• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.55-69
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• 2016

In response to drastic environmental changes, companies have been continuously rebalancing their resources and capabilities to sustain their competitive status or to survive difficult times. The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of sudden environmental changes on the competitive status of a firm and to identify the internal factors that differentiate sustainer and non-sustainer groups. To achieve this goal, we selected 85 representative IT and non-IT companies from the S&P 500 companies and investigated them with respect to the change in their five-year competitive status since the 2008 global financial crisis. As a concrete performance measure, the concept of perceived competitive status (PCS) was introduced, and four distinct PCS categories were identified by using the stock price changes during the selected period. The four distinct PCS categories are "sustaining," "drifting," "deep sunken," and "bouncing back." Discriminant analysis was performed on these four distinct PCS categories. The empirical study conducted showed that revenue and cost efficiency are the most discriminating factors, especially in the economic recovery period. In particular, stronger financial liquidity was observed in high-performing "bouncing back" companies than in the other category companies.