Critical brand innovation factors (CBIF): Understanding innovation and market performance in the Chinese high-tech service industry

Brand innovation sweeps aside established practices and disrupts the status quo, resulting in the transformation of markets. The present study develops and tests a model of critical brand innovation factors (CBIF) by examining key factors influencing firm-level brands' innovation and increased market performance. Adapting both organizational elements and market response characteristics, the model integrates four key variables in China's industrial service markets: innovation, internationalization, market orientation, and organizational learning. Findings provide a foundation for understanding how firms improve their innovation and subsequent market performance in an emerging and dynamic market. The study demonstrates that when brands are more innovative, their performance increases: Brand innovation plays a fully mediating role on the effects of market orientation and organizational learning to market performance, but has no mediating effect on internationalization and market performance. A lack of innovation reduces market performance even when internationalization, market orientation, and organizational learning are present.