Risk taking versus quality orientation: Effect on new product innovativeness

Firms are increasingly becoming more quality oriented (i.e., they are laying greater emphasis on quality and practicing total quality management), but it is not clear how quality orientation affects new product innovativeness or uniqueness. Lack of such innovativeness is known to be a major reason for new product failure or poor performance. While quality orientation is generally considered to be good for new product innovation, there are concerns that a thrust on steady and incremental improvement, which underlies such an orientation, might prevent product development professionals from discovering novel ways to satisfy customer needs, the very essence of innovativeness.