How can leather businesses improve the performance of new products? The research presented in the original Persian article links market orientation to new-product performance, both directly and through the speed of innovation. Its practical message is to collect market intelligence, share it across departments and turn it into a timely response.
Archive note: the Persian article was published on 5 December 2020. It reports fieldwork conducted in Iranian year 1396 (2017–2018). This English edition translates and reorganises the original text, presenting repeated passages once. The findings describe the reported study, rather than current statistics for the entire leather industry.
The study aimed to develop a model of new-product performance based on market orientation and innovation speed in the leather industry. It was applied research using a descriptive survey design. Questionnaire data were collected from 200 managers and practitioners working in leather production and sales businesses in Tabriz.
The original article states that structural equation modelling and LISREL software were used to analyse the data, test the hypotheses and assess the fit of the conceptual model. Its three dimensions of market orientation were intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination and responsiveness.
Market-oriented companies continually monitor customers, competitors and their market environment so that they can develop and offer products and services of value. Market orientation turns knowledge about the market into decisions intended to create greater value for customers and stronger organisational performance.
The Persian article refers to the work of Narver and Slater (1990) and Kohli and Jaworski (1990) when introducing this concept. In practical terms, generating information alone is insufficient: the information must also circulate within the organisation and lead to a response.
Intelligence generation: gathering information about customer preferences, competitors and changes in demand. The original article identifies understanding customers and acquiring market knowledge as important factors in the success of new products, citing Chao and colleagues (2014).
Intelligence dissemination: sharing that knowledge between sales, marketing, research and development, production and other relevant functions. Teams operating in the same market may use different organisational mechanisms to obtain information and select their strategies.
Responsiveness: converting market knowledge into decisions and actions. The reported relationships suggest that generating and sharing intelligence contribute to an organisation’s response, while intelligence generation also supports its dissemination.
Technological change and shifts in customer demand can shorten product life cycles. Businesses therefore need to consider not only what they develop, but also how quickly they move from recognising a need to developing and introducing a suitable product. The source discusses this issue with reference to Moreno-Moya and Munuera-Alemán (2016).
Innovation speed is treated as a mediating variable: it helps explain how market orientation is associated with new-product performance. The article describes this capability as depending on team cohesion and complex social relationships, making it difficult for competitors simply to imitate.
According to the original article, market orientation had a positive, statistically significant relationship with product performance, both directly and indirectly through innovation speed. The three dimensions of market orientation also had a positive relationship with innovation speed.
The study further reported that intelligence generation and dissemination had a substantial influence on responsiveness, and that intelligence generation had a positive, significant influence on dissemination. Taken together, the results support the proposed mediating role of innovation speed within this particular research model.
Mokhtarzadeh and Zamani (2015) examined market orientation, management innovation and technological innovation in 255 pharmaceutical firms. As summarised in the Persian article, their analysis found positive, significant effects of market orientation and management innovation on technological innovation, with these variables contributing to firm performance.
Shabani and Ebrahimpur (2017) studied 110 manufacturing companies in the Rasht industrial estate. Their findings, as reported in the source, linked market orientation positively to innovation ambidexterity—exploring new possibilities while exploiting existing capabilities—and linked this capability to performance. A direct effect of market orientation on company performance was not confirmed in that study.
Rodríguez-Pinto and colleagues (2011) examined market entry order, innovation quality and speed using data from 244 Spanish businesses involved in manufacturing and new-product development. The original article reports that market orientation could support new-product performance through product quality and, for earlier market entrants, through innovation speed.
Prifti and Alimehmeti (2017) investigated market orientation, innovation and product performance in 99 manufacturing firms in Albania. The source describes the generation, dissemination and use of information as a process that converts market feedback into valuable action, alongside organisational learning and capability development.
The article’s practical recommendation is to hold joint meetings between marketing and sales and functions such as research and development and production. Exchanging information across these teams can help the business respond more coherently to customer needs and improve the development of new products.
The discussion covers the leather industry and related activities, including bags and footwear. Tabriz’s long history in leather production is presented as an opportunity, while changing global markets make the use of timely information and innovation capabilities increasingly relevant.
These findings should be read in their research context. A survey-based model from a defined place and period is not a guarantee that faster development will improve every product. The article’s central argument concerns the connection between market knowledge, coordinated action and innovation speed.
What does new-product performance depend on in this model?
The reported model links performance to market orientation and treats innovation speed as a mediator between market orientation and performance.
Who took part in the field research?
The original article reports a questionnaire survey of 200 managers and practitioners in leather production and sales businesses in Tabriz during Iranian year 1396 (2017–2018).
Where can I read the original research?
The Persian source article includes a PDF with the continuation of the research. The linked document remains in its original language.
Read the original research PDF (Persian)
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