The Sustainability of Market Orientation from a Dynamic Perspective: The Mediation of Dynamic Capability and the Moderation of Error Management Climate

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript “The sustainability of Market Orientation from A Dynamic Perspective: The Mediation of Dynamic Capability and The Moderation of Error Management Climate” presents a topic of interest to this Journal. However, some points were highlighted as follows:

 

In the Abstract at the end, the originality of the study must be clarified.

Contextualization and research justification are well grounded in the Introduction. However, the research objective was absent in the Abstract and Introduction. This information has to part of both sections. In addition, the Introduction should present a brief description of the methods.   

The methodology asks for detail. It is not clear exactly what steps were taken for the study. I recommend making a figure that shows all the steps taken. This helps the reader to better understand the study. Moreover, information from the questionnaire applied in the interviews must be provided. Was it a semi-structured questionnaire? How was it built? How was it validation? In addition, the authors must also describe how the data were treated.

In the Results, the comments about the achieved statistical data are poor. An in-depth analysis is required.

Discussion of results needs to be developed. The is a vast literature that was not considered in the discussion. I recommend addressing a section to Discussion and other to Conclusion.  

Other comments: The citation format must be revised. Moreover, there are several citations without number in the text. English needs to be reviewed by a native speaker.

Author Response

The manuscript “The sustainability of Market Orientation from A Dynamic Perspective: The Mediation of Dynamic Capability and The Moderation of Error Management Climate” presents a topic of interest to this Journal. However, some points were highlighted as follows:

Comment 1

In the Abstract at the end, the originality of the study must be clarified.

Reply: We are very grateful to you for reading this manuscript, and thank you for pointing out this issue. Your reminder reminds us that it's important to explain the originality of the study. We have further presented and clarified this issue, as follows:

“Different from previous studies, this study aims to explain the impact of different types of market orientation on firm performance, and has two major contributions. First, it demonstrates the relation-ship between reactive, proactive market orientation and performance from a dynamic perspective, as well as the influencing mechanism. Second, the boundary conditions of market orientation are defined from the perspective of organizational culture.”

For more details, please see line 12-17. Many thanks.

 

Comment 2

Contextualization and research justification are well grounded in the Introduction. However, the research objective was absent in the Abstract and Introduction. This information has to part of both sections. In addition, the Introduction should present a brief description of the methods.

Reply: Thanks very much for this good suggestion. According to your suggestion, we have clarified research objective was absent in the Abstract and Introduction.

To express this more accurately, we have revised this issue as follows:

In the Abstract. “Different from previous studies, this study aims to explain the impact of different types of market orientation on firm performance, and has two major contributions......”

In the Introduction. “While studies in past years have confirmed the positive effect of market orientation research on the role played by proactive market orientation which proposed by Narver et al. is less developed in the rapidly changing external environment and the competitive market, and scholars stress the need to distinguish between reactive and proactive market orientation. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the mechanism of reactive and proactive market orientation on firm performance in a dynamic environment.”

“The present study analyzes the relationship between responsive, proactive market orientation and firm performance. The study has three objectives: (1) to examine the empirical relationships between responsive, proactive market orientation and financial performance, growth performance; (2) to explore the mediating effect of dynamic capability in the relationship between responsive, proactive market orientation and financial performance, growth performance; and (3) the moderating role of error management climate in the effects of responsive, proactive market orientation on financial performance, growth performance.”

References:

Hernandez-Linares, R.; Kellermanns, F.W.; Lopez-Fernandez, M.C. Dynamic capabilities and SME performance: The moderating effect of market orientation. J. Small Bus. Manag. 2021, 59, 162-195.

Abbu, H.R.; Gopalakrishna, P. Synergistic effects of market orientation implementation and internalization on firm performance: Direct marketing service provider industry. J. Bus. Res. 2021, 125, 851-863.

Aydin, H. Market orientation and product innovation: the mediating role of technological capability. Eur. J. Innov. Manag. 2020, 24, 1233-1267.

