Antti Sihvonen

Market orientation, innovation capability and business performance: Insights from the global financial crisis

Purpose - The paper aims to examine the role of market orientation (MO) and innovation capability in determining business performance during an economic upturn and downturn. Design/methodology/approach - The data comprise two national-level surveys conducted in Finland in 2008, representing an economic boom, and in 2010 when the global economic crisis had hit the Finnish market. Partial least square path analysis is used to test the potential mediating effect of innovation capability on the relationship between MO and business performance during economic boom and bust. Findings - The results show that innovation capability fully mediates the performance effects of a MO during an economic upturn, whereas the mediation is only partial during a downturn. Innovation capability also mediates the relationship between a customer orientation and business performance during an upturn, whereas the mediating effect culminates in a competitor orientation during a downturn. Thus, the role of innovation capability as a mediator between the individual market-orientation components varies along the business cycle. Originality/value - This paper is one of the first studies that empirically examine the impact of the economic cycle on the relationship between strategic marketing concepts, such as MO or innovation capability, and the firms business performance.

“Managerial storytelling”: how we produce managerial and academic stories in qualitative B2B case study research

With a focus on case study research methods, this study continues the epistemological debate about qualitative research approaches in the IMP literature by reconsidering the reliance on managerial interviews as a primary empirical source in the production of knowledge claims. In this empirical approach, researchers seem to often treat the interview process and the analysis and reporting of research findings in a manner that generally gives situational credence to the veracity and factuality of the interview data. In line with several epistemological approaches that have already surfaced in IMP literature, this study further emphasizes the context-dependent, ephemeral and ultimately unstable nature of managerial “truths” imparted in the interviews. We argue that the data should be empathically and reflexively understood as the production of stories and their reporting as a form of academic storytelling of pragmatic academic and managerial value.

Generative mechanisms in project marketing - an agenda for inquiry

Project-based exchanges have become the dominant mode of doing business for many industrial firms, and therefore research into project marketing activities has come to be of interest for many B2B academicians. In this study, we contribute to this discourse by proposing three macro-level generative mechanisms for connecting project marketing to business performance. To do so, we outline a critical realist philosophy of science and suggest generative mechanisms that constitute business performance. Specifically, the mechanisms we propose are: (1) project construction, (2) project implementation, and (3) project transition & leveraging. Additionally, we suggest that these mechanisms and the micro-mechanisms of which they are constituted could be explored from a critical realist perspective through the use of event-structure analysis (ESA) and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA).

Paradox and market renewal: Knockoffs and counterfeits as doppelgänger brand images of luxury

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to continue the emerging stream of literature that has found knockoffs and counterfeits to be unobtrusive or even beneficial to luxury companies by analyzing how they produce paradoxes of meaning and contribute to the renewal of luxury markets. This is done by exploring them as doppelganger brand images that reappropriate brand imagery for their own purposes. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper that focuses on the role of knockoffs and counterfeits in the renewal of luxury markets. Findings The findings highlight how knockoffs and counterfeits can contribute to the emergence and cyclical diffusion of luxury. As luxury offerings are introduced to the market, knockoffs and counterfeits accelerate the snob effect, aid in anchoring trends and contribute to induced obsolescence. During diffusion, knockoffs and counterfeits can strengthen aspiration, bandwagon and herding effects. In doing so, knockoffs and counterfeits create a paradox as they simultaneously legitimize the idea of the “authenticity” of genuine offerings through their presence in the market and create cyclical demand for novel offerings by undermining the authenticity claims of existing luxury offerings. Thus, knockoffs and counterfeits can be understood as a paradox of luxury markets that contributes to the market cyclicality not despite but because of this paradoxical interplay. Originality/value While research on knockoffs and counterfeiting is plentiful in the field of marketing, this is among the few studies that analyze how these offerings contribute to luxury markets and their renewal.

Causal complexity of new product development processes: a mechanism-based approach

ABSTRACT The outcomes of new product development (NPD) processes are dependent on the interplay of several interdependent activities. One product development activity can be dependent on the presence or absence of other activities, different kinds of NDP processes may lead to the same outcome, and specific kinds of activities may have a positive effect in one process but no effect in other processes. However, we currently lack means to examine and explain this causal complexity inherent in NPD processes. To address this issue, we introduce mechanism-based approach as a way to capture conjunctural and equifinal causal relations. We build this approach on the philosophical literature on mechanism-based explanations and the methodological opportunities provided by the qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to identify how the activities of entities are configured together to generate outcomes. We elaborate this approach by presenting an in-depth historical analysis of the NPD projects of Vaisala, a meteorological instrument company. We discover and suggest that the company’s NPD projects were driven by three mechanisms (ideation, evaluation and commercialisation) and that each of them were actualised by a set of different activity configurations. Accordingly, we contribute to the NPD and innovation literature by showing how mechanism-based explanations take into account both the abstract theorisation of NPD processes and their inherent causal complexity.

Customer Empowerment, Top Management Team and Product Development: Success Paths in Turbulent Markets

Customer knowledge has been identified as a key condition for product development success. Traditionally customer knowledge is generated through market research techniques like focus groups and surveys. It has been argued that product development success in today’s dynamic markets requires a shift from traditional market research to increased emphasis on customer empowerment. This is the direct, persistent and interactive collaboration with the customers. It has been postulated, that involving customers in closer proximities to product development project thresholds will generate novel product ideas that are more likely to be valued by customers, thus increasing the likelihood of product development success. Additionally, it has been noted that customer empowerment activities have the propensity to improve product quality and reduce risk. When a firm decides to implement activities of customer empowerment, it needs to be geared to appropriately manage these interactions and the various forms of information that these are intended to bring about. It is at this stage where the actions of the top management team (TMT) of the firm are crucial in terms of making the strategic decisions that guide product development.

BARRIERS TO INNOVATION DIFFUSION IN INDUSTRIAL NETWORKS : A SYSTEMATIC COMBINING APPROACH

Over the past 50 years, a substantial interest has been put to research on how innovation spreads within social networks over time (see Rogers, 1962, 2010). Our initial aim was to examine innovation diffusion in industrial networks. We operationalized the research through a case study of an advertising network by using systematic combining as the approach (Dubois & Gadde, 2002, 2014). From the initial focus of innovation diffusion, the rematching of data and theory led us to focus on the barriers of innovation diffusion. By doing so, we found out that multilevel strategizing appears to be an important phenomenon in understanding dynamics of innovation diffusion within industrial networks. Specifically, strategizing occurs in two levels: (1) the groups within the network compete for position, and (2) actors within a group compete for position by trying to differentiate themselves from other group actors. A strategic mismatch between the two levels leads the network to become decelerated or even static in diffusing new innovations (Abrahamsen, Henneberg, & Naude, 2012). Uncovering these findings would not have been possible without the use of systematic combining and the constant matching between theoretical and empirical domains.

Evolution of NPD during industry life-cycles - a longitudinal study from the telecom industry

Studies on new product development (NPD) have largely focused on finding antecedents for successful NPD. Various external and internal factors have been suggested as driving NPD success. Specifically, NPD research stream is focused on examining the impact of three factors, which are NPD process formality, internal cross-functional collaboration and external firm-to-firm collaboration. However, understanding how the drivers of successful NPD change during industry life-cycles is still inconclusive. This research aims to bridge this gap by examining these success factors during the different stages of an industry life-cycle. Through an historical study that spans 30 years, the current research highlights how the NPD projects of a single telecom firm change during the evolution of the telecom industry. The research utilizes event structure analysis (ESA) in conjunction with qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to uncover the changing configurations of NPD performance. The findings of this research highligh...