Increasing awareness of anthropogenic impacts on the planet has lead to efforts to reduce negative environmental impacts in product development for several decades. Benefits to companies who focus on sustainability initiatives have been put forth more recently, leading to many efforts to incorporate sustainability considerations in their product innovation processes. The majority of current sustainability considerations in industry constrain design space by emphasizing reduced material and energy flows across the product’s life cycle. However, there is also an opportunity to use awareness of sustainability to bring attention to new facets of design space and to drive innovation. Specifically there is an opportunity for product-service systems (PSS) to be a vehicle through which sustainability-driven innovation occurs. A framework for strategic sustainable development (FSSD) provides the basis for understanding sustainability in this work, and provides clarity with regard to how to think about sustainable products and service innovations. The “backcasting” approach included in this framework also provides insight into how incremental and radical approaches could be aligned within the product innovation working environment. This thesis explores how sustainability considerations can be better integrated into existing product innovation working environments in order to drive innovation processes within firms, with a specific emphasis on opportunities that occur as sustainability knowledge leads to innovation through a product-service system approach. It endeavors to contribute to both theory development within the emerging sustainable PSS design research area, and also to advance the state of practice within industry by connecting dots between the state of theory and the state of practice. Society’s opportunity to become more sustainable and industry’s desire for innovation in order to lead to or increase profitability are often in conflict. However, this thesis argues that knowledge of global social and ecological sustainability can be used to drive innovation processes, and that there are win-win opportunities that can often be achieved through a PSS approach. There is some, but not sufficient, support for the inclusion of sustainability considerations in the product innovation process, and even fewer tools to support the use of sustainability to drive innovation. In response, an approach to providing support that brings together the FSSD and various approaches to systems modeling and simulation is presented. Opportunities to use sustainability-friendly attributes of existing products through a PSS-approach are also presented.

Innovation is a crucial activity to ensure companies’ viability and is increasingly important to sustain competitive advantage. Globalization and the accelerating technological development are creating new markets previously not explored. Companies’ capability to execute New Product development (NPD) under these circumstances is limited since this is a new setting for most companies. Literature reveals that developing highly innovative products entails higher potential of economic growth and this incentivizes companies to explore opportunities in unfamiliar markets. It is also previously empirical shown that the NPD process for products targeting unfamiliar respectively familiar markets should differ due to their varying nature. Despite this, companies tend to use the same NPD processes regardless of the market situation which furthermore can hinder companies from succeeding with innovations targeting unfamiliar markets. Considering this, the purpose of this thesis is to explore and identify which aspects within the execution of the NPD process that enable respectively inhibit companies to achieve commercial success in markets of different characteristics. To investigate this, a multiple case study was conducted at a Swedish manufacturer of industrial machines. Two cases representing unfamiliar respectively familiar markets were studied through employee interviews, observations, reading internal documents and informal meetings. The study was conducted with an abductive approach, investigating the empirical reality and existing literature simultaneously. The result of this study reveals aspects that are challenging for companies to contemplate when executing NPD in unfamiliar markets and how it contrasts to the conditions for familiar markets. Raising companies’ awareness of this enables them to be better equipped for executing NPD under unfamiliar market conditions. The main challenges concluded are allocation of human resources and competency utilization, deficient collection of market and customer information, and insufficient communication routines. Moreover, companies fail to evaluate the potential and risk of innovations and have a hard time developing and implementing an NPD process that supports both structure and flexibility in markets with different characteristics. The biggest difference with NPD for unfamiliar market is the level of uncertainty. The challenge of understanding the customer needs and the competitors becomes more tangible for unfamiliar markets, and further places agreat demand on a working communication system, flexibility, cross-functionality, good risk assessment and well-defined product requirements. / Innovation är avgörande för att säkerställa företagens lönsamhet och blir allt viktigare för att upprätthålla konkurrenskraft. Globaliseringen och den accelererande tekniska utvecklingen skapar nya marknader som tidigare inte utforskats. Företagens förmåga att genomföra utveckling av nya produkter (NPD) under dessa omständigheter är begränsade eftersom detta är en ny miljö för de flesta företag. Litteratur visar att utveckling av mycket innovativa produkter skapar