The authors seek to understand which of three different strategic orientations of the firm (customer, competitive, and technological) is more appropriate, when, and why it is so in the context of developing product innovations. They propose a structural model of the impact of the strategic orientation of the firm on the performance of a new product. The results provide evidence for best practices as follows: (1) A firm wishing to develop an innovation superior to the competition must have a strong technological orientation; (2) a competitive orientation in high-growth markets is useful because it enables firms to develop innovations with lower costs, which is a critical element of success; (3) firms should be consumer- and technology-oriented in markets in which demand is relatively uncertain—together, these orientations lead to products that perform better, and the firm will be able to market innovations better, thereby achieving a superior level of performance; and (4) a competitive orientation is useful to market innovations when demand is not too uncertain but should be de-emphasized in highly uncertain markets.
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