| As competition heightens and the rate of change in the marketplace and customers‘needs and preferences accelerates,firms need to bring innovations into their products to address the changing needs of customers and compete in the market.In emerging economies,firms face comparatively volatile and unpredictable business environments characterized by intense competition,rapid changes in customers’ needs,and market dynamics.Such firms are compelled to introduce market-based incremental and radical product innovation to serve the current and future needs of their customers.Although product innovations remain a key area of research in strategic management and marketing disciplines,most of the previous research has studied product innovations from a technological perspective.However,previous literature remained less focused on how firms develop market-based incremental and radical product innovations.Consequently,existing literature provides very little understanding of the antecedents,mechanisms,and conditions that enable firms to develop market-based incremental and radical product innovation.Drawing on the resource-based theory(RBT),knowledge-based view(KBV),and product innovation literature,this study develops an integrated theoretical model of market-based product innovations.In particular,this research develops a comprehensive theoretical model that examines the role of different types of marketing capabilities and market learning mechanisms in market-based incremental and radical product innovation.The theoretical model explains different types of marketing capabilities,i.e.,static,dynamic,and adaptive,as the building blocks that facilitate different forms of market learning,i.e.,market exploitation,market exploration,and market ambidexterity,which consequently impact market-based incremental and radical product innovations.Therefore,this research examines the direct relationship between types of marketing capabilities,different types of market learning mechanisms,and incremental and radical product innovation.In addition,it also explores how different types of market learning mechanisms play mediating roles in the relationship of different types of marketing capabilities with incremental and radical product innovation.Further,it is generally believed that innovations only take place in technologyintensive firms,but recent research has explored that a low-technology intensive firm can also generate innovations.Surprisingly,the marketing and innovation literature has rarely focused on low-tech firms.Although it can be seen in the previous literature that high-tech and low-tech firms have great differences in capabilities,market orientation,market learning activities,and product innovation outcomes.However,none of the existing studies have explored the differences between high-tech and low-tech firms in this regard.Taking advantage of this important research opportunity,this research aims to explore the differences in the proposed mediating relationships between high-tech and low-tech firms.Furthermore,it also explores how environmental dynamism in hightech and low-tech firms moderates the relationships of the different types of marketing capabilities with market exploitation,market exploration,and market ambidexterity.Overall,this research aims to develop and empirically verify integrated marketing capabilities and market-based product innovation frameworks,and to gain an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms and conditions under which different types of marketing capabilities support incremental and radical product innovation.For this purpose,data is collected from Pakistan‘s manufacturing industry through structured questionnaires.The results of the direct,indirect,and moderating relationships are discussed in three stages.First: this study explains the direct connection between different types of marketing capabilities(static,dynamic,and adaptive)and incremental and radical product innovation,as well as different types of marketing capabilities and market learning mechanisms(market exploitation,market exploration,and market ambidexterity).In addition,it explains the direct relationship between different types of market learning mechanisms and incremental and radical product innovation.Using data collected from 331 manufacturing firms in Pakistan,all the proposed direct relationships are analysed through hierarchical multiple regression analysis because our model involves both linear and nonlinear relationships.The data provided strong support for all the hypothesized direct relationships.Static marketing capability was found positively related to incremental product innovation but nonlinear(inverted Ushaped)to radical product innovation.Dynamic marketing capability was found positively related to both incremental and radical product innovation.On the other hand,adaptive marketing capability was found nonlinear(inverted U-shaped)to incremental product innovation and linear and positive to radical product innovation.Regarding its direct relationships with market learning mechanisms,static marketing capability was positively related to market exploitation but nonlinear(inverted U-shaped)to both market exploration and market ambidexterity.Dynamic marketing capability was found positively related to market exploitation,market exploration,as well as market ambidexterity.Whereas adaptive marketing capability was found nonlinear(inverted Ushaped)to market exploitation and market ambidexterity but linear and positive to market exploration.Our findings revealed a positive relationship of market exploitation with incremental product innovation and a nonlinear(inverted U-shaped)relationship with radical product innovation.In contrast,market exploration was found nonlinear(inverted U-shaped)to incremental product innovation but linear and positive to radical product innovation.However,market ambidexterity was found positively related to both incremental and radical product innovation.Second,the proposed indirect relationships comparison in high-tech and low-tech firms is conducted by the combination of multi-group structural equation modeling(MGSEM)in AMOS and MEDCURVE macro in SPSS through bootstrapping,respectively.In