Marketing creativity in new product development: The role of market orientation, technology orientation, and interfunctional coordination

The marketing strategy literature indicates that marketing creativity, in the form of creative ideas exhibited in new products and their associated marketing programs, and market orientation are significant indicators of a firm's business performance. However research suggests that the relationship between market orientation and marketing creativity in new product development may be critical. Some authors argue that market orientation fosters creativity in the development of new products, while others find that listening to customers and responding to their needs inhibits creativity, which in turn reduces the firm's competitiveness. The present study provides the first empirical attempt to address these conflicting results by (1) conceptualizing market orientation as two complementary components: a current-market focus and a future-market focus, and (2) investigating their relationships with new product creativity, marketing program creativity, and business performance, simultaneously.; The findings of this study provide support for the main theses that (1) a future-market focus better explains marketing creativity than a current-market focus, and (2) both a current-market focus and a future-market focus relate positively to business performance. Contrary to expectations, however, a current customer orientation was not found to be negatively related to marketing creativity.; Other critical constructs were introduced in the model (i.e., technology orientation and interfunctional coordination), and their relationships with the marketing creativity constructs and business performance were investigated. The results support the contention that a technology push should be balanced with a market pull for greater marketing creativity and business performance. However the moderating role of interfunctional coordination on the strategic orientation—marketing creativity relationships and strategic orientation—business performance relationship appeared limited.