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The impact of customer orientation on new product development performance: The role of top management support

Fan Yang (College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China)
Huiying Zhang (College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China)

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management

ISSN: 1741-0401

Article publication date: 5 March 2018

1599

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the underlying impacts of customer orientation on new product development (NPD) performance. Further, this study investigates the moderating effect of top management support (TMS) on the customer orientation-performance relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

This study as a unique approach has classified customer orientation into three sub-dimensions: customer focus, customer involvement and communication with customers. And the NPD performance is explored both from financial and nonfinancial aspects.

Findings

Based on a sample of 366 high performance manufacturing firms across ten countries, the obtained results of hierarchical moderated regression analyses reveal that customer focus, customer involvement and communication with customers have significantly positive effects on both financial and nonfinancial performance of NPD; TMS positively moderates the relationship between multiple dimensions of customer orientation and NPD performance.

Practical implications

The research extends the customer orientation literature by describing three dimensions of customer orientation and empirically testing their effects on NPD performance. This study also contributes to a deep understanding of the influence factors of NPD performance, both from the financial and nonfinancial aspects. The proposed framework provides a fine-grained analysis to help us understand in what way the customer orientation is linked to performance outcomes.

Originality/value

This study is innovative because it seeks to make a contribution to existing literature from a theoretical perspective by investigating the sub-dimensions of customer orientation and moderating role of TMS.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Major Project of Social Sciences of Tianjin Education Commission in 2014 (2014ZD14), and the Special Project of Science and Technology Development Strategy in Tianjin in 2015 (15ZLZLZF00750).

Citation

Yang, F. and Zhang, H. (2018), "The impact of customer orientation on new product development performance: The role of top management support", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 67 No. 3, pp. 590-607. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-08-2016-0166

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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