större potential för ekonomisk tillväxt och detta uppmuntrar företag att utforska möjligheter i okända marknader. Det är också tidigare empiriskt visat att NPD-processen för produkter som riktar sig mot okända respektive kända marknader bör skilja sig åt på grund av deras varierande karaktär. Trots detta tenderar företag att använda samma NPD-processer oavsett marknadssituation, vilket dessutom kan hindra företag från att lyckas med innovationer som riktar sig mot okända marknader. Med bakgrund i detta är syftet med detta examensarbete att utforska och identifiera vilka aspekter inom genomförandet av NPD-processen som gör det möjligt, respektive hämmar för företag att nå kommersiell framgång på marknader med olika karakteristik. För att undersöka detta genomfördesen fallstudie hos en svensk tillverkare av industrimaskiner. Två fall som representerade okänd respektive känd marknad studerades genom intervjuer, observationer, läsning av interna dokument och informella möten. Studien genomfördes med ett abduktivt tillvägagångssätt, som undersökte den empiriska verkligheten och befintlig litteratur samtidigt. Resultatet av denna studie identifierar aspekter som är utmanande för företag när de utför NPD i okända marknader och hur detta kontrasterar mot förhållandena i kända marknader. Genom att öka företags medvetenhet om detta kan de bli bättre rustade för att utföra NPD under olika marknadsförhållanden. De främsta utmaningarna som har identifierats är allokering av personalresurser och kompetensutnyttjande, bristfällig insamling av marknads- och kundinformation samt otillräckliga kommunikationsrutiner. Dessutom misslyckas ofta företag med att utvärdera innovationers potential och risk, och har svårt att utveckla och implementera en NPD-process som stödjer både struktur och flexibilitet i marknader med olika egenskaper. Den största skillnaden med NPD i okända marknader är nivån av osäkerhet. Utmaningen att förstå kundernas behov och konkurrenterna blir mer påtaglig i okända marknader och ställer vidare stora krav på ett fungerande kommunikationssystem, flexibilitet, tvärfunktionalitet, riskbedömning och väldefinierade produktkrav.

Divergence of new and old technologies is a source of tremendous innovation potential. As the dizzying pace of technological innovation accelerates indefinitely into tomorrow, not only do new paths diverge exponentially; doors already opened are increasingly abandoned for the allure of things undiscovered. Mature, late-stage life-cycle products left behind in today's fast-paced world open the floodgates to reinvention. This paper tests the hypothesis that innovativeness can be encouraged through the learning and application of universal innovation principles and processes. The implications of this research area are far-reaching. If innovation can be encouraged, then it can likely be taught. If it can be taught, then it can be systematized. More pervasive systematic innovation will accelerate change in the world. Individuals and organizations that master this kind of innovation will gain tremendous competitive advantages. The more people innovate, the more opportunities to innovate there will be. Creativity begets creativity. The microcosm studied in this thesis -- that of discontinuous innovation applied to mature products -- underscores the promise of potential far grander. If innovators, whether in small businesses or large corporations, seeking to capitalize on existing products with proven demand can combine innovation with iteration to consistently produce value for product stakeholders, what could they do to disrupt products as we know them? How many new product categories would emerge? Finally, if ordinary people everywhere began seeing themselves as and acting like innovators, what would stop any of us from changing the world? This paper distills existing and original theories of innovation into a new model called Innovation Harmony. The Innovation Harmony model details four crucial aspects of innovation, which are 1) Harmonize the views of stakeholders, 2) Understand the principles of innovation, 3) Create a creative environment, and 4) Apply the principles of innovation (follow a methodology). The paper concludes with a summary of a case study conducted at Brigham Young University, wherein 17 students attempted to reinvent the conventional Waffle Iron in a controlled environment. Their innovations are presented in the Appendix. Relevant analysis and recommendations are discussed in conclusion.

Целью исследования является разработка методического подхода и рекомендаций для более эффективного определения потенциальных потребителей продукта инновационного проекта в строительной сфере. Предметом – организационно-управленческая деятельность по поиску потенциальных потребителей продукта инновационного проекта. В качестве методологического инструментария в данной работе использовались маркетинговые инструменты, а также инструменты проектного управления. Для решения поставленных задач применялись методы ранжирования и прогнозирования, экспертный и логические методы, обобщения, группировки, а также табличные и графические методы представления полученных результатов. / The aim of the study is to develop a methodological approach and recommendations for more effective identification of potential consumers of the product of an innovative project in the construction industry. The subject is organizational and management activities to find potential consumers of the product of an innovative project. As a methodological toolkit in this work, we used marketing tools, as well as project management tools. To solve the set tasks, ranking and forecasting methods, expert and logical methods, generalizations, groupings, as well as tabular and graphical methods for presenting the results were used.

