The role of consumer characteristics in explaining product innovation performance: Evidence from emerging economies

Ga Eun (Grace) Oh, Murod Aliyev, Mario Kafouros, Alan Kai Ming Au

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Building on evolutionary perspectives, we offer a new demand-based explanation as to why the product innovation performance of firms varies across countries. We propose that certain consumer characteristics (namely, buyer sophistication, creativity, global identity and local identity) influence firms’ product innovation performance by a) affecting the creation and success of innovative products and b) strengthening (positively moderating) the effects that a firms’ R&D has on its product innovation performance. The analysis of 48,176 firm-level observations from 49 emerging economies in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Africa confirms most of the above predictions. The study complements prior perspectives on innovation performance, which largely focus either on the firm or its industry, by explaining the mechanisms through which consumer characteristics influence firms’ innovation performance, identifying which consumer characteristics matter, and advancing a demand-based perspective that has not attracted sufficient attention in the literature.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)713-727
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Business Research
Volume149
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2022

Keywords

  • Consumer characteristics
  • Emerging economies
  • Evolutionary theory
  • Innovation performance
  • National innovation systems

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