Does Market Visioning Competence Mediate or Moderate the Relationship Between Entrepreneurial Orientation and Product Innovativeness?

High levels of innovation are associated with competitive economies, industry vigor, and firm competitive differentiation. High and stable technology firms compete in industries with intense market dynamism, which is characterized by the fast pace of technological change and resulting market ambiguities. These firms develop products with product innovativeness (PI) for competitive differentiation. High and stable technology firms also tend to have high levels of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), which sets the firm’s priorities and structures towards innovation and has been shown to increase PI in literature. This study adds a cutting-edge competency, Market Visioning Competence (MVC), to firms with high EO to evaluate whether this innovation development competency acts as mechanism to sustain or increase levels of PI. MVC features networking, idea advocacy, proactive research to uncover unstated needs, and market forecasting tools. It is hypothesized that firms with high EO in high technology industries (e.g., software) have integrated MVC into their capabilities already (as a mediator) because of their need for a unique product development competency to sustain PI given intense market dynamism. It is also hypothesized that MVC may moderate EO for increased PI in stable technology firms (e.g. chemical) as a way to increase PI. This study surveyed a panel of 201 product development executives in both high and stable technology firms. The study applied quantitative findings from descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and PLS-SEM modeling of the factors. The findings confirmed past studies that a high EO level increases the PI for firms in high and stable technology industries. MVC was found to be a mechanism (a mediator) between a firm’s EO and the development of PI for high technology firms. This MVC mediation of EO to PI finding in high technology confirms the presence of MVC as a cutting-edge capability to develop technologically advanced products for differentiation and to offset market dynamism. MVC was not found to moderate EO and increase PI for stable technology industry firms. The lack of moderation of EO in stable technology firms is attributed to less market dynamism and the resulting tendency of stable technology firms to pursue more predictable, less advanced technology, incremental innovation