Mediating Role of Competitive Strategies in the Relationship between the Value Chain Activities and Firm Performance:

Abstract

This study studied the mediating role of the competitive strategies in the relationship between value chain activities and firm performance in a sample of Sudanese manufacturing firms. Firm’s performance is a multifaceted phenomenon and therefore it’s difficult to measure for its impact on multiple factors, particularly in the manufacturing sector. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to test the mediating role of the competitive strategies in the relationship between value chain activities and firm performance in a sample of Sudanese manufacturing firms. By using resource based view theory (RBV) and previous studies have been used to building the research framework and hypotheses development. The study hypothesized that the cost leadership strategy will mediate the relationship between value chain activities and firm performance in a sample of Sudanese manufacturing firms, the differentiation strategy will mediate the relationship between value chain activities and firm performance in a sample of Sudanese manufacturing firms. The study contributing to examine the mediating role of competitive strategies on the relationship between value chain activities and firm performance in light of resource based view and this is new adding for the knowledge. As well as reach to applying the study model in the Sudanese context. The study was based on the descriptive analytical method, where selected a sample of Sudanese manufacturing firms as population of the research and the sample was (200) firm with response rate of (53%), the unit of analysis was organization. regarding the data analysis and hypotheses testing of the research (SPSSv25) and AMOS (21) structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to verify the theoretical model. The findings of the hypotheses testing were explained that the value chain activities affect the firm performance. The findings showed that value chain activities positively affect competitive strategies. Also, competitive strategies positively affect firm performance. Also, the findings showed that the competitive strategies mediate the relationship between value chain activities and firm performance. Accordingly, this study recommends that the future studies could replicate this study with a more complex model using moderating effect of costing systems.