Performance or learning goal orientation: Implications for business performance

An organization's long-term effectiveness and efficiency reflect its learning goal or performance goal orientation. Goal orientation concepts originate in psychology of achievement motivation theory. Goal orientations drive the development and deployment of organizational capabilities, such as market orientation and innovativeness to achieve organizational performance outcomes. Extant research pays little attention to whether or not industry type (services or manufacturing) operates as a significant moderating factor in the relationships among an organization's capabilities, goal orientation, and performance outcomes. This study addresses this gap. The study results indicate a significant moderating effect of industry type on relationship between goal orientation and performance but not between goal orientation and either market orientation or innovativeness. Goal orientation appears to be more important for service industries than for manufacturing.     

Performance of professional service firms from emerging markets: Role of innovative services and firm capabilities

Professional service firms (PSF) from emerging markets face a financial dilemma: PSFs tend to utilize high-wage labor, yet their emerging market status makes foreign clients cautious regarding quality and less willing to pay high prices. To allay these concerns, PSFs may be able to develop attractive, highly innovative services, but as the resource-based view (RBV) notes, this requires emerging market firms to possess critical capabilities to support such a competitive advantage. Relying on services theory, we propose that entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of management and expert human capital (HC) are critical capabilities, enabling a PSF to develop and market innovative services profitably. In testing our model on 201 Indian PSFs, we find a mediating role for innovativeness whereby EO and HC drive service innovation which, in turn, accounts for financial performance. Further, we find EO positively moderates the innovative service–performance relationship as proactive, risk-tolerant managers improve foreign marketing. Insights for theory and practice are provided that enable PSFs to overcome the constraints and challenges of their emerging market origin.     

Customer Orientation and Performance in Small Firms: Examining the Moderating Influence of Risk‐Taking,Innovativeness, and Opportunity Focus

Customer orientation is considered to be an essential element for small firm success despite relatively little empirical evidence to support such a claim. This research examines the customer orientation–performance relationship among 180 small firms, and the moderating influence of risk‐taking, innovativeness, and opportunity focus on that relationship. Results support the overall positive influence of customer orientation on performance and indicate that the influence is stronger as risk‐taking, innovativeness, and opportunity focus increase. Interestingly, customer orientation does not positively influence small firm performance under low levels of risk‐taking, innovativeness, and opportunity focus.     

The Effect of a Market Orientation, Entrepreneurial Orientation, and Technological Capability on Innovativeness: A Study of Young Biotechnology Ventures in the United States and in Scandinavia

Previous research suggests that in order to excel in innovativeness, a firm should simultaneously be market oriented, proactive, and willing to take risks, as well as have access to superior technological assets and capabilities. However, the contribution of these factors on innovative outcomes has seldom been assessed in one study. This study investigates influences of market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, and technological capabilities on technology ventures' innovativeness. Data for this study were collected through personal interviews in biotechnology startups in the United States, Finland, and Sweden. As expected, results indicate a significant link between technological capability and product innovativeness. However, neither market orientation nor entrepreneurial orientation is related to product innovativeness in this empirical context where firms typically aim at launching radical, disruptive innovations. The drivers of capital investments, however, are different from the antecedents of product innovativeness. Differences between the Nordic and U.S.-based biotechnology ventures are also identified.     

Do they matter? The role of non-academics in the internationalization of academic spin-offs

Internationalization and academic entrepreneurship have been receiving a lot of attention not only in academic research but also in policy practice. While academic spin-offs suffer from limited resources and lack of entrepreneurial skills, they often penetrate international market through their innovative products and technology since the very early years of their establishment. In the literature, little attention has been paid to explicitly examine the internationalization process of academic spin-offs as well as the role of non-academics. In order to investigate the impact of non-academics on the performance of spin-offs, we carried out an empirical analysis of 126 Spanish spin-offs which were divided into two market categories, international and domestic market. With regard to the percentage of non-academics in founding team, we found that their impact was more relevant to the performance goals than to innovativeness. On the other hand, the size of non-academic networks contributed significantly not only to the performance goals but also to innovation. However, we did not find a significant relationship between the strength of non-academic networks and the performance goals and innovativeness of the international spin-offs. Overall, we concluded that the role of non-academics was crucial for supporting the internationalization of the spin-offs.     

Entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance in non-profit service organizations: contingent effect of market orientation

Prior research indicates that an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and firm performance. This study argues that the inverted U-shaped relationship may depend on the level of market orientation (MO). A moderated hierarchical regression based on a sample of 307 non-profit service organizations reveals that an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between each sub-dimension of EO and performance. However, these relationships do not exist for each sub-dimension of MO. When both market intelligence generation and responsiveness are high, the relationship between innovativeness and performance will be in a linear form. Under the condition of high-market intelligence responsiveness, the higher proactiveness will lead to a higher performance level. These findings will better our understanding of the relationship between EO and firm performance.     