In complex and fast-paced times, management of innovation is suggested to explain the success of an organization, making managing innovation an important topic in strategy, organization and innovation literature. At the same time, the demand for customized solutions is increasing and the customers are becoming more important. A current example of an industry under transformational pressure experiencing this is the materials manufacturing and packaging industry, which this study addresses.  The combined need of increased research within the areas of innovation capabilities, innovation in a low-to-medium technology context and customization makes it difficult to know what innovation strategy to use in order to support customization. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the process of product innovation in a fast-changing market can be managed in order to support customization. Data were collected through a qualitative single case study approach, where semi-structured interviews were conducted within the meal kit and online grocery industry, as well as from different areas within the packaging solutions division within a large incumbent materials and packaging manufacturing company.  The findings indicate that the more a manufacturing provider is able to integrate and coexist an innovation with individual customer's values and needs, the greater is the prospect for adoption. Involving customers also works to better handle fast changing markets and react to changing customer needs. There are possibilities for a manufacturing firm to charge premium prices for customized solutions if the perceived relative advantage is strong enough. Furthermore, the findings in this study indicate the importance of involving the production in an early stage of the product innovation process to ensure that the product is producible and diminish the risk that a new product will be unprofitable. Also, increasing the dialogue between the different functions could enable the organization to work proactively with complementing the current product portfolio with profitable products and counteract the negative consequences of customization. / I komplexa tider med snabba förändringar föreslås innovationsledning kunna förklara framgång för en organisation. Detta gör innovation till ett viktigt ämne inom strategi- , organisations- och innovationslitteratur. Samtidigt ökar efterfrågan på kundanpassade lösningar och kunderna blir allt viktigare. Ett aktuellt exempel på en industri under transformationstryck som upplever detta är materialtillverknings- och förpackningsindustrin, vilken denna studie behandlar.  Det kombinerade behovet av ökad forskning inom områdena innovationsförmåga, innovation för låg-till medelteknologiska företag samt kundanpassning gör det svårt att veta vilken innovationsstrategi som ska användas för att stödja kundanpassade lösningar. Syftet med detta examensarbete är därför att undersöka hur processen för produktinnovation i en snabbt föränderlig marknad kan hanteras för att stödja erbjudandet av kundanpassning. Data samlades in genom en kvalitativ fallstudie, där intervjuer genomfördes inom matkasse och den digitala livsmedelsindustrin samt från olika områden inom förpackningslösningsdivisionen inom ett stort tillverkningsföretag för material och förpackningar.  Resultaten visar att ju mer en tillverkare kan integrera och samexistera en innovation med enskilda kunders värderingar och behov, desto större är möjligheterna för användning av dessa lösningar. Att involvera kunder fungerar också för att bättre hantera föränderliga marknader och reagera på förändrade kundbehov. Det finns möjligheter för ett tillverkningsföretag att ta ut premiumpriser för skräddarsydda lösningar, om den upplevda relativa fördelen är tillräckligt stark. Vidare visar resultaten i denna studie vikten av att involvera produktionen i ett tidigt skede av produktinnovationsprocessen för att säkerställa att produkten är producerad och minska risken för att en ny produkt blir olönsam. Att öka dialogen mellan de olika funktionerna kan också göra det möjligt för organisationen att arbeta proaktivt med att komplettera den nuvarande produktportföljen med lönsamma produkter och motverka de negativa effekterna av kundanpassade lösningar.

