• Análisis dinámico de la relación entre pertenencia a grupos estratégicos y resultados en condiciones de transformaciones ambientales fundamentales: el caso de la banca privada española (1983-1997)

The main focus of this study is to answer the following question: Do performance differences exist among strategic groups and are these differences stable over time in a population of firms which has undergone fundamental environmental changes? Two alternative theoretical arpproaches are provided to answer this question namely, the Industrial Organization Theory (IOT) and the Resource-Based View of the Firms (RBVF). The empirical setting to test the propused hypotheses is the Spanish private bank population which has experienced continous and dramatic environmental shifts over the period 1983-1997. In this context, a new cluster technique is used to longitudinally identify strategic groups —the MCLUST—. The results generally indicated that significant performance differences among strategic groups only existed in three years —1991, 1992 and 1997— in all performance indicator used in this research (return on assets, return on equity, growth in share market, growth in assets and solvency), as the IOT states, but such differences did not exist in other years, as the RBVF predicts. These findings seem to be in line with the conclusions of more recent longitudinal evidence to support both theoretical approaches. Therefore, in the light of these results, in future studies it may be necessary to consider both perspectives as complementary in order to explain properly the performance consequences of strategic group membership over time.