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Business environment, employee competencies and operations strategy: an empirical study of retail firms in China

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Abstract

This paper investigates the links between business environment, employee competencies, operations strategy and performance for a sample of retail companies in China. The path analysis suggests that, because the retail environment becomes more dynamic, firms endeavoured to strengthen their employee competencies to achieve retail success. Employee competencies such as good team working and a high degree of self-motivation play significant roles in pursuing low cost, quality and flexibility strategies. Operations strategy (low cost and flexibility) in turn influences business performance. In particular, our results show that employee competencies fully mediate the effects of the business environment on operations strategy and that the employee competencies-performance connection is mediated by operations strategy.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 231-252

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

IMA Journal of Management Mathematics (Volume 24, Issue 2)

Publication milestones

  • Published - 01/01/2012

Publication status

Published - 01/01/2012

ISSN

1471-678X

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/244265
  • Scopus: 84877130441

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