Spatiotemporal context and firm performance: The mediating effect of strategic interaction

摘要

Traditional studies of firm performance typically focus on the effect of market structure and rarely consider the impact of the spatiotemporal context in industrial competition. Using a sample of 1,555 listed companies from 2015 to 2018 in China, this study shows that the profit center of gravity tends to move from southeast to northwest, and that there are negative effects on firm performance with distance from the profit center of gravity. Moreover, when controlling for organizational variables, strategic interaction at the local level significantly mediates the relationship between spatiotemporal context at the global level and firm performance at the microlevel. This investigation provides preliminary support for strategic interaction as a significant mediator between spatiotemporal context and firm performance, and further highlights the relevance of spatiotemporal context and strategic interaction in determining firm performance. The results of this study contribute to our understanding of the dynamic mechanism of spatiotemporal context affecting firm performance and the role of strategic interaction at the local level in this relationship, which can improve the existing insights into new economic geography.