The role of entrepreneurial orientation in service firms: empirical evidence from Austria

Entrepreneurial behaviour is becoming increasingly important for all firms, regardless of size, age, or industry sector. It is increasingly seen as one of the most important drivers for economic growth and corporate success. Nevertheless, no empirical research has so far concentrated on the role of entrepreneurial behaviour in service firms, although the service sector has become the most important (and the only growing) industry sector. This article therefore investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and corporate performance on the basis of an empirical survey of 310 service firms in Austria. Here, a significant positive relationship between EO and corporate performance could be identified, with a clear emphasis on innovative behaviour as the most important sub-dimension.     

Natural Environment,Market Orientation,and Firm Innovativeness: An Organizational Life Cycle Perspective

Drawing upon the corporate social responsibility literature, we investigate the moderating effects of the natural environment and the stage of an organization's life cycle on the market orientation to firm innovativeness relationship. Through 229 owners or chief executive officer respondents, our results establish evidence of (1) a positive linkage between market orientation and firm innovativeness; (2) natural environmental policy positively moderating the market orientation to firm innovativeness relationship; and (3) organizational life cycle negatively moderating market orientation to innovativeness. Our findings suggest ventures characterized as being early in the organizational life cycle are more likely to have a positive environmental policy toward the natural environment leading to a competitive advantage through firm innovativeness.     

Marketing Innovativeness on Marketing Performance: Role of Religio-Centric Relational Marketing Strategy

Abstract

This paper is an empirical study aimed at investigating the effect of marketing innovativeness, market sensing capabilities and customer relationship management on marketing performance. The researchers tried to develop and solve the problem of the gap between marketing innovativeness and marketing performance. The respondents of this study were 318. Some of them are leaders or owners of SMEs Muslim fashion in Central Java, Indonesia. Data was analyzed by using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results of the study show that marketing innovativeness (MI) has no significant effect on marketing performance (MP), while market sensing capabilities (MSC) and Customer Relationship Management Capabilities (CRMC) have a significant effect on marketing performance. Likewise, marketing innovativeness, market sensing capabilities, and CRM capabilities have a significant effect on the religio-centric relational marketing strategy. Furthermore, religio-centric relational marketing strategy (RRMS) is able to mediate the relationship between marketing innovativeness and marketing performance.     

An empirical investigation of the antecedents and performance outcomes of export innovativeness

The present study develops and empirically tests a conceptual model of the organizational, strategic, and environmental drivers of export innovativeness. The relationship between export innovativeness and export performance is also examined. Using data collected from 168 small- and medium-sized direct exporters, we find that decentralization in decision making, export market orientation, information exchange and export market dynamism have a significant influence on exporting firms’ degree of innovativeness. Furthermore, export innovativeness has a significant positive effect on export performance. Several theoretical and managerial implications are derived from these findings. Directions for future research are also provided.     

On the Consequences of Market Orientation across Varied Environmental Dynamism and Competitive Intensity Levels

Many firms attempt to develop market‐oriented attitudes and behaviors because of their presumably positive consequences for performance. A market orientation can provide the cultural basis for successful differentiation strategies focused on customer satisfaction. However, inconclusive evidence regarding the relationship between market orientation and performance demands an analysis of possible moderators. This paper therefore analyzes the moderating role of environmental characteristics in the market orientation–performance relationship. Heterogeneous methodologies and measures could explain some diversity in empirical results. Moreover, both the market orientation–performance relationship and the moderating effects of environment dynamism, turbulence, hostility, and complexity may depend on more general characteristics of the environment. A complete diagnostic of the moderating effect of the environment must analyze phenomena in different socioeconomic and political–regulatory contexts. Therefore, the authors (1) analyze the moderating role of environmental dynamism and competitive intensity; (2) consider a broad range of performance measures, distinguished as effectiveness, efficiency, and adaptability measures and as financial and operational measures; and (3) focus on a priority 1 region of the European Union, characterized by small and medium‐sized enterprises that face a global competitive scenario from a disadvantaged local environment. The empirical results support the positive relationship between market orientation and performance and indicate the relationship is inhibited by competitive intensity, which contrasts with existing arguments and empirical results.     

How managerial attitudes toward the natural environment affect market orientation and innovation

This study investigates natural environmental attitude linkages held by strategic decision makers and hypothesizes that the interaction between market orientation and managerial natural environmental attitudes serves to enhance the effect of market orientation on firm innovativeness. Using questionnaire responses from 284 owners or chief executive officers residing in the food processing industry, the findings establish evidence of (1) a positive linkage between market orientation and firm innovativeness, and (2) the moderating effect of managerial attitudes of top managers toward the natural environmental in the market orientation to firm innovativeness relationship. The results provide insight into the nature of the cultural values on which a market orientation is based in relation to the natural environment.     

Moderating Effects of Entrepreneurial Orientation on Market Orientation‐Performance Linkage: Evidence from Chinese Small Firms*

Literature revealed that an appropriate alignment between firm strategic orientation and market positioning is critical because of its impact on firm performance. The alignment is especially crucial for small businesses as a result of their limited resource base. However, studies have not adequately accounted for the joint effect of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and market orientation (MO) on firm performance in different institutional environments, such as transitional economies. In this study, we examine the moderating effect of EO on the linkage between MO and firm performance among small enterprises in China. We have found that MO, alone and in conjunction with certain EO dimensions, is positively related to firm performance. More specifically, innovativeness and proactiveness have positively moderated the relationship between MO and performance. We discuss managerial implications and offer suggestions for future research.     

