Purpose-This paper aims to investigate whether it is meaningful to decompose market orientation into customer orientation and competitor orientation, and what possible implications this decomposition may have for researchers and business practitioners. Design/methodology/approach-Through a review of existing market orientation research, two of its salient dimensions, customer orientation and competitor orientation, are theoretically investigated. Then, two symmetric component measures are developed and tested on 308 manufacturing firms in a cross-sectional questionnaire survey, supplemented with census data. Findings-Empirical evidence reveals that, while competitor orientation is positively related to a firm's market share, a customer orientation is detrimental to a firm's return on assets for firms in less competitive environments. Research limitations/implications-The study advocates moving beyond "global" measures of market orientation and focusing on symmetric component measures of customer orientation and competitor orientation when investigating a firm's performance differentials. The study's cross-sectional setting limits inference about causality among the constructs. Practical implications-Customer versus competitor orientation appears to be contingent on a firm's competitive environment, which indicates that market orientation and its components are not necessarily equally relevant for firms with different strategies and in different environments. Originality/value-The paper introduces and empirically tests two novel symmetric component measures of customer orientation and competitor orientation. Academicians are provided with insights with respect to the content and symmetry of component measures of the market orientation construct and their relation to firm performance. Furthermore, business practitioners are given a more solid foundation for better allocation of resources to their customer and competitor-oriented activities.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the association of international orientation and market orientation and their joint effects on export market success. Additionally, it aims to examine how firms’ foreign market portfolio diversity moderates this association.Design/methodology/approachOn the basis of a review of the literature on market orientation and international orientation in relation to manufacturers’ performance on export markets, the paper proposes a set of hypotheses. The hypotheses are empirically tested using 249 questionnaire responses from CEOs supplemented with census data.FindingsThe results indicate that international orientation is positively related to export market success and that this relationship is independent of market portfolio diversity. The paper provides insights to the limitations of the dominant position that holds market orientation as an undisputed valuable strategic capability since market orientation has different non‐linear associations with export market success depending on market portfolio diversity. Finally, the results indicate that the joint effects of international orientation and market orientation on export market success only are present for firms with a focused market portfolio.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors argue that the performance implications of different strategic orientations on export market success are context‐dependent and that firms’ market portfolio diversity assists in providing this nuanced insight. The study's empirical cross‐sectional setting limits inference about causality among the constructs.Practical implicationsWhile all exporting manufacturing firms may benefit from an international orientation, business practitioners are advised to pay particular attention to the diversity of their foreign market portfolio prior to allocating resources to market‐oriented activities.Originality/valueIn this empirical contribution, the authors show how international orientation explains performance differentials among manufacturing exporters as well as how market orientation positively moderates this relationship. Furthermore, the paper shows the context dependency of the value of firms’ market orientation on the basis of export market portfolio diversity.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the components of a knowledge management system that contribute to superior new product program performance.Design/methodology/approachAn extensive review of the academic and managerial literatures that deal with knowledge management's contribution to superior performance was first undertaken. After identifying gaps in the literature, a comprehensive model of a knowledge management system was developed. Where possible, existing measures of the constructs in this model were utilized. A questionnaire was developed, a commercial mailing list purchased, and a two wave mailing which produced a 15.8 percent response rate conducted.FindingsThe paper finds that customer intelligence generation, competitor intelligence generation, technological intelligence generation, and intelligence dissemination all contribute to the stock of knowledge assets (p<0.05). It was also found that, after controlling for influences on new product performance, a knowledge‐based strategy fully mediated the knowledge asset‐new product program performance relationship (p<0.05).Research limitations/implicationsThis is a cross‐sectional study so causality should not be implied. The study was conducted among companies competing in high‐tech industries so there may be questions about generalizability.Practical implicationsWithin the limitations of the research design, this study demonstrates the components of a knowledge management system. It provides numerous examples of the techniques utilized and companies that utilize them.Originality/valueThe paper identifies the components of a knowledge management system that contribute to superior new product program performance.

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Atheoretical measure purification may lead to construct deficient measures. The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretically driven procedure for the development and empirical validation of symmetric component measures of multidimensional constructs. Particular emphasis is placed on establishing a formalized three-step procedure for achieving a posteriori content validity. Then the procedure is applied to development and empirical validation of two symmetrical component measures of market orientation, customer orientation and competitor orientation. Analysis suggests that average variance extracted is particularly critical to reliability in the respecification of multi-indicator measures. In relation to this, the results also identify possible deficiencies in using Cronbach alpha for establishing reliable and valid measures.