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We report on two studies (a single and a multi-industry) that empirically investigate a nomological network of relationships between strategic business unit product-market strategy (differentiation, cost-focus, and product-market scope), marketing capabilities (architectural and specialized capabilities, as well as their integration), and business unit performance (market effectiveness and subsequent one-year objective cash flow), along with a series of controls. Addressing important lacunae in the resource-based view our main research objective is to augment understanding of how critical firm-level marketing capabilities enable the realization of strategy, thus, further advancing both the resource-based view and more recent capabilities theorizing. Specifically, we test seven hypotheses and find strong evidence that both architectural and specialized marketing capabilities, and their integration, positively mediate the product-market strategy and derived business unit performance relationship. In contrast to many extant studies, both survey and objectively measured data are combined, and because the secondary data collected contains both resource-level (input) data and subsequent one-year financial data, a higher level of confidence may be attributable to our findings.

We propose conceptual arguments to establish relationships between market orientation and generative learning and their respective impact on exploitative innovation strategy and explorative innovation strategy. We then consider the ambidextrous association between both forms of innovation strategy and business performance. This model is subject to an empirical test using data generated from 160 bioscience firms. Using structural equation modelling, two mutually exclusive paths are specified where market orientation leads to exploitative innovation strategy, while generative learning leads to explorative innovation strategy. We then find that the ambidexterity exhibited by firms in the form of exploitative innovation strategy and explorative innovation strategy significantly explains improvements in firms' business performance. Discussion is given to these findings and managerial implications are presented along with avenues for further research. Copyright (c) Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2008.