Perceived environmental turbulence, strategic orientations and new product success : A comparative study of SMEs and large manufacturing exporters

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences of relationship among perceived environmental turbulence, strategic orientations and new product success in export market by company size. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey was conducted among 281 small and medium-sized and 222 large manufacturing exporters in mainland China. Research hypotheses were examined by structural equation modeling technique. Findings – The research results show that: market orientation (MO) and innovation orientation (IO) are not significantly different between large exporters and SMEs, while new product performance of SMEs is significantly less satisfactory; for large exporters, perceived environmental uncertainties in terms of technology and customer demands are critical driving factors of strategic orientations, while environmental dynamics in terms of technology and competition have significant impacts upon strategic orientations among SMEs; while MO plays a stronger effect in product innovation performance for large exporters, IO has equally important impact upon new product success across SMEs and large exporters. Originality/value – The authors extend the established theory about industry environment, strategic orientations and product innovation performance from companies in developed countries and domestic market to firms from developing countries who are operating in export markets. Furthermore, it is first kind of study that comparatively examines the relationship among environmental turbulence, strategic orientations and product innovation performance by company size.