This thesis examines product innovation processes in small established enterprises. The research questions are: (1) what motivates small established enterprises to innovate, (2) how do small established enterprises perform product innovation, and (3) how do small established enterprises manage resource scarcity in their product innovation processes? To answer the research questions, a multiple case study approach was chosen with three small established enterprises as cases and different product innovation processes as embedded units of study. The data collection method used was observation during a period of five months, complemented by interviews and secondary data. Product innovation in small established enterprises seems to be motivated by solving existing customers’ problems and the need for a sustained steady cash flow. A steady cash flow is also found to be a prerequisite during the product innovation processes. Product innovation seems to occur when there is a risk of decreased cash flow and/or when existing customers can be satisfied with new products that increase their loyalty so as to secure future sales, cash flow, and the enterprise’s survival in the long run. Promising innovation ideas alone do not result in product innovation. An innovation idea must also have supportive existing customers for product innovation to occur. Product innovation processes in the studied small established enterprises are found highly context dependent, intertwined in operational processes and made possible by a small organic organization and closeness to existing customers. The product innovation processes are further found to follow a flexible and informal overall scheme optimized for decreasing market and technology uncertainty and risk, dealing with resource scarcity, and facilitating fast and easy commercialization to avoid or moderate dips in cash flow. The design processes within the innovation processes can be linearly structured or cyclical and experimental, depending on the experienced novelty. To manage resource scarcity during the product innovation processes, the studied small enterprises used many different bootstrapping methods in combination. These methods can be divided into three categories according to their overall functions: for using existing resources more efficiently, for increasing resources and to secure a fast payback on resources invested in NPD. The studied small enterprises were due to their resource scarcity further found to favor an innovation strategy, only involving new products done with known technology and targeting existing markets. This way to innovate, which creates new products in a resource-efficient way that are accepted by the enterprises’ existing markets, seems to prevent unsuccessful product innovation, while at the same time excluding technologically radical innovation and innovation targeting new markets.

Following Toyota's dramatic rise to prominence within the automotive industry in the late 1980's, firms around the globe have widely sought to adopt Lean Six Sigma (LSS) as a means of reducing costs, improving quality, and gaining an overall competitive advantage. While the operational benefits of LSS are largely undisputed, there are criticisms of the movement with regards to its effect on firm innovation capability. Prior academic studies investigating the relationship between LSS and innovation are largely conceptual in nature, rely heavily on qualitative data, and display a high degree of variability in results. The objective of this work was to empirically confirm whether LSS adoption had a positive, negative, or neutral impact on firm innovation performance.Financial data was collected for 151 publicly traded firms over the period from 1985 to 2018. The year of company-wide adoption of LSS was identified for each sample firm. Firms were paired with industry rivals using Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM), and statistical regressions were performed to show correlations between LSS implementation (as measured by inventory turns) and innovation performance (as measured by Total Factor Productivity, Research Quotient, and Tobin's Quotient). Regression results indicated that LSS implementation had a positive correlation with firm process innovation performance and the overall market perception of firm innovation and value, and a negative-to-neutral correlation with firm product innovation performance. Additional regressions performed at the industry-sector level revealed that the LSS-innovation relationship varies greatly by industry environment and is subject to unique industry effects and management implementation decisions.

