شناسایی و بهره گیری از روابط درون بین فن آوری و قابلیت های بازاریابی

This paper deals with a fundamental challenge for decision makers – how to identify which firm capabilities to develop and which ones are no longer important in order to gain and sustain a competitive advantage. We propose an approach that measures technological and marketing capabilities in an integrated fashion, identifies core capabilities, explores their interrelationships and provides guidance for a dynamic technological and marketing strategy. The proposed methodology is illustrated by and applied to the case of Gorenje, a European manufacturer of household appliances, which faces the challenge of reconfiguring its existing capabilities to (re)gain a competitive advantage. The case study identifies two capabilities that integrate research and development with marketing and thereby create additional value. We show how to identify the integrative capabilities and how this integration takes place in Gorenje, while suggesting that Gorenje's strategy should be based on the co-ordinated development of the key core capabilities we identified.

For many practitioners in the business community, the key challenge is to identify and develop their firm's core capabilities promptly in order to gain and maintain a competitive edge.1 A profound understanding of the firm's core technological and marketing capabilities and, in particular, their interrelationships, is crucial as it enables managers to identify which capabilities should be sustained and developed and those that will become irrelevant and should therefore be eradicated. This premise raises some important questions with far-reaching practical and theoretical implications: how can firms identify and evaluate which technological and marketing capabilities can constitute a unique set of strategically-important capabilities and gain a competitive advantage? How can firms account for the interrelationships between technological and marketing capabilities to capture the synergic effects that might arise from their improvements? Finally, once identified, how can a firm select the set of core technological and marketing capabilities and co-ordinate their development to improve performance? This paper offers a methodological tool for identifying and evaluating technological and marketing capabilities in an integrated fashion. Existing methodologies focus on separately measuring both sets of capabilities (their main effects) and usually neglect the synergies between these complementary capabilities (their interaction effects) which can play a crucial role in the innovation process and augment firm performance.2 The proposed methodology that builds on the resource-based view of the firm upgrades the existing models by addressing the integrated measurement of technological and marketing capabilities.3 We posit that the interaction effects can be captured by analysing the role that capability holders, who are the sources of marketing, industrial design and technological knowledge, play throughout the innovation process. This enables a firm to examine first how different groups of capability holders interact and to then identify those capabilities that integrate the others in the innovation process. This comprehensive, albeit pragmatic, methodology is tested in a case study. The firm involved, Gorenje, is one of the largest European household appliances manufacturers and faces the challenge of developing a strategy to build a competitive advantage in its industry. The selected case provides a suitable empirical context for testing since radical technological innovations are impossible on a larger scale in this industry. In this environment, the dynamic development of a firm's interrelated core technological and marketing capabilities provides the main lever for innovations and comprises an important strategic asset of the firm.4 The paper has both academic and managerial dimensions. From the academic perspective, the presented methodology makes a twofold contribution. First, it represents a research approach that simultaneously evaluates core technological and marketing capabilities as well as their inter relationships at the firm level. Second, the research indicates which technological and marketing capabilities are complementary and will enable interfunctional synergies. From a practical perspective, the case study shows how firms can use our research methodology to develop a successful business strategy with regard to capability development or availability. The paper is organised as follows. The first section reviews the existing methodologies used to measure technological and marketing capabilities. In the second section we describe a methodological tool to identify and evaluate core marketing and technological capabilities in an integrated fashion. We apply the tool to the case of Gorenje in the third section. Competitors' strategic moves are also briefly discussed to support the suggestions made in the case. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the proposed approach, address the study's limitations and identify some possibly fruitful avenues for further research.

The paper presents the application of a new approach to measuring technological and marketing capabilities in an integrated fashion in the case of Gorenje. While the use of a singular case study limits the generalisation of the findings, this case study raises important questions that indicate intriguing avenues for further research. First, it identifies two strategically important “integrators” between core technological and marketing capabilities, namely industrial design as a technological capability, and product development as a marketing capability. It would be of great theoretical and practical significance to be able to identify other integrators that create greater value for firms by co-ordinating existing firm capabilities. There is also the issue of whether breaking the functional boundaries when defining capabilities (not just as technological or marketing-related ones) would facilitate the process of identifying key core capabilities and laying the foundations for strategy formulation. Another interesting research question that deserves more attention is to examine what moderates the role played by these two integrators. Our suggestion is that the environmental context may moderate the importance of the two capabilities. Specifically, in mature industries where developments mainly consist of incremental adaptations in general, or product line extensions in particular, and where customers familiar with the product type can express their preferences easily, “market pull” is likely to be the preferred route. In such circumstances, product development as a marketing capability could play a leading role. In contrast, in growing industries where customers are mostly either unaware or unable to articulate their needs clearly, the balance shifts towards “technology push” as supported by industrial design.30 The proposed methodology could be further improved, although methodological refinements should not jeopardise its pragmatism and comprehensiveness, which are two of its greatest benefits. In fact, the main motivation for the proposed methodology was to create a user-friendly tool that encompasses the new theoretical findings in the field of strategic management.