The Relationship between Innovation Orientation and Strategic Typology in Business Firms

Introduction

Today’s firms search for a competitive advantage to distinguish themselves from others so that they could achieve a unique characteristic in their products and services in the complex and turbulent current era. As a strategic direction, innovation orientation is a method of thinking and leading that drives the firm over the long term, keeping it innovative (Siguaw, Simpson, & Enz, 2006). Innovation offers vital advantages to firms like maintaining or enhancing market share and outperforming competitors (Lisboa, Skarmeas, & Lages, 2011). Past research on innovation in firms has examined the determinants (Nystrom, Ramamurthy, & Wilson, 2002), processes (e.g., Schroeder, Van de Ven, Scudder, & Polley, 2000; Hipp & Grupp, 2005), and consequences of innovation (e.g., Subramanian & Nilakanta, 1996; Seng Tan, 2004). The scholars have distinguished between product and process innovation (e.g., Damanpour & Gobalakrishnan, 2001; Bergfors & Larsson, 2009; Chenavaz, 2012; Wong, 2012), technical and administrative innovations (e.g., Subramanian & Nilakanta, 1996; Markard & Truffer, 2006; Katzy & Crowston, 2008; Cordero, Farris, & DiTomaso, 2013; Nambisan, 2013), and radical and incremental innovations (e.g., Lu & Chen, 2010; Un, 2010; Bakovic, Lazibat, & Sutic, 2013; Oerlemans, Knoben, & Pretorius, 2013).