Market Orientation and Entrepreneurial Proclivity: Antecedents of Innovation

Abstract

Purpose: Innovation has been traditionally considered as a generator of competitiveness. Despite the increasing importance of innovation in the literature, there is no agreement about its antecedents. This clearly makes difficult and risky for the managers to choose suitable strategies to promote and develop successful innovations. The present research attempts to contribute to this important area by providing some critical insights on the origins of the innovative behaviour of the firms; namely: market orientation and entrepreneurial proclivity.Design/methodology/approach: To reach our goal we used in-depth case research methodology in furniture firms from Italy, Spain and Finland.Findings: The article contributes to the understanding of why some firms are more innovative than others. The study shows some evidence that market orientation and the entrepreneurship can be considered as antecedents of innovation.Research limitations/implications: We provide evidence that the furniture industry shows a tendency to innovate based on its market orientation along with its entrepreneurial proclivity probably due to the fact that it is a traditional, non-globalized low-tech sector. Future studies might also address other variables related to different competitive settings.Practical implications: This work presents direct implications for companies aiming at improving their innovation capabilities. First, it is recommended that entrepreneurial firms should promote a market orientation philosophy, and second, they also need the top management commitment in terms of people and financial resources to achieve its goals.Originality/value: This article offers an insight to explain why some companies are more successful at starting and developing innovation than others. The finding that a successful innovation profile is related to entrepreneurship and the market orientation of the company represents an interesting contribution to the management of firms.

The Mediating role of Market Orientation on Entrepreneurial Orientation, Absorptive Capacity and Technological Innovation Capabilities

“…2.2.3 Risk-taking: is related to a tendency to appropriate considerable resources to high-risk projects (Baker & Sinkula, 2009;Huang & Wang, 2011;Otero-Neira, Arias, & Lindman, 2013). It indicates committing resources to projects with ambiguous outcomes.…”

“…On the other hand, Customer and market information gathering could be necessary to achieving strong MO (Baker & Sinkula, 2009) and hence, learning from customer needs and competitor behavior is deemed to provide a crucial input to the process of innovation (Otero-Neira et al, 2013). An efficient MO demands a commitment to acquisition of externally generated knowledge (Slater & Narver, 1995;Baker & Sinkula, 1999).…”

The Impact of Harmonious Culture and Entrepreneurship Training on Loan Repayment Performance at Microfinance in Indonesia

“…The second module was about entrepreneurial skill consisted of willingness to take risks and be innovative and pro-active (Verhees et al, 2012;Wiklund et al, 2009). The third module was about market orientation skills and focused on how to set sales, profit and market share objectives (Alby et al, 2011;Chen et al, 1998;Edgcomb, 2002;Oosterbeek et al, 2010;Otero-Neira et al, 2013;Verhees et al,2012). Harmonious culture consists of parahyangan (harmony with God) that contents pray and honestly; pawongan (harmony with human) that contents activity of work hard, mutual cooperation, mutual love; and palemahan (harmony with the nature) that contents green and clean (Astawa et al, 2013;Astawa & Sudika, 2014;Putu Astawa et al, 2016).…”

Key factors for loan repayment of micro entrepreneurs in Ghana

“…Financial management skills include the ability to successfully raise money and design the income statement (Edgcomb, 2002;Karlan and Valdivia, 2011;Mano et al, 2012;Smith and Perks, 2006). Market orientation skills relate to business expansion, the ability to conduct market analyses and settings sales, profit and market share objectives (Alby et al, 2013;Chen et al, 1998;Edgcomb, 2002;Oosterbeek et al, 2010;Otero-Neira et al, 2013;Verhees et al, 2012).…”

“…The third training module discussed market orientation skills and focused on how to set sales, profit and market share objectives. The relevance of market orientation skills for microbusiness performance is argued for by, among others, Alby et al (2013), Chen et al (1998), Edgcomb (2002, Oosterbeek et al (2010), Otero-Neira et al (2013 and Verhees et al (2012).…”