Market Orientation and Innovators' Success: an Exploration of the Influence of Customer and Competitor Orientation

Michael Lewrick,Robert L Williams, Jr,Maktoba Omar

doi:10.4067/s0718-27242011000300004

Abstract

The concepts of market orientation and innovation and their interrelationship with business success have been explored from a number of perspectives. However, research in this area has not explored the differences between start-up and mature companies. The research study acquired data from over two hundred Chief Operating Officers (CEO’s) and Managing Directors from both start-up and mature companies. The results illustrate the differences in both types of company and reveals new insights with regard to market orientation and its constituent elements and its relationship with both incremental and radical innovations. Key research results are that strong competitor orientation, a key ingredient of market orientation, has positive relationship to incremental innovation for start-up companies but it is contra productive for mature companies. In mature organizations a strong customer orientation is associated with radical innovation.

Highlights

This study investigates the effects of different parameters of market orientation on radical and incremental innovation in both start-up and mature companies
All the customer orientation variables but one have a strong correlation with radical innovation
Some dimensions of competitor orientation were significantly positively correlated with the number of incremental innovations in areas, such as, competitor orientation strategy and competitor orientation information

Summary

Introduction

This study investigates the effects of different parameters of market orientation on radical and incremental innovation in both start-up and mature companies. There are a number of significant correlations between specific customer orientation variables and the incremental, radical and total innovation score. Within the market and competitive environment, both the correlation between changes action and customer preferences indicate a strong relationship to radical innovation.

Results

Conclusion