Exploring the link between market orientation and innovation in the European and US insurance markets

Despite the increasing research importance of market orientation concept in the marketing literature, few comparative studies between Europe and U.S. have been conducted. Consequently, this void limits the understanding of marketing orientation strategy in global markets. The empirical study reported in this article investigates (a) the influence of competitive environments on the understanding and uses of market orientation in insurance flrms in Europe and U.S. and (b) the effects of market orientation on firms innovativeness. The results not only provide empirical support of the concept of market orientation as defmed in the literature, but also expands it

Exploring the link between market orientation and innovation in the European and US insurance markets.

Despite the increasing research importance of market orientation in the marketing literature, few comparative studies between the European Union and the USA have been conducted. This limits the understanding of marketing orientation strategy in global markets. Investigates the influence of competitive environments on the uses of market orientation in insurance firms in the EU and the USA and the effects of market orientation on innovations. Using Lambin's conceptualization of market orientation, our results indicate that, although EU and US insurance firms analyze and react to their environment differently, which in turn is reflected in a differential impact on their degree of innovation, this, however, does not translate into overall market orientation differences across markets, differential relations across markets between overall market orientation and innovation degree and innovation performance. Furthermore, there is a positive impact of overall market orientation on insurance firms' innovation degree and innovation performance in both the US and EU markets. The managerial implications of these findings seem clear: the magnitude and the effectiveness of the innovation activities of a firm can be enhanced through the adoption of market orientation principlesMarket orientation; Innovation; Global marketing; Insurance companies;

Market orientation and business economic performance : a mediational model

Previous studies have found that market orientation significantly predicts economic performance. The present study attempts to provide a necessarily partial model for how this impact takes place using innovation degree, innovation performance and customer loyalty as intermediate variables. The study targets the insurance industry in the European Union. Our sample accounted for 22 % of the companies and 17 % of the insurance premiums in this market. Our results suggests that the addition of these variables improves our predictions of objective economic performance over what is explained by market orientation alone. Furthermore, we found that the effects of market orientation on economic performance are completely channeled (mediated) through these variables, particularly through innovation degree and innovation performance

Measuring market orientation in several populations : a structural equations model.

Most researchers have studied economic performance linked to market orientation, while a lesser interest has been shown in validating this construct’s measure. We present a study of market orientation designed to obtain a valid measure of the market orientation construct. After presenting a theoretical model of market orientation, it is applied to investigate the usefulness of this construct in insurance companies of two European countries. Key features of the research methodology include several rounds of pretesting, multiple informant assessment, and a covariance structure procedure to show the structural validity of a measure of market orientation. The results show that the measure proposed is represented by a factorial structure that can be interpreted as an overall market orientation factor in both populations and a country-specific additional factor.Belgium; Insurance companies; Market orientation; Marketing; Spain; Strategy;

Exploring the link between market orientation and innovation in the European and US insurance markets

Despite the increasing research importance of market orientation in the marketing literature, few comparative studies between the European Union and the USA have been conducted. This limits the understanding of marketing orientation strategy in global markets. Investigates the influence of competitive environments on the uses of market orientation in insurance firms in the EU and the USA and the effects of market orientation on innovations. Using Lambin's conceptualization of market orientation, our results indicate that, although EU and US insurance firms analyze and react to their environment differently, which in turn is reflected in a differential impact on their degree of innovation, this, however, does not translate into overall market orientation differences across markets, differential relations across markets between overall market orientation and innovation degree and innovation performance. Furthermore, there is a positive impact of overall market orientation on insurance firms' innovation degree and innovation performance in both the US and EU markets. The managerial implications of these findings seem clear: the magnitude and the effectiveness of the innovation activities of a firm can be enhanced through the adoption of market orientation principlesThis research was partially supported by DGESIC, project PB97 0084Publicad

Some remarks on estimating a covariance structure model from a sample correlation matrix

A popular model in structural equation modeling involves a multivariate normal density with a structured covariance matrix that has been categorized according to a set of thresholds. In this setup one may estimate the covariance structure parameters from the sample tetrachoricl polychoric correlations but only if the covariance structure is scale invariant. Doing so when the covariance structure is not scale invariant results in estimating a more restricted covariance structure than the one intended. When the covariance structure is not scale invariant, then the model parameters must be estimated jointly from the sample thresholds and tetrachoricl polychoric correlations. In general, when fitting a covariance structure from a sample correlation matrix one should consider the population correlation structure under the null hypothesis. This is obtained by pre and post-multiplying the covariance structure by a diagonal matrix consisting of the inverse of the square root of the diagonal of the covariance structure under consideration. We provide computer algebra code for assessing whether a covariance structure is scale invariant and for assessing the identification of threshold and correlation structures

Understanding the role of attitude components in co-branding: an application to high-tech, luxury co-branded products

This study addresses co-branding between firms belonging to unrelated value chains –high-tech products and luxury brands (HLCPs) – to explore how consumers? attitude drive the success of HLCPs. The study applies the tri-component attitude model (as opposed to attitude as a whole) that uses affect and cognition to predict purchase intention of co-branded products. Cultural differences (Spanish and Taiwanese) in consumers? behavior are also assessed. Data collected in a survey show that Spanish and Taiwanese consumers adopt different purchasing processes: while Spanish consumers place more importance on product-related thoughts and follow a Feel-Learn-Do sequence in purchasing HLCPs, Taiwanese consumers follow a Learn-Feel-Do purchasing process.Co-branding, Attitude, Affect/cognition, High-tech, Luxury, Cross-cultural

Assessing measurement invariance in questionnaires within latent trait models using item response theory

Using questionnaires or inventories. researchers often perform mean comparisons between different populations (e.g .• males vs. females) in order to draw inferences about actual differences in the constructs being measured. However, such comparisons are not meaningful unless the assessments obtained in each of the populations are conmesurable or invariant across populations. Most researchers simply assume that measuremnt invariance holds. However, the extent to which this assumption is a reasonable one for specific measures and specific populations should be tested empirically. Using item response theory, the present study shows how gender measurement invariance can be determined when. as is most common, a psychological construct is assessed by means of a questionnaire or inventory composed of categorical items. To illustrate our method, the Positive Problem Orientation scale of the Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised (D' Zurilla. Nezu & Maydeu-Olivares, 1996) was assessed and found to be reasonably gender invariant. whereas the Negative Problem Orientation scale was not

Modelling market orientanon : a structural equation approach

Most researchers have studied economic performance linked to market orientation, while a lesser interest has been shown in validating this construct's measure. We present a study of market orientation designed to obtain a valid measure of the market orientation construct. After presenting a theoretical model of market orientation, it is applied to investigate the usefulness of this construct in insurance companies of two European countries. Key features ofthe research methodology include several rounds of pretesting, multiple informant assessment, and a covariance structure procedure to show the structural validity of a measure of market orientation. The results show that the measure proposed is represented by a factorial structure that can be interpreted as an overall market orientation factor in both populations and a country specific additional factor

Impacto de la orientación al mercado en la intensidad y el éxito de la innovación

El objetivo de este trabajo es estudiar empíricamente la relación entre orientación al mercado (OM) e innovación utilizando una muestra representativa de empresas aseguradoras europeas. Para ello, se analiza los efectos del grado de OM en (a) el grado o intensidad en la innovación y (b) en el éxito de los nuevos productos. Los resultados indican que existe un impacto positivo y significativo de la orientación al mercado en el éxtio de la innovación. Sin embargo, esta relación no es directa, sino que está mediatizada por el grado de innovación. El modelo contrastado explica el 63 % de la varianza del éxito en la innovació