Ran, X (2025) Research on the relationship between core competitiveness of interior design companies and its performance under the circumstance of decline. DBA thesis, Arizona State University, USA.
Abstract
In the past three years, the growth rate of urban construction investment has slowed down, the real estate industry has fluctuated downward, and unfavorable macroeconomic changes have led to a decline in the growth rate of the building interior design market. Against the backdrop of declining fundamentals, market competition has intensified, and undertaking new design projects becomes difficult. The interior design industry is facing many challenges, such as fierce market competition, incomplete industry regulation and standard systems, insufficient driving force for enterprise innovation, insufficient synergy in the supply chain, longer project payment cycles, and limited development of small and medium-sized enterprises. Fully recognizing these difficulties, this study aims to assist interior design companies to build and enhance their core competitiveness, and achieve breakthroughs in their business.This article uses public panel data to study the management expense ratio of 163 listed companies classified as construction industry under the CITIC industry classification standard. This study confirms a significant difference in management expense ratios between architectural design and service companies and construction companies, highlighting the value of using on-site interviews with the founders of 6 interior design companies to obtain in-depth understanding of competitiveness of interior design firms. A survey questionnaire is designed, and finally, a cross-sectional linear regression model and structural equation model are constructed to test the relationship between core competitiveness and performance of medium-sized interior design companies. The study found that: (1) In the current context, enhancing innovative design capabilities does not significantly promote the performance. Instead, stronger organizational and management capabilities improve their performance; (2) Further research shows that when dividing performance into financial performance and non-financial performance, the stronger the organizational management ability, the better their financial and non-financial performance; (3) Team management, organizational operations, company strategy, and customer relationship management abilities in organizational management are all significantly positively correlated with financial and non-financial performance; (4) The structural equation model further support that enhancing organizational management capabilities can significantly improve the performance of interior design companies.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Wang, Y and Cheng, S |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | architectural design; competition; competitiveness; innovation; investment; market; payment; real estate; regression model; regulation; small and medium-sized enterprises |
| Index terms: | real estate, structural equation model, competitiveness, construction industry, synergy, customer relationship management, regression model, building interior, financial performance, competition, questionnaire, regulation, architectural design, interview, interior design, strategy, organizational management, survey, team management, construction company |
| Subjects: | strategic management, organization, practitioner, market analysis, specialized design, business analysis, real estate economics, data collection methods, business, partnership management, industry analysis, political science, statistical analysis, management, design practice |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Urban Studies, Design Practice, Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management, Governance, Business Strategy, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here