Murray, J.Y.; Gao, G.Y.; Kotabe, M. Market orientation and performance of export ventures: the process through marketing capabilities and competitive advantages. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 2011, 39, 252-269.

Narver, J.C.; Slater, S.F.; Maclachlan, D.L. Responsive and Proactive Market Orientation and New‐Product Success. J. Prod. Innov. Manage. 2004, 21, 334-347.

Jaeger, N.A.; Zacharias, N.A.; Brettel, M. Nonlinear and dynamic effects of responsive and proactive market orientation: A longitudinal investigation. Int. J. Res. Mark. 2016, 33, 767–779.

Bodlaj, M.; Cater, B. Responsive and proactive market orientation in relation to SMEs' export venture performance: The mediating role of marketing capabilities. J. Bus. Res. 2022, 138, 256-265.

For more details, please see lines 12-17, lines 41-46, lines 87-94. Many thanks.

 

Comment 3

The methodology asks for detail. It is not clear exactly what steps were taken for the study. I recommend making a figure that shows all the steps taken. This helps the reader to better understand the study. Moreover, information from the questionnaire applied in the interviews must be provided. Was it a semi-structured questionnaire? How was it built? How was it validation? In addition, the authors must also describe how the data were treated.

Reply: Thanks very much for this good suggestion, we have explained more detail about steps of data collection and questionnaire.

To express this more accurately, we have revised this issue as follows:

“In this study, we choose firms in the Yangtze River Delta region of China as the research samples. There are a number of small and medium size private enterprises and state-owned enterprises located in this region that significantly contribute to the national economy of China. Therefore, this region is appropriate for collecting data to test our model. This study focuses on the relationship of market orientation, dynamic capability, and firm performance, based on the objective, we set the following inclusion criteria, (1) the questionnaire must be completed by the person in charge or senior management of the firm, and (2) and the development of the firm is good.

Before the survey, we prepared a paper questionnaire for an offline survey and an online questionnaire for an online survey. We kept the contents of online questionnaire (a questionnaire link made by wjx.cn, one popular questionnaire tool in China) same as the offline survey for online survey. The members of the full-time Masters of Business Administration (MBA) Program and Entrepreneurship MBA (EMBA) Program at Zhejiang University were invited to participate in the offline surveys (although the subjects are MBA or EMBA program students, they are running their own businesses or working in important positions at a company), and some firms recommended by in-vestment institutions to participate in this survey, which we collected data through an online questionnaire, and the online questionnaires are consistent with offline. A total of 556 questionnaires were sent out, of which 410 subjects responded (312 online subjects and 98 offline subjects). We confirmed that these questionnaires met the requirements. First, the questionnaire must be filled in by the person in charge or senior management of the firm; Secondly, the questionnaire must be filled in completely and there are no obvious problems (e.g., all the answers are the same, or there are many unreasonable answers like the time to complete the online questionnaire was incredibly short). For online subjects, we monitored the time of the subject answered the questionnaire, and removed the fastest 5%, and the slowest 5%, who were took too long or short time, these subjects were perceived as either not taking the questions seriously, or answering randomly. Therefore, a total of 336 valid samples, 6 firms have been established for less than 2 years (1.8%), 19 firms for 2-4 years (5.7%), 44 for 4-6 years (13.1%), 62 for 6-8 years (18.5%) and 205 for more than 8 years (61%). There are 35 companies with less than 50 employees (10.4%), 42 with 51 to 100 employees (12.5%), 89 with 101 to 300 employees (26.5%), 73 with 301 to 500 employees (21.7%), and 97 with more than 500 employees (28.9%).”

For more details, please see lines 245-248, lines 250-252, lines 264-268, and the questionnaire see lines 503-560. Many thanks.

 

Comment 4

In the Results, the comments about the achieved statistical data are poor. An in-depth analysis is required.