台灣的產業發展一向以製造業為主，但現在則普遍認為服務業才是我們未來應該努力的方向，但是如何在這個轉型的過程當中，利用我們原本的製造相關能力，來加值服務相關的產業，是一個重要的議題。 在開放式架構產業之中，許多新產品的開發，已經不能以過去傳統技術導向的思維進行。因此希望透過實務與理論上的結合，選定以華碩Eee PC以及HTC做為討論個案，進一步的探討「產品創新」之相關議題。 因此，本研究之主要研究問題為： 一、 身處開放性架構產業（Open System Industrial）的公司在進行「產品創新」時的相關內部條件為何？ 二、 開放性架構產業（Open System Industrial）中的產品如何進行「產品創新」活動？ 三、 開放性架構產業（Open System Industrial）中的「產品創新」與產業內「基石公司（Keystone Company）的關係」之影響。 四、 開放性架構產業（Open System Industrial）中，「產品創新」要如何提高競爭者之進入障礙，以避免競爭者快速跟進、抄襲及模仿。 本研究以Brown（2010）所提出的成功構想的三大準則：技術可行性、商業存續性、客戶需求性，以及本研究所提出之「與基石公司關係」構面，進行開放性架構產業之產品創新議題之探討。 透過理論以及實務的互相印證，本研究歸納出六點主要研究發現，分別為： 一、 Open System Industrial 的產品創新可以著重在以使用者為中心及如何提供客戶最佳的使用者經驗這一部份最容易成功。 二、 深厚的技術基礎是支撐產品創新的重要關鍵。 三、 建構一個組織，讓內部每個部門都有Design Thinking 的想法會是未來產品創新成功的關鍵。 四、 產品創新不應該只侷限於產品本身，而是應該延伸到整體的使用經驗及提供完整的解決方案，因此除產品本身之外可能包括服務、內容等相關的議題。 五、 在Open System Industrial的產業中要做產品創新，與Keystone Company 息息相關，務必尋求基石公司的支持，最底限要取得他們的諒解，如果能合作開發會是最佳狀況，任何違反基石公司利益的動作務必三思而後行。 六、 在新產品開發的過程當中如果有發現任何可以差異化的部份，務必立刻申請專利保護，如果沒有辦法申請專利，最底限度要與技術提供者盡量爭取時間差，創造最大的時間價值。 / In the past, the development of Taiwan industry was emphasized on the Manufacturing. In recent years, it’s generally agreed that the Services is the new way of the Taiwan industry. In the industrial restructuring process, using the manufacturing ability to value-adding the related industries is the important issue. In the open system industry, we cannot use the Technology-oriented method to arrange the new product development issues. In order to discuss the “Product Innovation” issue, the study chooses two successful product innovation cases. By discussing the cases of ASUS Eee PC and HTC, we expect to find out answers of the following questions: 1. What are the internal conditions of the firm to carry out the product innovation when the firm belongs to the open system industry? 2. How does the open system industrial firm’s product carrying out the product innovation issue? 3. How does the Keystone Company affect the open system industrial firm’s product innovation issue? 4. How to create the entry barriers to prevent the plagiarism of competitors when the firm belongs to the open system industry? The study adhering to the three criteria for successful ideas (Brown, 2010), which are Feasibility, Viability and Desirability. The criteria are critical to the Design Thinking. Besides, the study proposed the fourth dimension of the criteria for successful ideas, and it’s “The Relationship with the Keystone Company.” Six main contributions: 1. The product innovation in the open system industry should focus on providing the best User Experience. 2. The strong technology ability is the key point of the product innovation. 3. To build a Design Thinking organization is the key point of the future product innovation. 4. The product innovation shouldn’t limit to the product itself, and it should extend to the overall User Experience and Total Solution. So the product innovation should include the product, service and other contents. 5. The Keystone Company plays a pivotal role in the product innovation issue. The firm of the open system industry should acquire the supporting from the Keystone Company. It’s best to cooperate with the Keystone Company. 6. If there’s any chance to make differentiation, the firm should apply for patent protection immediately. If the firm cannot apply for patent protection, the firm should strive for the time difference to maximize time value.

本研究目的為探討突破性創新之影響因素，採用兩階段法進行實證分析，第一階段探討產業特性、廠商特性與產品創新之關係；第二階段則探討廠商進行突破性創新之影響因素，包括產業特性、廠商特性與廠商創新策略，希望透過兩階段的比較，釐清外在環境與內在條件如何分別影響廠商進行產品創新與突破性創新之決策。本研究利用國科會企劃處2007年「台灣地區第二次產業創新活動調查研究」資料庫，選擇台灣地區製造業廠商為研究對象，第一階段採用Logit迴歸模型進行實證分析，第二階段則以Logit模型以及Heckman模型進行實證，希望透過Heckman二階段模型修正「樣本自我選擇偏誤」(self-selection bias)發生之可能性，實證結果發現： 一、產品加值鏈區段、廠商規模、市場廣度對廠商進行產品創新有正向影響，B2C型態廠商對廠商進行產品創新有負向影響。廠齡與高科技產業廠商對於廠商進行產品創新則無顯著影響。 二、產品加值鏈區段、廠商規模對廠商進行突破性創新有正向影響 三、具有以下創新策略的廠商較可能進行突破性創新：1.自有品牌廠商 2.有新產品的行銷活動 3.追求拓展產品線 4.與供應商協同創新 5.追求先行者優勢 四、與顧客協同創新、追求既有市場佔有率的廠商對於突破性創新有負向影響 / The main purpose of this research is to explore the factors or determinants of product innovation and disruptive innovation for the manufacturer firms in Taiwan. In this empirical studies, we use Logit model and Heckman selection model to demonstrate the factors affect a firm adopting product innovation and disruptive innovation separately. By analyzing the data from 2007 Taiwan Technological Innovation Survey, it shows： 1.The position of value added chain, firm size, market scope have positive correlation with product innovation. B2C firms has negative correlation with product innovation. Firm age and Hi-tech industry firms don’t have significant correlation with product innovation. 2. The position of value added chain, firm size have positive correlation with disruptive innovation. 3.Firms have innovation strategy as followed tend to adopt disruptive innovation：(i)Brand manufacturer (ii)Engage in marketing activity of the innovative product (iii)Pursue the extension of product line (iv)Collaborative innovation with suppliers (v)Pursue first mover advantage 4. Firms have innovation strategy as followed tend not to adopt disruptive innovation：(i)Collaborative with customers (ii)Pursue the market share of existing product

