INDUSTRIAL COMPETITION, HYBRID STRATEGY AND INDUSTRIAL PERFORMANCE

The hybrid strategy has gained high interests from practitioners and researchers in recent days in order to improve industrial competitive advantage and performance. This study aims to examine the role of hybrid strategy in mediating in the relationship between industrial competition and performance. Theories and empirical studies have been carried out for the construction of the hypothesis. Questionnaires have been distributed, filled up and returned by 130 heads of departaments in evelen accredited higher education institutions in Timor-Leste. Smart Partial Least Square (Smart-PLS) was used to test the hypothesis. The results of this study shows that the industrial competition does not significantly influence the industrial performance of the higher education industry while hybrid strategy is fully mediating the relationship between the two variables. This research confirms that hybrid strategies can be used to enhance industrial performance in high intense industrial competition environment. Governments and managers of the higher education industry can also develop policies and strategies to improve quality, competitive advantage and performance of the higher education industry by combining cost leadership strategy and focus on service strategy in emerging countries such as Timor-Leste.