Reply: Thanks very much for this good suggestion. But we think our analysis of the results is adequate. For the description of the data results, we put it in the results, and for the description of the corresponding of the results, we put it in the discussion section.

 

Comment 5

Discussion of results needs to be developed. The is a vast literature that was not considered in the discussion. I recommend addressing a section to Discussion and other to Conclusion.

Reply: Thanks very much for this good suggestion. According to your suggestion, we have further discussion in this part, and considered more literatures in the revised manuscript.

To express this more accurately, we have revised this issue as follows:

“First, based on the theory of competitive advantage, we make clear the influence of proactive market orientation and responsive market orientation on enterprise performance, and notice the mechanism of dynamic capability in the relationship, response to the scholars' call for research on two types market orientations.”

“First, market orientation promotes the sensitivity of the change of external environment, to be more effective and efficient than competitors in identifying and in satisfying the needs of target markets. For instance, several pieces of research have studied the effect of market orientation, market-oriented firms are willing to use effectuation logic to exploit and change when confronted with new or unexpected information in the uncertainty environment, and search market information and effectively identify the information beneficial to the company, insight into the changes of competitors and change strategies, find customer needs and develop new products, establish network, cooperative relationship with supply chain, to value co-creation, which helps firms to quickly occupy the target market, it is verified the view that market orientation can create superior performance.”

“Another worth noting is that a high-level error management climate is needed to match the proactive market orientation strategy. With the high-level error management climate, promoting individuals practice related to communicating about errors, sharing error knowledge, quickly detecting and handling errors, affects organizational members’ beliefs about what other members will report about discovered self-made errors, leading to greater reporting willingness, it is much easier to create a relaxed culture, while the low-level error management climate is more tense, forcing individuals to feel anxiety, stress, and challenging.”

New References:

Tsai, W.P. Knowledge transfer in intraorganizational networks: Effects of network position and absorptive capacity on business unit innovation and performance. Acad. Manage. J. 2001, 44, 996-1004.

Hernandez-Linares, R.; Kellermanns, F.W.; Lopez-Fernandez, M.C. Dynamic capabilities and SME performance: The moderating effect of market orientation. J. Small Bus. Manag. 2021, 59, 162-195.

Abbu, H.R.; Gopalakrishna, P. Synergistic effects of market orientation implementation and internalization on firm performance: Direct marketing service provider industry. J. Bus. Res. 2021, 125, 851-863.

Aydin, H. Market orientation and product innovation: the mediating role of technological capability. Eur. J. Innov. Manag. 2020, 24, 1233-1267.

Murray, J.Y.; Gao, G.Y.; Kotabe, M. Market orientation and performance of export ventures: the process through marketing capabilities and competitive advantages. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 2011, 39, 252-269.

van Raaij, E.M.; Stoelhorst, J.W. The implementation of a market orientation A review and integration of the contributions to date. Eur. J. Market. 2008, 42, 1265-1293.

Gupta, V.K.; Atav, G.; Dutta, D.K. Market orientation research: a qualitative synthesis and future research agenda. Rev. Manag. Sci. 2019, 13, 649-670.

Ho, K.L.P.; Nguyen, C.N.; Adhikari, R.; Miles, M.P.; Bonney, L. Exploring market orientation, innovation, and financial performance in agricultural value chains in emerging economies, J. Innov. Knowl. 2018, 3, 154-163.

Ferreira, J.; Coelho, A.; Moutinho, L. Dynamic capabilities, creativity and innovation capability and their impact on competitive advantage and firm performance: The moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation. Technovation 2020, 92-93, 1-18.

Pavlou, P.A.; El Sawy, O.A. Understanding the Elusive Black Box of Dynamic Capabilities. Decis. Sci. 2011, 42, 239-273.

Tsai, W.P. Knowledge transfer in intraorganizational networks: Effects of network position and absorptive capacity on business unit innovation and performance. Acad. Manage. J. 2001, 44, 996-1004.