Changing trends in customer preference, competitors’ offerings, new technologies and development techniques may disrupt a firm from its current leading market position and may favor other firms that prioritize innovation. Once a market opportunity is identified (i.e., find an answer to the ‘what to do’ question), firms need to engage in a series of activities and information processing to determine an appropriate way to monetize that opportunity – that is, firms need to find an answer to the ‘how to do’ question. Alternately, a firm may first identify a technological opportunity (i.e. find an answer to the ‘how to do’) and then find a market opportunity (i.e. find an answer to the ‘what to do’ question) to make use of the technological opportunity. Two scales that measure the capabilities of firms to address the following two questions – ‘what to do’ and ‘how to do’ - were reported; these were labelled as market-scanning capability (MktScan) and technology-scanning capability (TechScan); and these two scales were also tested in a broader research model. In turbulent environments, marketing and R&D become more challenging, since they face an uncertain future. Firms need to learn systemic scanning and decoding of apparently random changes in their business environment and imagine a pattern that makes sense. One cannot plan for uncertainty. A better strategy is to be prepared for it. One way to prepare is to develop the capabilities that would help the firm to become more adaptive. Drucker (1992) also argued that instead of planning for the long term that is uncertain, firms needed to become adaptive to tackle uncertainty. The ability of a firm to adapt to the changes depends on its ability to sense the nature of the changes in its business environment and respond to those. Sense-and-respond framework (Haeckel 1999; Haeckel 2000; Day and Schoemaker 2006) was proposed to emphasize the identification of weak signals (Ansoff 1975) to tackle increased uncertainty in business environment. In current days, effectiveness of firm’s activities often depends on the richness of its sources of information and its capability to process the collected information to identify the patterns of change happening in its business environments. Information processing may happen in two dimensions: in market dimension and in technology dimension. Firms’ capabilities for information collecting and processing in these two dimensions were measured using two firm-level constructs. These are market-scanning capability and technology-scanning capability. Resource-based theory helped to understand how firms use their tangible and intangible resources to compete in the market. Specific problem-solving aspects of the processes, activities, and cultural norms enable firms to make decisions about engaging the available resources and capabilities in ways that maximize customer value, by realizing the identified opportunities into product and service offerings. This research identified the characteristic strength of this problem-solving approach of firms – collecting information both internally and externally about possible market opportunities and technological options, organization-wide processing of that information, and taking actions to respond using insights gained – as two latent constructs called ‘market-scanning capability’ and ‘technology-scanning capability’. The concepts of ‘market-scanning capability’ and ‘technology-scanning capability’ were first defined and then, scales were developed to enable researchers and managers to measure these firm-level constructs. Next, the predictive roles of these capabilities on firm performance were examined. Empirical analysis for scale development and validation of the research model were performed with data collected through a web-based survey of Canadian manufacturing firms. Firm performance was captured in two stages – first, by product innovation performance, and second, by overall firm performance. Product innovation performance was used as an intermediate performance measure to examine the direct influence on it of market-scanning capability and technology-scanning capability, and then, to relate product innovation performance to final business outcome measured using ‘overall firm performance’ scale. The study validated the notion of resource-based theory by supporting the belief that higher levels of market-scanning capability and technology-scanning capability would lead to improved product innovation performance. The role of environmental turbulence was also examined for its possible moderating effect. Two measures of environmental turbulence, namely, technology and market turbulence were used to test the moderation effect. The technology turbulence construct was found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between technology-scanning capability and product innovation performance, indicating that firms needed to focus more attention on the changes in the technology landscape when turbulence in the technological field was perceived to be higher, in order to keep the same level of product innovation performance. Insight gained from the study contributed to a knowledge-base that might be useful to both practitioners and researchers. The combination of TechScan and MktScan scales could be used as a benchmark tool by managers to assess firms’ readiness to take advantage of the opportunities that existed. On the theoretical side, the study contributed to the understanding by showing that both market-scanning capability and technology-scanning capability had direct and indirect influences on firm performance. Also, it was found that the indirect influence of a certain scanning capability became important when firms were pre-disposed to emphasize the other scanning capability.