A company’s proactive marketing orientation in the high-tech sector

This paper links the characteristics of new product development in the high-tech sector with the marketing orientation of the firm, especially in its proactive form. The purpose of the paper is to define the characteristics of competition and innovation creation in the high-tech B2C sector and assess whether the marketing orientation of the enterprise may be an answer to those characteristics. Creating innovation in the high-tech sector is difficult due to technological and market (consumer) uncertainty, as well as competitive volatility. This significantly increases the risk of market failure of new products, especially in the case of radical innovations. The way firms may counteract this risk is to adopt a market orientation. Particularly important is its proactive dimension, which involves researching and anticipating future and latent consumer needs. Firms developing new products in the high-tech sector should pursue the proactive marketing orientation and consequently focus on the latent and future consumer needs. Methods stemming from future studies and foresight might be useful in achieving this goal. The methodology used in the paper was the selective literature review in the area of new product development in the high technology sector and marketing orientation of the firm