Market Orientation and Innovators' Success: an Exploration of the Influence of Customer and Competitor Orientation

The concepts of market orientation and innovation and their interrelationship with business success have been exploredfrom a number of perspectives. However, research in this area has not explored the differences between start-up andmature companies. The research study acquired data from over two hundred Chief Operating Officers (CEO’s) andManaging Directors from both start-up and mature companies. The results illustrate the differences in both types ofcompany and reveals new insights with regard to market orientation and its constituent elements and its relationship withboth incremental and radical innovations. Key research results are that strong competitor orientation, a key ingredient ofmarket orientation, has positive relationship to incremental innovation for start-up companies but it is contra productivefor mature companies. In mature organizations a strong customer orientation is associated with radical innovatio