Dynamic Capabilities And Competitive Advantage Of Chinese International Contractors:the Moderating Effect Of Guanxi

Faced to complex and changeable market environment,dynamic capability theory has become a hot topic to study how enterprises can achieve competitive advantage in dynamic environment.With the rapid changes in the international engineering contract market environment,more and more international contractors recognize the importance of nurturing their own dynamic capabilities.In the face of the challenges posed by the international environment,based on their own cultural traditions,Chinese contractors tend to use guanxi to help to solve problems encountered.Therefore,this study takes the international contractors and its engineering projects as the research object,aiming at deeply exploring the influence of the international contractors' dynamic capability on the competitive advantage of the project and the role of the guanxi between the two,it is of great significance to consider how international contractors acquire and maintain sustainable competitive advantage in the current situation,and provide strategic suggestions for the development of overseas markets.Based on the dynamic capability theory,transaction cost theory and resource dependence theory,combining with the research variables such as dynamic capability,guanxi and competitive advantage,and the background characteristics of international engineering contracting industry,this paper carry out a series of related researches,including qualitative research and quantitative research.Qualitative research uses semi-structured depth interviews and files access methods to obtain data,and chooses China State Contruction Engineering Corp.ltd,China Metallurgical Group Corp.,Power Construction Corp.of China,China Railway Group ltd.,China Railway Construction co.ltd.and their's typical projects as the study objects of the exploratory case analysis.Then through within-case analysis and cross-case analysis,this paper summarizes the initial theoretical framework of dynamic capability,guanxi and competitive advantage,puts forward the hypothesis proposition by encoding,categorization,logical analysis and comparison.Quantitative study collects the data by designing and distributing the questionnaire,after finishing the analysis,57 valid questionnaires were obtained,and then the subject of this study was analyzed by multiple linear regression and multiple moderate regression.It is found that(1)the environmental perception capability and the integrated coordination capability of the dynamic capability have a significant positive effect on the project competitive advantage;(2)the business guanxi positively moderates the relationship between the environmental perception capability and the competitive advantage;(3)the business guanxi negative moderates the relationship between learning capability and competitive advantage;(4)political guanxi negative moderates the relationship between environmental perception capability and competitive advantage.This study has the following contributions:First,the research results have practical significance for Chinese international contractors to open up overseas markets.Second,this paper considers the international contractors and their projects as the study object,complementing the existing research about the dynamic capability and competitive advantage,but also expanding the guanxi research field in the international engineering.Third,this paper has a further development in the theory,and has certain reference significance for researchers of guanxi,dynamic capability and competitive advantage.