ORGANIZATIONAL MARKET-INFORMATION PROCESSES - CULTURAL ANTECEDENTS AND NEW PRODUCT OUTCOMES

Organizational research suggests that the way information is used is l ikely to be a function of the presence of organizational systems or pr ocesses, in addition to individual manager activities, The author sugg ests that firms vary their emphasis on certain organizational market i nformation processes, such as information acquisition, information tra nsmission, conceptual use of information, and instrumental use of info rmation. The author argues that the emphasis is determined, in part, b y the congruence, or fit, among an organization's cultural norms and v alues and theorizes that the presence of these organizational informat ion processes affects new product outcomes, Survey results indicate th at clans dominate the other cultures in predicting organizational mark et information processes, suggesting that information processes are fu ndamentally ''people processes'' that involve commitment and trust amo ng organizational members. The results have important implications for balancing internal and external orientations within firms. The result s also indicate that the information utilization processes, especially those that are conceptual in nature, are strong predictors of new pro duct performance, timeliness, and creativity, indicating that competit ive advantage is tied to information utilization activities in firms.