The Effect of Competitive Aggressiveness on Business Performance: A Case Study of Private Universities in Indonesia

Competitive aggressiveness has long been believed to be the direct trigger for increased business performance, however, as a mediating variable it still needs to be further proven. This paper aims to examine the causal relationship between network capability, knowledge creation, innovativeness, competitive aggressiveness, and business performance of private universities. One model is proposed to test the role of competitive aggressiveness as a mediating variable. The population is lecturers at the 10 best private universities in East Java, Indonesia. Analysis by SEM, on 230 respondents, using random sampling method. The results show that the model is accepted, and competitive aggressiveness is proven to be a positive mediating variable in the relationship of network capability, knowledge creation, innovativeness, and business performance. The results also show that knowledge creation, and innovativeness, have an effect on competitive aggressiveness, while network capability has no effect. The research implication is that management should encourage lecturers and organizations to be more productive in conducting research and writing articles published in reputable journals, this will increase the ranking of universities. In order for the lecturers be more enthusiastic, the management gave an award to each lecturer who could submit their articles, which were then published by reputable journals.