Persistent Innovation and Firm Orientations: A Conceptual Framework—An Abstract

Continuous supply of innovations is important for firms to remain profitable in a rapidly changing technological and market environment. This chapter, first, builds on the notion of persistent innovation with reference to approaches to learning about and tracking customer needs, the development of new market offerings, the development and implementation of internal processes, and the development and implementation of specific marketing programs. Second, characteristics that reflect a strong marketing and R&D interface, that is, connectivity, cooperation, knowledge exchange, and knowledge integration, are identified. Third, recognizing that firm orientations, that is, internal customer orientation, market orientation, learning orientation, technology orientation, and entrepreneurial orientation, are important for firms focused on persistent innovation, a conceptual framework that synthesizes relevant literature streams is developed. The framework reveals empirical potential for better understanding of how organizations can continuously innovate for competitive advantage in the marketplace. Discussion and future research directions are provided.