Column 6 · Innovation and New Products · Era 4, Orientation and Relationships (1990s)
Innovativeness
Inputs: resources and assets · Landmark · Cluster II, Resources and Orientation
Description
Han, Kim, and Srivastava showed that innovation mediates the relationship between market orientation and performance, and Hurley and Hult integrated innovativeness, a cultural openness to new ideas, into market orientation and learning frameworks as the driver of the capacity to innovate.
Managerial Implications
Innovativeness is a cultural openness to new ideas, and it is the mechanism through which market orientation improves performance. Being customer-focused without the capacity to innovate yields knowledge without action. Build innovativeness through participative decision making, learning, and tolerance for risk, and measure both technical and administrative innovation. Culture precedes capability: firms that value new ideas develop the capacity to implement them.