This study has empirically analyzed the competitive strategies of the Korean component manufacturers. To differentiate the competitive strategies, the study employed two indexes: degree of support from customer firms and degree of internal innovation process. The performance measures include cost, quality, delivery and flexibility. 115 questionnaires were finally collected from the Korean part manufacturers and used for the final analyses. ANOVA, Chi-squared tests and t-tests were employed for statistical analyses. There are two major findings in this study. First, both internal innovation and external support from customers are equally important to improve manufacturing competitiveness of Korean component manufacturers. Second, strategic path to improve competitiveness of Korean component manufacturers is as follows: focusing on internal innovation ${ ightarrow}$ seeking for formal relationship with customers ${ ightarrow}$ pursuing external support from customers.