並列摘要
One intriguing issue prevailing throughout the last few decades has been product market competition. Prior studies document that financial leverage plays an important role in inter-firm competition in the product market. In this study we examine the impact of debt on decisions of product market competition for different market structures and business cycles. Debt affects product market competition by influencing future cash flow and risk of bankruptcy. As increase in a firm's debt level may give it the incentive to follow a cost leadership strategy to lower prices, which in turn would increase cash flows to service the higher level of debt. However, high debt firms tend to be less aggressive in terms of differentiation strategy because investment in differentiation strategies has features of risk, uncertainty and discretion. In this study we investigate the impact of debt on the product market competition behavior using data for listed companies in Taiwan. We focus on the period from 1999-2003. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study where the impact of debt on both cost leadership and differentiation strategies has been considered. In addition, we also investigate the behavior of product market competition in relation to different market structures and business cycles. Our study also contributes to the understanding of product market behaviors in a dynamic environment. The results show that firms with more debt prefer to follow a cost leadership strategy rather than a differentiation strategy. Furthermore, competition in a high concentration industry, where rivals are more likely to react to another firm's strategy, tends to lead to high debt firms following less aggressive cost leadership strategies. In contrast, high debt firms tend to follow less aggressive differentiation strategies. This may possibly be due to the desire to escape competition by management under the pressure of competition and debt. The pursuit of a differentiation strategy may be an effort to create a new market to increase cash flow. Finally, during a recession, leveraged firms tend to follow conservative cost leadership strategies but aggressive differentiation strategies. Companies carrying a high level debt tend to follow a less aggressive cost leadership strategy because of lower demand due to recession which reduces the cash flow while high debt firms may follow an aggressive differentiation strategy because the opportunity cost falls during recessions. Several implications can be drawn. First, the results should assist management to choose the most appropriate product market strategy for different debt levels. Second, this study may lead to a better understanding of the impact of market structure on the relation between debt and product market strategy. Third, the results should be useful for managers to decide on how to compete during a recession.