Guchait, P.; Pasamehmetoglu, A.; Madera, J. Error management culture: impact on cohesion, stress, and turnover intentions. Serv. Ind. J. 2016, 36, 124-141.

Hou J.J. Toward a research model of market orientation and dynamic capabilities. Soc. Behav. Pers. 2008, 36, 1251–1268.

Gronewold, U.; Gold, A.; Salterio, S.E. Reporting Self-Made Errors: The Impact of Organizational Error-Management Climate and Error Type. J. Bus. Ethics 2013, 117, 189-208.

Acosta, A.S.; Crespo, A.H.; Agudo, J.C. Effect of market orientation, network capability and entrepreneurial orientation on international performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Int. Bus. Rev. 2018, 27, 1128-1140.

Gligor, D.; Gligor, N.; Maloni, M. The impact of the supplier's market orientation on the customer market orientation-performance relationship. Int. J. Prod. Econ. 2019, 216, 81-93.

Chuang, S.H. Facilitating the chain of market orientation to value co-creation: The mediating role of e-marketing adoption. J. Destin. Mark. Manag. 2018, 7, 39-49.

Morgan, N.A.; Vorhies, D.W.; Mason, C.H. Market orientation, marketing capabilities, and firm performance. Strateg. Manage. J. 2009, 30, 909-920.

For more details, please see lines 412, 413, lines 418-421, lines 423, 424, lines 461-464. Many thanks.

 

Other comments

The citation format must be revised. Moreover, there are several citations without number in the text. English needs to be reviewed by a native speaker.

Reply: Thank you for pointing out this issue, we check all references, and have made sure the articles are cited in the text is consistent with the editorial requirements in the revised manuscript.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The article deals with the important problem The Sustainability of Market Orientation from A Dynamic Perspective. A particular focus was on The Mediation of Dynamic Capability and The Moderation of Error Management Climate.

The undertaken issue of companies' market orientation is very important in a dynamically changing environment.

In my opinion, it has not been sufficiently pointed out that the subject matter of the manuscript corresponds to the scope of the journal Sustainability. I understand that taking various actions by management and actively adapting them to the dynamically changing environment is to ensure a long and stable life of the company. Therefore, it would be worth referring to sustainability as sustainable development. For this purpose, I propose to analyze the different ways of defining sustainable development. Such issues can be found, among others in the article Sustainable Development According to the Opinions of Polish Experts. Energies 2021, 14, 5325 or many others. You can also query previously published articles in Sustainability or other journals. Such a reference to the ways of defining sustainable development will also expand the theoretical part of the article, which is currently quite poor.

The way of presenting hypotheses is not fully understandable to me. They are formulated in pairs. The only differences between the hypotheses in the individual pairs are individual words. I propose to explain it better.

Please explain why on page 7 it says that hypothesis 3 was partially confirmed and on page 8 that it was confirmed?

Make sure that the figures fit within the page margins. In the case of figure 1 it is not so (page 5) and it should be corrected.

A space (space) should be put in front of the parentheses. This is missing from the manuscript in many places, e.g. pages 5, 6, 8.

Numbers appear at the end of sentences in several places in the text (e.g. lines 172, 176). This may suggest that it is a quotation. In its present form, however, it is incorrectly stated. This should absolutely be corrected.

The method of citing articles by other authors in the text is inconsistent with the editorial requirements.

There are incorrectly cited references on pages 3 and 6. This should absolutely be corrected.

Most of the cited items are related to the subject analyzed in the manuscript. Quite a lot of items come from China, and as many as 15 out of 57 items have been published in Chinese. This is partially understandable (due to the significant role of China in the global economy), but it is also worth extending the analysis to include cases from other countries. It also makes it somewhat difficult to evaluate the content of the cited literature by the international community. I also have reservations about the scale of using the literature on the subject. I believe that the number of items is too small. It should be completed. I indicated some suggestions in the earlier part of the review. References to the literature are particularly missing in the part “Results” of the manuscript. There is no reference to the subject literature in Chapter 4. Also in the next chapter (5. Conclusions and discussion) a relatively limited number of bibliographic footnotes is included. It needs to be corrected.