particular,instantaneous indirect effects for nonlinear mediating relationships are calculated through the MEDCURVE macro in SPSS for both groups.As the nonlinear paths in this study exhibit inverted U-shaped patterns,therefore,the instantaneous indirect effects at lower values of independent,mediator,or both are compared between high-tech and low-tech firms.For comparative analysis,the overall sample is divided into two groups: high-tech(N = 155)and low-tech(N = 176)firms.The comparative analysis provides greater support for the proposed indirect relationships and reveals interesting differences between high-tech and low-tech firms.Through market exploitation,the indirect effect of static marketing capability on incremental product innovation was stronger in low-tech firms while the instantaneous indirect on radical product innovation was stronger in high-tech firms.Through market exploration,the instantaneous indirect effect of static marketing capability on incremental product innovation was stronger in low-tech firms,while that on radical product innovation was stronger in high-tech firms.Likewise,through market ambidexterity,the instantaneous indirect effect of static marketing capability on incremental product innovation was stronger in low-tech firms,while that on radical product innovation was stronger in high-tech firms.Referring to dynamic marketing capability,through market exploitation,its indirect effect on incremental product innovation was stronger in low-tech firms,while its instantaneous indirect effect on radical product innovation was not significantly different in high-tech and low-tech firms.In contrast,through market exploration,the instantaneous indirect effect of dynamic marketing capability on incremental product innovation was stronger in lowtech firms while the indirect effect on radical product innovation was stronger in hightech firms.Whereas through market ambidexterity,the indirect effect of dynamic marketing capability on incremental product innovation was stronger in low-tech firms while that on radical product innovation was stronger in high-tech firms.In the case of adaptive marketing capability through market exploitation,its instantaneous indirect effect on incremental product innovation was stronger in low-tech firms,while that on radical product innovation was stronger in high-tech firms.Through market exploration,the instantaneous indirect effect of adaptive marketing capability on incremental product innovation was stronger in low-tech firms,while its indirect effect on radical product innovation was stronger in high-tech firms.Whereas through market ambidexterity,the instantaneous indirect effect of adaptive marketing capability on incremental product innovation was stronger in low-tech firms,while that on radical product innovation was stronger in high-tech firms.Third,differences in the proposed moderator relationships between high-tech and low-tech firms were analysed and compared using a multi-group moderation analysis technique in AMOS.The analysis provided support for moderation effects and revealed interesting differences in high-tech and low-tech firms.In the case of static marketing capability,environmental dynamism positively and strongly moderated the positive relationship of static marketing capability with market exploitation in low-tech firms than in high-tech firms.While the nonlinear(inverted U-shaped)relationship of static marketing capability with market exploration as well as market ambidexterity was more inflated by the moderation of environmental dynamism in low-tech firms than in hightech firms.In the case of dynamic marketing capability,environmental dynamism positively moderated the positive relationship of dynamic marketing capability with market exploitation in both high-tech and low-tech firms with no significant difference.However,the positive relationship of dynamic marketing capability with market exploration as well as market ambidexterity was moderated positively in high-tech firms and negatively in low-tech firms by environmental dynamism.Referring to adaptive marketing capability,environmental dynamism positively and strongly moderated the positive relationship of adaptive marketing capability with market exploration in hightech firms than in low-tech firms.While the nonlinear(inverted U-shaped)relationship of adaptive marketing capability with market exploitation as well as market ambidexterity was more inflated by the moderation of environmental dynamism in hightech firms than in low-tech firms.Overall,this study found greater support for the proposed theoretical framework that offers promising contributions to existing literature.Particularly,by integrating different types of marketing capabilities and market learning mechanisms into a single framework and examining their integrative role in market-based product innovations,it contributes to the resource-based theory(RBT),organizational learning(OL),and innovation literature.Further,it also advances these disciplines by exploring the contingencies associated with these fields.In particular,it provides fresh insight into how firms’ technological intensity differences(high-tech vs.low-tech)impact the interrelationships of different marketing capabilities and market learning mechanisms and thereby affect market-based incremental and radical product innovation.It also offers a novel understanding of boundary conditions such as environmental dynamism in the relationship of different marketing capabilities and market learning mechanisms.Overall,the findings of this study should be of greater interest to those researchers who are concerned with understanding the role of marketing capabilities and market learning mechanisms in market-based product innovations as well as the contingencies associated with them.Further,it also provides practical guidelines to the managers of high-tech and low-tech manufacturing firms.It helps them understand the capabilities required so they can effectively and efficiently exploit and explore market opportunities to bring incremental and radical product innovations into their products to meet customers’ existing and future needs. |
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