How much firms are oriented to technological innovation has been considered as a critical factor for their organizational performance. Especially, the importance of technological innovation orientation will be more highlighted in the survival and success of SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) due to their scare resource endowment and flexible organizational structure as compared with large firms. Despite its theoretical and practical use to academicians and business practitioners, the concept of technological innovation orientation has not been theoretically well established and thus has not been operationalized appropriately.
Given the aforementioned gap in prior research, this study suggested a refined conceptualization of technological innovation orientation and a new survey measurement for capturing the refined concept of technological innovation orientation. Based on the proposed conceptualization and operationalization of technological innovation orientation, this study investigated antecedent factors and performance outcomes of technological innovation orientation in Korean IT SMEs. The IT industry was selected as a target population for this study since technological innovation has actively being pursued and considered as a key factor in organizational success by most of the firms belonging to the industry.
Specifically, this study conceptualized technological innovation orientation as having three dimensions or components of technological leadership, openness to innovation, and collaboration and developed a measurement instrument consisting of 15 questionnaire items for operationalizing the three-dimensional concept of technological innovation orientation. In the theoretical model this study suggested, the variables which are expected to affect technological innovation orientation included environmental dynamism, competitive intensity, R&D capabilities, CEO's position tenure, and CEO's technical function orientation. The model also proposed that technological innovation orientation is positively related to innovation performance, whereas it positively mediates the relationship between innovation performance and financial performance rather than directly affects financial performance.
Based on a sample of 109 Korean IT SMEs, the results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, the survey measurement developed for operationalizing technological innovation orientation revealed a high reliability and validity. Especially, a factor analysis demonstrated that technological innovation orientation is composed of three components of technological leadership, openness to innovation, and collaboration. Second, environmental dynamism, competitive intensity, R&D capabilities, and CEO's technical functional orientation were positively related to technological innovation orientation, while CEO's position tenure was not associated with technological innovation orientation. Finally, the results confirmed both the technological innovation orientation's direct positive relationship with innovation performance and its mediating relationship between innovation performance and financial performance.
In conclusion, this study will be able to make some significant theoretical and methodological contribution to technological innovation research by proposing a new conceptualization and operationalization of technological innovation orientation and systematically examining contingency relationships among technological innovation orientation, antecedent factors, and firm performance based on the proposed conceptualization and operationalization of technological innovation orientation.