市場導向對企業創新及績效的影響 - 以我國勘察設計行業為例

Abstract

Market orientation has been a core concept in marketing literature. Although extant research has discussed the definition and measurement market orientation, as well as the relationship between market orientation and firm performance, findings regarding the relationship have been mixed. Moreover, market orientation research has primarily been conducted in mature markets; little has been known about the implementation of market orientation in emerging markets, transitional economy in parituclar.

Under the context of transitional economy, firms need to choose effective strategic orientations to deal with the dual transformation—internal and external changes—incurred by industry enterprise reform. As such, is market orientation effective in improving firm performance? How would market orientation influence firm innovation, in terms of technological and management innovation? Does firm innovation mediate the relationship between market orientation and firm performance? How would market orientation, together with other firm strategic resources (i.e., technological orientation, institutional capital), influences firm performance? Answersing these questions could advance theoretical understanding of market orientation and offer managerial implications for firms in transitional context.

The research setting focuses on Chinese investigation and design industry, which has been undertaking enterprise reform and deregulation since 1978. Based on resource-based view and institutional analysis, this study examines a research framework focused on market orientation using data from 230 firms from Chinese investigation and design industry. Specifically, the research examines: (1) market orientation’s influence on firm performance under the context of industry transformation. The analysis takes a component-wise approach to discuss dimensional impact of customer and competitor orientation on both long- and short-term performance; in addition, the research explores how institutional factors (ownership, market index, and institutional uncertainty), after controlling for market environment, influence the relationship between market orientation and performance. (2) The mediation role of firm innovation (technological and management innovation) in market orientation-performance relationship. (3) Compare influences from different strategic resources, i.e., market orientation, technological orientation, and institutional capital, and their interactive effects.

The findings indicate that: (1) market orientation has a positive effect on firm performance in transitional context, and competitor orientation is the critical factor whereas customer orientation may harm firm performance. This finding is very important for firms faced with cutthroat competition. (2) Firm innovation, more specifically, technological innovation, mediates the relationship between market orientation and firm performance. (3) Maket orientation, technological orientation, and institutional capital improve firm performance but institutional capital exerts a stronger impact and a interplay effect with market orientation. It suggests that in transitional context, firms should acquire strategic resources that could deal with institutional uncertainty. Based on these findings, the paper offers managerial implicaitons for firms and industry management.

Date of Award	14 Jun 2017
Original language	Chinese (Traditional)
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Zhilin YANG (Supervisor)