Orientamento al mercato e innovazione nei settori creativi. Una ricerca nel settore della moda

Which relationships does market orientation have with innovation in creative industries? With a few exceptions, the debate on market orientation and innovation has not dealt with the specificity of creative industries, where innovation plays a critical competitive role and creativity is at the heart of the value offered to customers. Our study aims at bridging this gap, through a quantitative study on a sample of 140 companies in the fashion industry. The research shows that the relation market orientation - innovation – performance may be better depicted by distinguishing between two different approaches towards market orientation – retrospective and forward-looking. This articulation of the market orientation construct explains different innovative performances of companies that apparently adopt a similar strategy in the same markets. Moreover, the study demonstrates that a forward-looking market orientation may lead to a radical innovation, compared to a retrospective approach towards the market. In addition, the results show also that levels of radicalness of innovations affect organizational performance. Finally, the analysis highlights the effects of coherence in the innovation strategy with the organization’s brand identity on final performance.