The Determinants of Firm Performance: the Industry Factors or the Firm Factors? ―An Empirical Research on the Listed Companies in China

In the strategic management theory, the structure-based view holds that the structural characteristic of the industry is the main determinant of the performance; while the resource-based view claims that the competitive advantage is driven by the resource and capacity of an enterprise. In this paper, we carry out an empirical research on 945 Chinese listed companies’ performance (ROA) in 18 industries by one-way ANOVA., and the findings are different from previous researches: in China, the industry factors have notable effects on the payoff of the listed companies, but in some industries of high degree of marketization, such as information equipment industry, computer application industry, clothing industry and retail industry, the effects of firm’s resource and capacity are greater than that of the industry factors.