The Positive Effect of Innovative Culture on Differentiation Strategy: Empirical Results from Vietnamese Smes

Abstract

Drawing upon the contingency theory, this study explores whether or not the alignment between innovative culture and this strategy permits the high performance of SMEs located in Vietnam. The alignment is proposed to be established when there is a mediating role of differentiation strategy on the relationship between innovative culture and performance. 158 SMEs located in Vietnam were used to analyze. The results indicate that this strategy partially mediates the relationship between innovative culture and performance. In the light of findings, this study's contributions are twofold. It extends the current knowledge on how innovative culture supports differentiation strategy to enhance performance. It also generalizes the relevance of prior studies' results of the positive effects of innovative culture on performance in the Vietnamese context.