The list of references is formatted according to editorial requirements.

After the above-mentioned corrections have been made, the article can be transferred to the next stages of the editorial process.

Author Response

The article deals with the important problem The Sustainability of Market Orientation from A Dynamic Perspective. A particular focus was on The Mediation of Dynamic Capability and The Moderation of Error Management Climate.

The undertaken issue of companies' market orientation is very important in a dynamically changing environment.

Reply: We am very grateful to you for your reading of this manuscript and and your agreement with this research. Moreover, we consider your comments very valuable to improve the manuscript. For your convenience, we have provided your original comments in italics, followed by our response.

 

Comment 1

In my opinion, it has not been sufficiently pointed out that the subject matter of the manuscript corresponds to the scope of the journal Sustainability. I understand that taking various actions by management and actively adapting them to the dynamically changing environment is to ensure a long and stable life of the company. Therefore, it would be worth referring to sustainability as sustainable development. For this purpose, I propose to analyze the different ways of defining sustainable development. Such issues can be found, among others in the article Sustainable Development According to the Opinions of Polish Experts. Energies 2021, 14, 5325 or many others. You can also query previously published articles in Sustainability or other journals. Such a reference to the ways of defining sustainable development will also expand the theoretical part of the article, which is currently quite poor.

Reply: We are very grateful for your suggestions of the literature review of the manuscript. As for the word "sustainable development" in the article, we chose to replace it with "sustainable competitive advantage", and the reasons as following:

(a) We think the word "sustainable development" in the manuscript is not clear enough. In the dynamically changing environment, enterprises need to consider adapting to the changing environment, ensuring long-term survival and making profits, that is, development, and the key factors is competitive advantage, it is more accurately expresses the meaning of what we want to express and makes it easier for readers to understand.

(b) The words “sustainable competitive advantage” was also used in a literature on Sustainability published in 2019, and was clearly defined in this paper, and we have cited the article in the revised manuscript，making it easier for readers to understand.

 

Comment 2

The way of presenting hypotheses is not fully understandable to me. They are formulated in pairs. The only differences between the hypotheses in the individual pairs are individual words. I propose to explain it better.

Reply: We are very grateful for your suggestion, the hypotheses are explained in more detail.

To express this more accurately, we have revised this issue as follows:

“H1: Firms with higher reactive market orientation will be more sensitive to market information and competitor information, and are more likely to recognize the expressed needs of customers and make respond than firms with lower reactive market orientation, which has a positive effect on financial performance and growth performance.”

“H2: Firms with stronger proactive market orientation are sensitive to potential needs of customers, is conducive to the development of new markets and products, which has a positive effect on financial performance and growth performance.”

“H3: Dynamic capability mediates the relationship between reactive market orientation and financial performance, growth performance, such that higher reactive market orientation has a positive indirect effect on financial performance and growth performance.”

“H4: Dynamic capability mediates the relationship between proactive market orientation and financial performance, growth performance, such that higher proactive market orientation has a positive indirect effect on financial performance and growth performance.”

“H5: Error management climate and reactive market orientation will interact in their effect on financial performance and growth performance, such that positive relationship between reactive market orientation and financial performance, growth performance will be more positive for firms with high error management climate than low error management climate.”

“H6: Error management climate and proactive market orientation will interact in their effect on financial performance and growth performance, such that positive relationship between proactive market orientation and financial performance, growth performance will be more positive for firms with high error management climate than low error management climate.”

For more details, please see lines 132-138, lines 186-191, 229-236. Many thanks.

 

Comment 3

Please explain why on page 7 it says that hypothesis 3 was partially confirmed and on page 8 that it was confirmed?

