Research On The Impact Of Organizational Performance Feedback On Innovation Behavior From The Demand-Side Perspective

In a highly competitive market environment,innovation plays a critical role in the survival and growth of firms.The behavioral theory of the firm explains innovation behavior through performance feedback.This dissertation reviewed relevant literature and found that:1)In terms of the formation of performance feedback,the identification of reference points mainly relies on supply-side information such as industry and firm characteristics,lacking consideration of other information sources;2)In terms of the impact of performance feedback,existing research has overlooked the impact of performance feedback constructed based on demand-side information on innovation behavior;3)In terms of the context of performance feedback’s impact,traditional behavioral theory of the firm primarily focuses on the impact of performance feedback on innovation behavior under a single aspiration,disregarding the impact of(in)consistency between different performance feedback on innovation behavior under multiple aspirations.The emergence of technologies like big data and cloud computing has led to changes in consumer demands and behavior patterns,resulting in overlapping industries and influencing the selection of organizational reference points,particularly cross-industry reference points.The refinement and vastness of consumer data provide robust support for business decision-making and offer a new perspective to address the aforementioned research gaps.Therefore,this dissertation examines the impact of organizational performance feedback on innovation behavior from the demand-side perspective.This dissertation introduces the demand-based view into the behavioral theory of the firm to identify reference points(Who),discusses how they influence organizational innovation behavior through performance feedback mechanisms(How),and considers the influence mechanisms in different contexts(When).The sample used includes 45,476 applications and 51.18 million online consumer reviews from the Apple App Store between July 2017 and December 2018.Specifically,study 1,starting from the formation of performance feedback,explores how organizations use demand-side information to identify reference points,thus affecting the innovative adaptation distance.The results indicate that the higher concentration of co-consumers leads decision-makers to pay more attention to demand-side information,enabling them to identify reference points and shorten the innovative adaptation distance between the focal product and its reference points.Additionally,a product belonging to a single category enhances the impact of co-consumer concentration on the innovative adaptation distance;On the contrary,external ranking stability weakens this relationship.The research concludes that demand-side information should be incorporated into performance feedback models.Study 2,starting from the impact of performance feedback,constructs demand-based performance feedback based on the reference points identified in Study 1 and investigates how demand-based performance feedback affects organizational innovation behavior.The findings reveal that negative demand-based performance feedback triggers abandonment effects and threat rigidity,making decision-makers more conservative and reducing innovation intensity.Conversely,positive demand-based performance feedback stimulates inertia and revenue incentives,encouraging decision-makers to maintain the status quo and decrease innovation intensity.The degree of market overlap strengthens the impact of demand-based performance feedback on innovation intensity,while the user base weakens this relationship.The study highlights the unique influence mechanism of demand-based performance feedback on innovation behavior.Study 3,starting from the context of performance feedback’s impact,explores the innovative behavior of organizations when simultaneously faced with demand-based and supply-based performance feedback.The results suggest that consistent negative performance feedback makes decision-makers more conservative by triggering threat rigidity and urgent problemistic search,while consistent positive performance feedback encourages decision-makers to set higher goals and engage in more aggressive innovation behavior.The impact of inconsistent performance feedback on organizational innovation behavior differs depending on the situation: When faced with negative demand-based performance feedback and positive supply-based performance feedback,decision-makers initiate the fire-alarm rule to enhance innovation intensity due to the pursuit of market opportunities and the abundance of resource endowments.On the contrary,when faced with positive demand-based performance feedback and negative supply-based performance feedback,decision-makers follow the self-enhancement rule due to limited resource endowments and market opportunities,which attenuates the innovation intensity.This dissertation makes several theoretical contributions.First,it supplements previous research on the behavioral theory of the firm by introducing the demand-based view as a new perspective to identify reference points.Second,this dissertation enhances the demand market research within the demand-based view literature by uncovering the specific demand-side information structures that attract organizations’ attention and influence their innovation behavior.Third,this dissertation proposes the mechanisms of abandonment effects and benefit incentives,which strengthen the explanatory power of the performance feedback model.Moreover,by examining the moderating effects of market overlap and user base,this dissertation enriches research on specific conditions that explain shifts in organizational attention.Last,this dissertation advances the study on multiple aspirations in performance feedback by exploring the impact of(in)consistency in performance feedback based on both demand-side and supply-side information on innovation behavior.From a practical perspective,our conclusions can help across-industry competitive organizations to find suitable reference points and help decision-makers determine when and how to adjust their own innovation behavior.