Market-driving innovation: Exploiting absorptive capacity, market visioning and NPD process

Ensuring radical, technological or market breakthroughs are able to emerge from the front end of the new product development (NPD) process and into commercialisation remains a difficult task for firms trying to engage in market-driving behaviour. This research proposes an organisational dynamic learning capability "absorptive capacity" (ACAP) as antecedents to market visioning competence (MVC) and market vision (MV), and examines how these capabilities and the execution of the NPD process influence NPD programs aiming to produce such "market-driving" innovations and achieve positive post-launch performancespecifically speed-to-market, windows of opportunity and financial success. Using a sample of 179 managers of top innovative companies in Thailand, the research model is analysed by partial least squares structural equation modelling. The main contribution of this study is the findings that ACAP positively and significantly influences both MVC and MV, and that the NPD process partially mediates these capabilities and new product program performance.