Reply: Thank you for pointing out this issue, we have deleted the word “partially” on the page 7, and the reason as following:

We think we were wrong to mention the word " partially”" in the manuscript. In the manuscript, we have explained that the " suppressing effect" is an indirect benefit, and cited literatures to support this view.

 

Comment 4

Make sure that the figures fit within the page margins. In the case of figure 1 it is not so (page 5) and it should be corrected.

Reply: We are very grateful for your suggestion, we have made figure 1 fit within the page margins in the revised manuscript, and also check the figure 2 and figure 3.

 

Comment 5

A space (space) should be put in front of the parentheses. This is missing from the manuscript in many places, e.g. pages 5, 6, 8.

Reply: Thank you for pointing out this issue, we check all parentheses, and put a space in front of the parentheses in the revised manuscript, a total of 34 changes were made.

 

Comment 6

Numbers appear at the end of sentences in several places in the text (e.g. lines 172, 176). This may suggest that it is a quotation. In its present form, however, it is incorrectly stated. This should absolutely be corrected.

Reply: We appreciate you pointing out these errors, we have made many changes to correct these errors in the revised manuscript.

 

Comment 7

The method of citing articles by other authors in the text is inconsistent with the editorial requirements.

Reply: Thank you for pointing out this issue, we check all references, and have made sure the articles are cited in the text is consistent with the editorial requirements in the revised manuscript.

 

Comment 8

There are incorrectly cited references on pages 3 and 6. This should absolutely be corrected.

Reply: Thank you for pointing out this issue, we check all references, and have corrected in the revised manuscript.

 

Comment 9

Most of the cited items are related to the subject analyzed in the manuscript. Quite a lot of items come from China, and as many as 15 out of 57 items have been published in Chinese. This is partially understandable (due to the significant role of China in the global economy), but it is also worth extending the analysis to include cases from other countries. It also makes it somewhat difficult to evaluate the content of the cited literature by the international community. I also have reservations about the scale of using the literature on the subject. I believe that the number of items is too small. It should be completed. I indicated some suggestions in the earlier part of the review. References to the literature are particularly missing in the part “Results” of the manuscript. There is no reference to the subject literature in Chapter 4. Also in the next chapter (5. Conclusions and discussion) a relatively limited number of bibliographic footnotes is included. It needs to be corrected.

Reply: Thanks very much for this good suggestion. According to your suggestion, we have further discussion in this part, and considered more literatures in the revised manuscript. In addition, we have replaced most of the Chinese literature with English literature, which is more helpful for readers to read.

To express this more accurately, we have revised this issue as follows:

“First, based on the theory of competitive advantage, we make clear the influence of proactive market orientation and responsive market orientation on enterprise performance, and notice the mechanism of dynamic capability in the relationship, response to the scholars' call for research on two types market orientations.”

“First, market orientation promotes the sensitivity of the change of external environment, to be more effective and efficient than competitors in identifying and in satisfying the needs of target markets. For instance, several pieces of research have studied the effect of market orientation, market-oriented firms are willing to use effectuation logic to exploit and change when confronted with new or unexpected information in the uncertainty environment, and search market information and effectively identify the information beneficial to the company, insight into the changes of competitors and change strategies, find customer needs and develop new products, establish network, cooperative relationship with supply chain, to value co-creation, which helps firms to quickly occupy the target market, it is verified the view that market orientation can create superior performance.”

“Another worth noting is that a high-level error management climate is needed to match the proactive market orientation strategy. With the high-level error management climate, promoting individuals practice related to communicating about errors, sharing error knowledge, quickly detecting and handling errors, affects organizational members’ beliefs about what other members will report about discovered self-made errors, leading to greater reporting willingness, it is much easier to create a relaxed culture, while the low-level error management climate is more tense, forcing individuals to feel anxiety, stress, and challenging.”

For more details, please see lines 412, 413, lines 418-421, lines 423, 424, lines 461-464. Many thanks.

