Yang, Yan, Wang, Qing, Zhu, Hengyuan and Wu, Guisheng. (2012) What are the effective strategic orientations for new product success under different environments? An empirical study of Chinese businesses. Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol.29 (No.2). pp. 166-179. ISSN 07376782

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Abstract

Innovation is an organization's spanning process that must continually change in response to, and in anticipation of, changing business environments. Research in the fields of marketing and management has examined individual strategic orientations (SOs) (such as market orientation) and their relationship to innovation performance. Few studies, however, have compared the effectiveness of different SOs for innovation performance in a single study. It is also not clear from previous research whether the business environment influences the effectiveness of the SOs. The objective of this paper is therefore twofold: it aims to evaluate (1) whether a focus on the customer, the technology, the competitor, or the interfunctional coordination, will have the greatest impact on new product success, and (2) whether the effectiveness of a specific SO varies with the environment. Data were collected from more than 500 senior executives in a wide range of manufacturing and service firms in China. Using cluster analysis and an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model, which are commonly adopted to examine the effects of environments on the relationship between strategy and performance, we identified four subgroups of firms facing distinctively different market and competitive environments. As predicted, the results show that all four SOs have (albeit to a different degree) a significant and positive relationship with innovation performance. More importantly, the results point to the relative advantage in pursuing a specific SO by taking into account its effect under different environments and the effects of other SOs. However, the particularly strong effect of technology orientation compared to that of the other SOs on new product performance across all clusters is somewhat surprising. We offer some tentative explanations for this finding, though further research will be required to fully understand it. Overall, our findings indicate the need for managers to be responsive to environmental contexts and to allocate resources to pursue the effective (hence appropriate) strategic orientations for the specific context.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Marketing & Strategic Management Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Business enterprises -- China, New products -- Management -- China, Product management -- China, Strategic planning -- China
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Product Innovation Management
Publisher:	John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
ISSN:	07376782
Date:	March 2012
Volume:	Vol.29
Number:	No.2
Number of Pages:	14
Page Range:	pp. 166-179
Identification Number:	10.1111/j.1540-5885.2011.00900.x
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Funder:	Jiao yu bu ren wen she hui ke xue zhong dian yan jiu ji di (China) [Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences in Universities (China)]
Grant number:	06JJD630011 (KRIHSSU)
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URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/41204

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