A study of strategic orientation and product competitive advantage in Chinese emerging market

摘要

This study integrates strategic orientation and product innovation literature and proposes a model of studying product competitive advantage, its antecedents (strategic orientation: competitor orientation, customer orientation, and technological orientation) and consequence (product performance). The moderating effects of competitive uncertainty and technology uncertainty on product competitive advantage-performance are also examined. The model is tested with data collected from Chinese firms. The results show that strategic orientations generally contribute to product competitive advantage, with customer orientation's effect being insignificant because of special conditions in the Chinese emerging market. The moderating effect of competitor uncertainty was confirmed in the study. Technological uncertainty's moderating effect is conflicting to the hypothesis because of low technology content of the Chinese market. Implications for business managers are also discussed in this study.