A study on moderating effect of customer orientation and supplier participation on relation between process innovation and corporate performances of Chinese companies

The first goal of our study is to conceptualize process innovation, customer orientation, and supplier participation, and investigate the causal relationships between process innovation and corporate performances. As the second purpose, we seek to examines whether customer orientation and supplier participation have moderating effects on the relationship between process innovation as independent variable and corporate performances as dependent variable. In order to confirm our hypotheses, we conducted a sample survey for 187 Chinese companies to produce the following results. Firstly, the hypothesis that product innovation concept has a positive effect on corporate performances concept is confirmed. Secondly, the hypothesis that customer orientation concept has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between process innovation concept and corporate performances concept is accepted, while the one that supplier participation concept has a significant moderating effect is not. Based on these empirical analysis results, we obtain a managerial implication on the compatibility of process innovation and customer orientation and their simultaneous pursuance to improve the performance of Chinese companies.