Using the integration of disparate antecedents to drive world-class innovation performance: An empirical investigation of Swiss watch manufacturing firms

Although organizational innovativeness has been regarded as propelling the market, entrepreneurial and learning orientation, as well as innovativeness relationships, much of the evidence to date remains anecdotal and speculative. In other words, little is known empirically about how these orientations contribute to a firm innovation. This leads to reductionism in modeling and thwarts the full exploration of the potentially multifaceted relationships among these concepts and their impact on firm innovation. In this context, a systematic framework was devised which tested the postulated market, entrepreneurial and learning orientations relationships collectively, their effect on innovativeness and the subsequent effect of innovativeness on business performance. Utilizing a sample of 238 Swiss watch manufacturing firms, we empirically examine the antecedents of firm innovativeness in this context. The findings confirm the validity of the model and afford various insights on the role of innovativeness and the impact it has on business performance in the proposed relationships. Finally, implications are shown for the antecedents and consequences of organizational innovativeness.