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Weatherhead Doctor of Management Programs
Show moreOver the past two decades, scholars have contributed multiple theories and insights to explain successful product innovation. Yet scholars have been unable to determine the relative contribution of a host of factors to successful incremental or radical product innovation. The purpose of this paper is to address two questions: 1) What innovation factors have a significant impact on incremental innovation (II) and radical innovation (RI) in the consumer electronics and information technology (CE/IT) industries? 2) What mediating roles do RI and II play in how innovation factors influence product performance? To address these questions, we build a research model that integrates several prevalent antecedents of product innovation such as technology sensing, organizational learning, strategic intent, and market orientation. We use the distinction between RI and II to analyze their mediating effects. Using survey data of 408 innovation experts in hardware (135), industrial design (98), and software and service (175) firms, we find that strategic intent has a positive impact on II, no impact on RI, and a strong positive impact on product performance; whereas a proactive market orientation has strong positive influences on both II and RI but no direct impact on product performance. Organizational learning has a positive impact on II but a negative impact on RI. In contrast, technology sensing has a positive impact on RI but a negative impact on II. Related assets have a positive impact on II but a negative impact on RI for the hardware group and no effect on RI for the software group. RI positively contributes to product performance, whereas II has no effect. We conclude with a discussion of managerial and theoretical implications, observe study limitations, and outline avenues for future research. Keywords: radical innovation; incremental innovation; strategic intent; proactive market orientation; responsive market orientation; technology sensing; related assets; performance; organizational learning
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