Market orientation, knowledge competence, and innovation

•We test the market orientation=> market knowledge competence => market-based innovation => firm performance framework•Market knowledge competence mediates the relationship between market orientation and market-based innovations•Market-Based innovations mediate the relationship between market knowledge competence and firm performance•U.S. firms utilize customer and competitor orientation better than Chinese firms

This study focuses on two dimensions of market orientation and the corresponding dimensions of market knowledge competence: i.e., the customer and competitor dimensions. We examine whether customer and competitor orientations are transmuted into market-based innovation either directly, or through customer and competitor knowledge competencies indirectly. The findings support that knowledge competencies are indeed mediators of the positive relationships between orientations and market-based innovation. Also, market-based innovation mediates the positive relationships between customer and competitor knowledge competencies and overall firm performance. A cross-country comparison reveals that, in the U.S. as compared to Chinese firms, customer (or competitor) orientation leads to both higher customer (or competitor) knowledge competence and enhanced market-based innovations; in other words, the model's relationship strengths are greater in U.S. firms, indicating that they are better able to leverage customer (or competitor) orientation to obtain performance consequences.