Global Journal of Management and Business Research, E: Marketing, Volume 21 Issue 4

Therefore, proactive market orientation is strongly associated with innovation and new product success (Narver, Slater & MacLachlan, 2004; Jiménez-Jiménez et al., 2008). MO has been defined as a firm's organised market intelligence gathering of current and future customer needs, disseminating this market intelligence across all departments and the organisation’s responsiveness to it (Kohli & Jaworski, 1990). Narver and Slater (1990) defined MO through three behavioural components: customer orientation, competitor orientation and inter-functional coordination. Both definitions point to a proactive, continuous process that involves anticipating and meeting customer needs whilst scanning the existing options (competitor scanning) available that satisfies customer needs. The two definitions indicate the importance of new products, new and novel technology that may be patented to effectively utilise the customer and competitor knowledge gathered to target potential customers unfulfilled or latent needs. Prior studies supported this premise, identifying the importance of uncovering latent customer needs, involving customers throughout the development for constant feedback and refining the technology, thereby increasing the invention's commercial potential. The patented innovation also needs to get diffused amongst industry for commercial development and society for commercialisation (Rogers, 1995). The patented invention needs to gain acceptance by those who require it and those who benefit from it. The attributes and the benefits of the innovation need to be communicated and demonstrated. This process takes time and depends on the communication channel, the social system, and the invention's attributes (Rogers, 1995). Therefore, market orientation (MO) and the diffusion (DF) of patented innovation are likened to a coin's two faces. Each important and contributing to the commercial potential, each reflective of the other for its purpose fulfilment. Successful application of market orientation and the inventions diffusion characteristics are essential in the Sri Lankan context to link Industry with Research and Development and patented inventions. Amongst the body of innovation literature, an emerging topic is the commercialising of innovation and patented innovation. Patents are essential as they represent radical and higher value technology and rate a country's innovativeness. Patents represent substantially new ideas and concepts and are the best definition for radical innovation (Stevens, Greg, Burley & James, 1997). Applying for a patent status for an invention subject the invention to outside expert scrutiny calling for time, effort and substantial financial commitment by the inventor. Therefore, patents represent the innovations with higher potential to commercialise as obtaining patent status for an invention requires time, effort and substantial cost. It also signals to external parties that the inventions have moved from the initial stage of development with a latent and future commercial potential (De Nicola et al., 2018). Hence patents have moved from solely a legal protection instrument to a strategic currency that an inventor can trade between organisations and countries (Chesbrough, 2003; Ruther, 2012). Individual independent inventors and organisations can register patents provided the invention meets the criteria as a substantially new invention that has not been known before the existence of the patent (Walker, 1995) and verified by independent experts in the field through rigorous scrutiny. A unique feature in the National Intellectual Property Office of Sri Lanka database is that independent individuals have registered a significant percentage of Sri Lankan patents. Sri Lanka is determined to accelerate the country's growth and recognises the importance of innovation and the contribution science and technology can make to achieve this. This contribution would increase the country's per capita gross domestic product, increase exports through value-added exports, and high technology and import substitution. With this objective in mind, the government of Sri Lanka set in place its national policy on Science, Technology and Innovation in 2009. This policy set a clear direction to achieve economic prosperity within five years. However, the achievement of the set objectives fell short. The expected innovation that would stimulate economic development and increase economic prosperity did not take place as expected. The inventions developed by the scientific community failed to impact commercial products by lack of technology transfers to commercial enterprise. Therefore, the non-achievement of commercialisation of most patented innovations is a pressing problem for the country (Wickramasinghe & Ahmad, 2012). The non-achievement of commercialisation attributes to R&D undertaken by academia misaligned with industry needs in terms of identifying market requirements and a lack of understanding between the scientific community and the business community (Innovation and Entrepreneurship Strategy for Sri Lanka 2018 – 2022). In addition, scientific inventions and patents need to be known or diffused amongst industry for commercial development and society for commercialisation (Rogers, 1995). Therefore, the diffusion of patented innovation is vital in the Sri Lankan context to link Industry with Research and Development and patented inventions to identify and cater to trending market needs. Against this background, the study sets out to determine how market-oriented and poised Sri Lankan patented inventions are to gain commercial success and the impact of patent ownership on the two predictors and commercial success of patents. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to determine the effect of market orientation and diffusion on the commercial © 2021 Global Journals Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXI Issue IV Version I Year 2021 ( ) E 32 The Impact of Market Orientation and Diffusion on Commercial Success of Patented Innovation in Sri Lanka