The nature of market orientation and the ambidexterity of innovations

Purpose - This study aims to consider that a proactive- and responsive-market orientated firm is able to align with the development of radical (exploratory) innovations as well as incremental (exploitative) innovations to realize its organizational ambidexterity. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is based on a questionnaire survey/analysis of a sample of 227 high-technology firms in Taiwan. Findings - The research findings reveal that both types of market orientation provide different managerial efforts to develop and foster different types of innovation competencies; and then, those effects would be moderated through external and organizational factors. Practical implications - Through the deployment of ambidextrous structures, managers could effectively arrange the portfolio of product-markets with an array of proactive- and responsive- market orientation to align the potential conflicts concerning the exploration and the exploitation. Originality/value - This study is a pioneer in the field that reveals how a proactive- and responsive-market orientated firm could systematically operate to accomplish its ambidexterity of innovations.