysis of the antecedents to and consequences of competitive aggressiveness using three aggressiveness components competitive volume, complexity, and heterogeneity. Leveraging the awareness, motivation, capability framework as a guide of the drivers of competitive aggressiveness, we find that greater organizational size and age, lower slack resources and prior performance, greater market growth, lower market concentration, and more heterogeneous top management teams lead to more aggressive actions. In addition, we found that among the different components of aggressiveness competitive volume improved operating performance.