Market orientation, marketing capability, and new product performance: The moderating role of absorptive capacity

Abstract

The recent marketing literature identifies market orientation and marketing capabilities as key concepts that firms should use to achieve their competitive advantages. Previous research also confirms cross effects of these dimensions in firms' performance. The present study extends the literature on this subject by introducing absorptive capacity (AC) as a moderator of the relationship among market orientation, the interaction of market orientation and marketing capability, and firms' new product performance. This study empirically examines the research model using survey data from 188 manufacturing firms in Sweden. The findings confirm previous studies that claim a positive relationship among market orientation, marketing capability, and new product performance. More importantly, the results indicate that AC positively moderates the relationship between market orientation and firms' new product performance. Furthermore, the findings suggest that experts should consider AC as a competitive factor in line with the complimentary effect of market orientation and marketing capability. This consideration would contribute to explain better firm-related performance, such as new product performance.

Market sensing, innovation capability and market performance: The moderating role of internal information dissemination

“…The increasing level of market dynamics drives competition on innovation and new product introduction to new levels (Najafi-Tavani et al, 2016). A strong MO facilitates innovation by providing a supportive environment that enhances creativity, a tolerance for risk-taking, and an ability to identify novel opportunities (Song et al, 2015).…”

“…A strong MO facilitates innovation by providing a supportive environment that enhances creativity, a tolerance for risk-taking, and an ability to identify novel opportunities (Song et al, 2015). Dynamic capability DC theory gives details and supports this approach to competitiveness, proposing a new variety of capabilities to put into practice new strategies and to make appropriate use of their limited resources (Najafi-Tavani et al, 2016). According to Barney (2014) the resource-based view (RBV) and knowledge-based view (KBV), firms' acquired possession of unique knowledge is the main source of innovation that leads to certain firms outperforming others (Nguyen et al, 2016).…”

“…According to Najafi-Tavani et al (2016) one kind of such capabilities is MO strategies of the firm, come up to generation and dissemination of market intelligence propose that MO requires complementing market-relating organizational capabilities to enable firms to respond to the market intelligence they generate. Building on the theoretical ground, the conceptual framework as in Fig.…”

“…Therefore MS enables firms to improve their development of organizational capabilities because of their greater market information acquisition and utilization (Chen et al, 2012). Firms need strong and current market intelligence in their approaches and mechanisms to improve their marketing capabilities (Najafi-Tavani et al, 2016). In response Nguyen et al 2016) demonstrated that for high-tech service firms, MO is a critical factor, necessary to create an optimal environment for brand innovation and for facilitating a firm's innovativeness.…”

The Effects of Absorptive Capacity, Intellectual Property and Innovation in SMEs

“…However, most of these studies have analyzed the effect of such variables in large companies. There are also few studies analyzing the influence of absorptive capacity, innovation, and intellectual property management on market orientation (MO) and on profitability (PROF) in SMEs (Najafi-Tavani, Sharifi, & Najafi-Tavani, 2016;Spithoven, Clarysse, & Knockaert, 2011). These variables, which analyze organizational learning modes, also focus on large organizations and organizational knowledge (Chen, Lin, & Chang, 2009).…”