New References:

Tsai, W.P. Knowledge transfer in intraorganizational networks: Effects of network position and absorptive capacity on business unit innovation and performance. Acad. Manage. J. 2001, 44, 996-1004.

Hernandez-Linares, R.; Kellermanns, F.W.; Lopez-Fernandez, M.C. Dynamic capabilities and SME performance: The moderating effect of market orientation. J. Small Bus. Manag. 2021, 59, 162-195.

Abbu, H.R.; Gopalakrishna, P. Synergistic effects of market orientation implementation and internalization on firm performance: Direct marketing service provider industry. J. Bus. Res. 2021, 125, 851-863.

Aydin, H. Market orientation and product innovation: the mediating role of technological capability. Eur. J. Innov. Manag. 2020, 24, 1233-1267.

Murray, J.Y.; Gao, G.Y.; Kotabe, M. Market orientation and performance of export ventures: the process through marketing capabilities and competitive advantages. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 2011, 39, 252-269.

van Raaij, E.M.; Stoelhorst, J.W. The implementation of a market orientation A review and integration of the contributions to date. Eur. J. Market. 2008, 42, 1265-1293.

Gupta, V.K.; Atav, G.; Dutta, D.K. Market orientation research: a qualitative synthesis and future research agenda. Rev. Manag. Sci. 2019, 13, 649-670.

Ho, K.L.P.; Nguyen, C.N.; Adhikari, R.; Miles, M.P.; Bonney, L. Exploring market orientation, innovation, and financial performance in agricultural value chains in emerging economies, J. Innov. Knowl. 2018, 3, 154-163.

Ferreira, J.; Coelho, A.; Moutinho, L. Dynamic capabilities, creativity and innovation capability and their impact on competitive advantage and firm performance: The moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation. Technovation 2020, 92-93, 1-18.

Pavlou, P.A.; El Sawy, O.A. Understanding the Elusive Black Box of Dynamic Capabilities. Decis. Sci. 2011, 42, 239-273.

Tsai, W.P. Knowledge transfer in intraorganizational networks: Effects of network position and absorptive capacity on business unit innovation and performance. Acad. Manage. J. 2001, 44, 996-1004.

Guchait, P.; Pasamehmetoglu, A.; Madera, J. Error management culture: impact on cohesion, stress, and turnover intentions. Serv. Ind. J. 2016, 36, 124-141.

Hou J.J. Toward a research model of market orientation and dynamic capabilities. Soc. Behav. Pers. 2008, 36, 1251–1268.

Gronewold, U.; Gold, A.; Salterio, S.E. Reporting Self-Made Errors: The Impact of Organizational Error-Management Climate and Error Type. J. Bus. Ethics 2013, 117, 189-208.

Acosta, A.S.; Crespo, A.H.; Agudo, J.C. Effect of market orientation, network capability and entrepreneurial orientation on international performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Int. Bus. Rev. 2018, 27, 1128-1140.

Gligor, D.; Gligor, N.; Maloni, M. The impact of the supplier's market orientation on the customer market orientation-performance relationship. Int. J. Prod. Econ. 2019, 216, 81-93.

Chuang, S.H. Facilitating the chain of market orientation to value co-creation: The mediating role of e-marketing adoption. J. Destin. Mark. Manag. 2018, 7, 39-49.

Morgan, N.A.; Vorhies, D.W.; Mason, C.H. Market orientation, marketing capabilities, and firm performance. Strateg. Manage. J. 2009, 30, 909-920.

 

Comment 10

The list of references is formatted according to editorial requirements.

