Publication Type

PhD Dissertation

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

11-2025

Abstract

In the context of China’s “big asset management” era, public mutual fund management companies face intensifying competition and an urgent need to build sustainable core competitiveness. Existing research has not clearly identified their key resources or explained how these resources interact with strategic management capabilities to generate competitive advantage. Drawing on the resource-based view and strategic management theory, this study develops a conceptual framework of core competitiveness for public mutual fund management companies. It proposes a three-dimensional resource classification system—valuable, rare, and inimitable resources—tailored to the mutual fund industry and incorporates strategic management capability as a mediating mechanism through which resources are transformed into competitiveness. A mixed-method research design is adopted. First, in‑depth multiple case studies of representative Chinese and overseas fund management companies are conducted to inductively construct the theoretical model. Second, a large-sample questionnaire survey yields 231 valid responses from Chinese public mutual fund management companies, and structural equation modeling is used to test the hypotheses and examine the relationships among resource categories, strategic management capability, and core competitiveness. The empirical results show that valuable resources have the strongest and most significant direct positive impact on core competitiveness. Within rare resources, brand resources significantly enhance competitiveness, whereas channel resources have no statistically significant direct effect. Inimitable resources—such as distinctive corporate culture and innovation capabilities—also exert a significant positive impact on competitiveness. Strategic management capability plays a critical intermediary role: it has a significant partial mediating effect between valuable resources and competitiveness and between inimitable resources and competitiveness, while its mediating effect on the link between rare resources and competitiveness is weaker and only marginally significant. These findings confirm that simply owning high‑quality resources is insufficient; effective strategic management is essential to fully realize resource value. Managerially, public mutual fund management companies should optimize resource allocation around valuable resources, especially product innovation and investment talent, while pursuing long-term brand building and prudently evaluating channel investment. They also need to cultivate inimitable resources—particularly corporate culture and innovation capability—and systematically strengthen strategic management capability in planning, dynamic resource allocation, and organizational coordination. Firms of different sizes should adopt differentiated competitive strategies that match their distinctive resource endowments, thereby avoiding homogeneous competition and building sustainable core competitiveness in the evolving asset management landscape.

Keywords

Public fund management company, Core competitiveness, Resource-based view, Strategic management capability

Degree Awarded

Doctor of Bus Admin (CKGSB)

Discipline

Strategic Management Policy

Supervisor(s)

WANG, Heli

First Page

1

Last Page

138

Publisher

Singapore Management University

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Author

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