LIBRI DI MICHELE SIMONI

The paper analyzes how the technological environment affects the relationship between market orientation and a firm’s economic performance. In particular, the study focuses on a dimension of technological environment that has been neglected by the extant literature to date, i.e., the level of uncertainty for firms created by the homogeneity-heterogeneity of the set of technologies available in an industry. In addition, in contrast to past studies that have been primarily based on cross-sectional analysis and subjective measures, this paper proposes a longitudinal study based on objective measures of market orientation, technological uncertainty and performance. Our findings show the peculiar effect of technological uncertainty on the market orientation-firm’s performance link. Moreover, this paper introduces a set of new methodologies, particularly on the measurement of market orientation and of technological uncertainty. The theoretical contribution and practical implications of our results are discussed.

How can we develop new products, services, and systems that are able to satisfy the needs of firms potential customers not yet emerged? How should we rethink technology innovation processes under the requirements of value co-creation? How can we foster innovation through effective links between marketing and R&D departments, both inside and outside the boundary spanning of a single firm? With the aim to stimulate answers to these questions, we launched a special issue of Mercati e Competitività on Technology, innovation and marketing. Coming challenges in an emerging new business landscape. In this introductory paper, we argue that the relationship between technological innovation and marketing is multifaceted and multidirectional. Thus, the paper proposes a conceptual framework to highlight the different perspectives through which this relationship can be investigated. In the last section, we present the different papers collected in the special issue and position these papers within the proposed conceptual framework.