How strategy changes in different monetary policy conditions : An empirical test in China

Purpose – The paper aims to address how firms make strategic adjustment to the changing resource availability in different monetary policy conditions and how the stickiness of cost influences the strategic adjustment, and to dig out the major internal and industrial factors that influence the relationship between strategic change and monetary policy conditions. Design/methodology/approach – The mechanism of how monetary policy affects strategic change is expounded by resource-based view and transaction cost theory. The balanced panel data of 422 companies of manufacturing industry listed in Chinese A share market before the end of 2003 from 2004-2013 are selected as sample to test the theoretic hypotheses. Findings – It was found that looser monetary policy results in greater strategic change than the tighter one for the high adjustment cost. External capital dependence and industrial competition intensity strengthen the positive correlation between monetary policy condition and strategic change. Private firms are more susceptible to money supply condition change compared with state-owned enterprises. Companies tend to expand investment on fixed asset but to shrink investment on R & D and trademark in looser money supply condition. Practical implications – Companies make bigger strategic adjustment in looser monetary policy condition for the greater availability of financial resources and lower market risk, but smaller adjustment in the tight one. However, owing to the sunk cost and the high adjustment cost, companies are not suggested to make aggressive strategic adjustment in the loose monetary conditions so as to avoid overcapacity and financial risk in tight monetary policy condition. For the policy-maker, as loose monetary policy cannot stimulate innovation but boost expansion on capacity, it is better to strengthen the resources configuration mechanism of monetary policy when making monetary policy. Originality/value – This paper fulfils a theoretic gap to study the mechanism of how monetary policy influence corporate strategic resource reconfiguration via affecting the resource base of a company by combining resource-based view and transaction cost theory.