시장지향성과 기업가지향성이 중소기업의 신제품 성과에 미치는 영향

초록

The changes in the marketplace pose a variety of challenges for the firms. New product development (NPD) is one of the efforts to meet these challenges. With the increased turbulence in the business environment, the researchers as well as the practitioners are paying critical attention to the new product development process and the factors affecting its performance. However, NPD poses complicated challenges for the managers. Coupled with the inherent risk of the NPD project, the control problems in the organizations generate the delicate organizational dynamics. Therefore, it has become very important for managers as well as researchers to understand the critical determinants of new product success. Both market orientation (MO) and entrepreneurship orientaion (EO) are considered significant factors that positively affect the organizational performance and new product performance as well. However, in spite of its significance, the relationship between strategic orientation (MO and EO) and new product performance has received scant academic attention. This research attempts to focus on the role of the market orientation and the entrepreneurship orientation in the context of the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Due to the limited organizational competencies and resources of the SMEs, there is a unique challenge for the new product development. With the significance of MO and EO in the organizational performance as well as the NPD performance, the relative flexibility and the entrepreneurial significance of the SME management provide a good research context to get further into the significance of MO and EO. MO is defined as an organizational culture that most effectively and efficiently creates the necessary behaviors for the creation of superior value for buyers, and thus, superior performance for the business. MOs is composed of three behavioral components of customer orientation, competitor orientation, and inter-departmental coordination. While EO is described as one that emphasizes aggressive product-market innovation, risky projects, and a proclivity to pioneer innovations that preempt the competition. Scholars who emphasize the importance of EO argue that only market-oriented firms are likely to miss opportunities for developing innovative new products. On the contrary, scholars who emphasize on MO argue that entrepreneurial new products are likely to have higher risk of market failure. It is asserted that firms need to strike an appropriate balance between MO and EO to make effective performance of NPD and product innovations. However, there is as yet little empirical evidence to support it. Strategic orientation, such as MO and EO, does not have a direct effect on the new product performance, but influence on the organizational culture and behaviors. Therefore, to explore the effects of MO and EO on the new product performance, we must consider the mediating variables which affect the performance of new products. The objective of this research is to empirically investigate the suggested link between strategic orientation (MO and EO) and new product performance of Korean SMEs and to identify the mediators that facilitate this link. Among the factors which affect new product performance, the faithfulness of NPD process and product creativity were introduced in the research model as mediators. A comprehensive theoretical model was proposed based on a careful review of literatures, and the consequent hypotheses were developed. The proposed model and hypotheses were tested with the data from the recipient of Technology Innovation and Development fund supported by Korean SMBA (Small and Medium Business Administration). A sample of 5,185 manufacturing and IT service SMEs was selected from the sampling frame. Every firm in the sampling frame completed the NPD project during 2005~2007. A web-based e-mail questionnaire was sent to the CEOs of sample firms, and 503 companies responded to the survey. Of those, 471 responses were used in the analysis. The fitness of the model was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and reliability and validity were tested. Research hypotheses were tested through structural equation model. Among 7 hypotheses, 4 hypotheses were supported, but the other 3 hypotheses were rejected. From the hypothesis testing result, a main path of "market orientation → NPD process faithfulness → product creativity → new product performance' and another positive relationship between entrepreneurship orientation and product creativity were investigated. Hypothesis 1 (MO is positively related to NPD process faithfulness) and hypothesis 4 (EO is positively related with product creativity) were accepted. Hypothesis 2 (EO is positively related to NPD process faithfulness) was not supported. The possible explanation is that the firms with higher EO are more interested in the speed of NPD process than keeping the faithful step of process. Hypothesis 3 (MO is positively related to product creativity) was not supported, contrary to the findings from the previous studies. The possible explanation is that the mediating effects in this model made a different result. Hypothesis 5 (NPD process faithfulness is positively related to product creativity) and hypothesis 7 (product creativity is positively related to NP performance) were supported, but hypothesis 6 (NPD process faithfulness is positively related to NP performance) was not supported. The possibility of the mediating effect caused by the product creativity is part of the future research agenda. This study attempts to synthesize the two streams of research in the new product development - marketing and strategic management. With the EO, mostly studied in the strategic management field, this stream of research does not get into the product level details. The research in MO in the marketing field should provide better insights when coupled with the strategic insights. The findings in this research supports the common sense of business-think about the future while paying attention to the market realities. The managerial efforts to affect the MO and EO (in the SME context) should inprove the new product performance. The strategic orientation (measured by MO and EO) makes the context of the new product development activities. In this sense, the MO and EO are the essential ingredients of the NPD process which affects the product creativity and the new product performance. The relatively stronger effect of the MO identified in this research provides a policy implication. At least, the promotional policy measures for the SMEs should be based on the managerial minds at the market. The unresolved puzzles in this research pose the future research agenda. While the extension of this research beyond the SME context is expected to provide more generic insights, the longitudinal analysis will further explicate the causal relationship in this research model.

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