Innovation, marketing strategy, environment, and performance

The contribution of innovation to corporate survival and growth is an accepted notion in much of management. Typologies of strategic orientations of companies based on innovation have been developed and analyzed. Most of these typologies focus on a single dimension of innovation. This study, using the PIMS database, develops a typology of businesses based on multiple dimensions of innovation and examines their marketing strategies and performance. Results suggest that innovative types have different marketing orientations and performance levels, some of which confirm findings based on other typologies. A major implication in terms of performance is that great care must be taken in adopting an innovation posture. For example, extremely aggressive rates of product introductions are associated with poor marketing (absolute and relative market share) and financial performance but high market share growth. Pioneering a market results in superior all around performance, whereas late entry is associated with poor performance. The findings suggest a need to examine the type of innovation, the type of performance outcome, and the time frame for assessment when evaluating the type of performance outcome, and the time frame for assessment when evaluating the contributions of innovation to corporate survival and growth.