The impact of market orientation on product innovativeness and business performance

The paper reports a study of the impact of market orientation on business performance. The use of product innovativeness is proposed as a mediator of the influence of market orientation on business performance. Product innovativeness is defined along two dimensions: use of new-to-the-firm and use of new-to-the-market products. Business performance was represented by relative price premium, sales growth, capacity utilization, and profitability. The findings provide support for the positive influence of market orientation on both dimensions of product innovativeness. However, only use of new-to-the-market products turns out to be a positive contributor to business performance.     

消费者创新性的结构测量及对创新性行为的影响

现有文献比较全面地揭示了消费者创新性与新产品创新性行为之间的多重关系,并探讨了这些关系产生的条件和机制。但绝大多数的理论和经验研究都将消费者创新性视为一个单维构念来进行操作性界定和测量,很少有研究去探索其内在结构并在此基础上检验每个维度与新产品创新性行为之间的关系。文章旨在探讨消费者创新性的结构维度并在此基础上观察不同类型的消费者创新性对创新性行为的影响。结论表明,消费者创新性是一个包括感知创新性和认知创新性的双维构念;作为整体的消费者创新性与新产品采用行为并没有显著的相关性,只有认知创新性才与新产品的采用行为正向相关,而感知创新性只与新产品的创新性信息搜寻正向相关。上述结论为消费者创新性提供了一个新的认识,也为今后学者从该角度来研究有关消费者创新性的其他问题提供了变量测量的工具,而且还为新产品的营销实践提供了新的管理启示。     

The innovativeness of Born-Globals and customer orientation: Learning from Indian Born-Globals

Born-Global firms, a newly emerging organizational form targeting international markets as a primary source of business from their inception, have innovativeness, requiring an intimate knowledge of their customer, as a primary feature. This study explores how a Born-Global's customer orientation leads to innovativeness through technological capability for customer relationship management (CRM) and external customer information management. Our empirical results, based on responses from 154 Indian managers, indicate that a Born-Global's customer orientation is an effective enabler of its innovativeness, whose effects are mediated by technological capability for CRM and external customer information management. Although significantly affected by customer orientation, the results further indicate that relationship quality with the buyer does not influence a Born-Global's innovativeness. When CRM technology and managing customer information obtained from external sources are employed, customer orientation significantly helps maintain the innovativeness of Born-Globals according to the results.     

Enhancing financial performance by pharmacy innovation

Antecedents and consequences of customer orientation have been the subject of significant empirical investigation. Although several studies have explored employee variables as antecedents to customer orientation, work ethic has received little research attention. Additionally, there have been incongruent findings related to the effect of customer orientation on performance, as some have found it to be direct or indirect via innovation. This study explores overall work ethic as an antecedent to customer orientation and innovativeness as the missing link between customer orientation and performance among Canadian retail pharmacies. The results show support for the influence of work ethic on customer orientation, and the role of innovation as a mediating variable. This study advances the understanding of work ethic, customer orientation, innovation, and performance in Canadian retail pharmacy.     

Market Orientation, Innovativeness, Product Innovation, and Performance in Small Firms

Most research on market orientation, innovation and performance is related to big enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In this study a model is developed to investigate the combined effect of market orientation and innovativeness on product innovation and company performance, for small firms. A specific feature of our research is that we use an objective measure for product innovation in contrast to the self-reported measures commonly used in research on innovation. To test our model data from 152 rose growers were used. This study's results show that the owner's innovativeness permeates all variables in the model and has a positive influence on market orientation, innovation, and performance. An interesting research result is also that customer market intelligence influences product innovation positively or negatively, depending on whether the innovativeness of the owner in the new product domain is weak or strong.     

Determining Relationship Quality in the Development of Business-to-Business Financial Services

ABSTRACT

The quality of relationships built with customers during the New Service Development (NSD) process is a current concern of researchers in relationship marketing (and NSD) and is particularly important in a highly competitive environment characterised by rapidly changing customer needs like the one of financial services. The primary relationship analyzed in relationship marketing is the one between seller and buyer, but the focal type of relationship for new product and service development is the one termed “the knowledge relationship” (Gummesson 2002), a relationship used to create knowledge. This paper reports the results of in depth qualitative research on the factors that impact on the quality of such relationships developed between new service developers and their customers during the NSD process of business-to-business financial services. Results show that the most important factors that affect relationship quality are: communication quality of the relationship; the development of strong relationship bonds; the quality of relationship partners; a strong customer orientation in NSD based on a proactive approach of relationship partners during the NSD process, and proficiency in knowledge brokering.     

Market Orientation and Performance in the Public Sector

Abstract

Increased calls for transparency and accountability in government organizations underscores the need for a market orientation even in the public sector. The degree of market orientation and its effect on performance and on organizational commitment in government departments in three Australian states is considered. Results provide empirical support for a direct relationship between market orientation and performance and evidence of the mediating role of organizational commitment. Implications are drawn and directions for future research are discussed.