The synergistic impact of market and technology orientations on sustainable innovation performance: evidence from manufacturing firms

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify groups of manufacturing firms having different combinations of strategic orientation (market and technology orientations) and compare the viable groups for differences in their sustainable innovation (SI) performance. Design/methodology/approach: A sample of 373 Italian manufacturing firms is clustered (using non-hierarchical cluster analysis) based on their combinations of market orientation (MO) and technology orientation (TO). Subsequently, the one-way between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) with post-hoc tests is conducted to detect how the resulting groups differ in their SI performance. Findings: The synergistic co-alignment of TO with both dimensions of MO (i.e. responsive and proactive) can help firms enhance their performance regarding SI. Amongst the groups of manufacturing firms identified in the context of this research, ‘future-oriented entrepreneurs’ appear to represent the strongest combination of MO with TO, leading them to achieve higher levels of SI performance. Research limitations/implications: This study, by referring to a survey-based empirical study of manufacturing firms in Italy, extends the literature by arguing that higher levels of balanced TO–MO results in greater SI performance. To confirm and extend the results of this work, future research should assess the examined combinations of orientations in other contexts, and with respect to other performance variables (e.g. sustainable entrepreneurship). Practical implications: By recognizing the real value of foresight practices, manufacturing firms should be equipped with organizational capabilities that enable them to systematically predict potential discontinuities, explore the future and simultaneously maximize their innovation and technology capacity. The findings of this research provide insights to managers on how to invest in resources linked to different configurations of MO and TO so that they can lead to the improvement of sustainability-oriented innovation performance. Originality/value: This work represents a first attempt to explore the viable combinations of MO (including responsive and proactive dimensions) with TO in the manufacturing context, and to investigate how these combinations contribute to different levels of SI performance.