Managing in a time of crisis: marketing, HRM and innovation

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the link between selected market orientation dimensions, HRM, and innovation, and their impact on organizational performance before and during the current economic crisis in Slovenia. Design/methodology/approach - The data for the analysis are drawn from a longitudinal cross-sectional study of the 101 best Slovenian employers between 2008 and 2009. Altogether, over 15,000 respondents and more than 170 companies took part in the study, making it the largest of its kind in Slovenia and southeast Europe. The research method applied in the paper is exploratory and consists of simple paired comparisons of univariate and bivariate statistics, as well as factor analysis, regression analysis, and correlation analysis. Findings - The results show that customer expectations regarding trust and long-term performance have a positive impact on HRM practices within a firm, that HRM positively impacts organizational performance, and that innovation unexpectedly impacts it negatively (at least in the short-term). No significant relationships between customer expectations of services, quality, and price, and their impact on HRM and innovation, respectively, were found. However, the research partially confirms that the crisis is affecting organizational performance because companies are deploying more HRM practices and, unexpectedly, fewer innovation activities. Originality/value - This paper explores market orientation, HRM, innovation, and performance-related dimensions in a B2B relationship marketing context based on the results of an extensive longitudinal cross-sectional company-employee study conducted in Slovenia before and during the current economic downturn. The findings offer a unique glimpse into the impact of the current economic crisis on the observed links and relational dimensions, and also have important managerial implications.