Reply: Thank you for pointing out this issue, we check all references, and have made sure the articles are cited in the text is consistent with the editorial requirements in the revised manuscript.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

1. Financial performance is confidential, especially for those SME. Author argued that these data are obtained from questionnaire from MBA/EMBA students. How to guarantee the integrity and reliability of these data? 2. Also, authors only argue that eight items were utilized to evaluate firm performance. Are firm performance, new venture performance, financial performance the same concept? What are the differences? 3. Besides these eight items that are utilized to evaluate firm performance, different corresponding items that evaluate different indicators should be listed clearly. 4. Generally, firm performance might be affected by different factors. In this study, market orientation, dynamic capability as well as error management climate are reckoned. Are there any other factors should be paid attention practically? Authors are suggested to summarize a list of possible factors and analyze their potential influence on firm performance

Author Response

We are very grateful to you for your reading of this manuscript and your agreement with this research. Moreover, we consider your comments very valuable to improve the manuscript. For your convenience, we have provided your original comments in italics, followed by our response.

Comment 1

Financial performance is confidential, especially for those SME. Author argued that these data are obtained from questionnaire from MBA/EMBA students. How to guarantee the integrity and reliability of these data?

Reply: Thank you for pointing out this issue. This study focuses on the relationship of market orientation, dynamic capability, and firm performance, based on the objective, we set the following inclusion criteria, (1) the questionnaire must be completed by the person in charge or senior management of the firm, and (2) and the development of the firm is good. And we used the questionnaire to measure the financial, detail can be seen lines 503-560, it is a common and accepted approach in management research. However, we have to admit that this method has some disadvantages. For example, as you said, the integrity and reliability of these data. It is difficult to obtain the real financial data of these enterprises, and the profitability of different types of industries cannot use the same standard. We look forward to a better solution, however, solving this disadvantage is not the focus of this study.

 

Comment 2

Also, authors only argue that eight items were utilized to evaluate firm performance. Are firm performance, new venture performance, financial performance the same concept? What are the differences?

Reply: Thank you for pointing out this issue, we think we were wrong to mention the words in the manuscript, and have deleted the words “new venture performance”. In our manuscript, there is only financial performance and growth performance.

 

Comment 3

Besides these eight items that are utilized to evaluate firm performance, different corresponding items that evaluate different indicators should be listed clearly.

Reply: Thanks very much for this good suggestion. According to your suggestion, we gave details about the performance items:

Appendix A.5. Financial performance

1. Compared with other companies in the industry, our company has a high net profit margin.
2. Compared with other companies in the industry, our company has a good market position.
3. Compared with other companies in the industry, our company has a good return on investment.
4. Compared with other companies in the industry, our company has a good return on sales.

Appendix A.6. Growth performance

1. Compared with other companies in the industry, our company's sales are growing faster.
2. Compared with other companies in the industry, our company's net income is growing at a faster rate.
3. Compared with other companies in the industry, our company's market share is growing faster.
4. Compared with other companies in the industry, the growth rate of the number of employees in our company is faster.

For more details, please see lines 503-560. Many thanks.

 

Comment 4

Generally, firm performance might be affected by different factors. In this study, market orientation, dynamic capability as well as error management climate are reckoned. Are there any other factors should be paid attention practically? Authors are suggested to summarize a list of possible factors and analyze their potential influence on firm performance.

Reply: Thank you for pointing out this issue. We hope that more conclusions can be drawn in the study to help the managers of enterprises. However, we are concerned that this will lead to a loss of focus and a better explanation of our research objectives, conclusions and contributions. Therefore, in the Introduction, we re-elaborate the research objectives and research problems of this study：

“The present study analyzes the relationship between responsive, proactive market orientation and firm performance. The study has three objectives: (1) to examine the empirical relationships between responsive, proactive market orientation and financial performance, growth performance; (2) to explore the mediating effect of dynamic capability in the relationship between responsive, proactive market orientation and financial performance, growth performance; and (3) the moderating role of error management climate in the effects of responsive, proactive market orientation on financial performance, growth performance.”

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The corrections made improved the scientific approach and the understanding of the study. Most of the review's comments have been taken into account in the revised version. In my opinion, the manuscript is ready for publication.

Reviewer 3 Report

Generally, authors reply my concerns properly and many efforts were paid on the revision of the manuscript. I have no more questions. Thank you!