Abstract
Considerable scholarly interest has been shown in the relationship between market orientation and business performance. Although a number of environmental moderators have been postulated to influence the market orientation-performance link, extant findings are inconclusive. This study takes a different approach by conceptualizing product life cycle stages in terms of variations in competitive intensity, market and technological turbulence. Data collected in Hong Kong reveal that Atuahene-Gima's [Atuahene-Gima, K. (1995). An exploratory analysis of the impact of market orientation on new product performance: A contingent approach. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 12: 275-293] product life cycle measure successfully discriminates stages in terms of market and technological turbulence, but fails to capture variation in competitive intensity. Market orientation is also found to be more highly valued by firms in growing and mature markets than firms in introductory and declining markets. Finally, the link between market orientation and firm performance is found to be strongest for firms in the growth stage and weakest for firms in the introductory stage of the product life cycle.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 145-156 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Journal of World Business |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2007 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
The authors are grateful for the constructive feedback provided by two anonymous JWB reviewers and for the assistance provided by JWB editor Dean Tjosvold.Funding
The research reported in this paper was supported by a Research Grant funded by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (RGF2).
Keywords
- Business performance
- Market orientation
- Product life cycle
