Marketing Innovation and Growth Performance of Entrepreneurial Firms: Synergies Between Resource Bricolage and Market Orientation

This study investigates the relationship between marketing innovation and growth performance in entrepreneurial enterprises, focusing on the synergistic role of resource bricolage and market orientation. It also introduces environmental dynamism as a contextual moderating variable to delineate the boundary conditions of the synergistic pathways. Drawing on a questionnaire survey of entrepreneurial enterprises in China (Northeast, North China, and Southeast economic regions) and Eastern Europe (Poland, the Czech Republic, and Romania) and employing multiple regression analysis, this research reveals the mediating effects of the dual pathways of resource bricolage (exploratory and exploitative) on the relationship between marketing innovation and growth performance, as well as the moderating effects of market orientation (reactive and proactive). It formally tests the differentiated synergistic pathways of resource bricolage and market orientation under varying levels of environmental dynamism. The results indicate that marketing innovation has a significant positive impact on growth performance. Both exploratory and exploitative resource bricolage exhibit significant indirect effects via Bootstrap resampling tests (with 95% confidence intervals excluding 0), with exploratory resource bricolage yielding a larger and stronger indirect effect. Both reactive and proactive market orientations positively moderate the relationship between marketing innovation and growth performance, with the moderating effect of proactive market orientation being more significant. In turbulent environments, exploratory resource bricolage aligns with and amplifies the effect of proactive market orientation; in stable contexts, exploitative resource bricolage forms a complementary relationship with reactive market orientation. Furthermore, the synergy between resource bricolage and market orientation significantly enhances the explanatory power of marketing innovation on growth performance. This research extends the application boundaries of resource bricolage and market orientation theories, providing a theoretical basis for entrepreneurial enterprises to optimize resource allocation strategies and market approaches. It suggests that enterprises should dynamically match their resource bricolage strategies to the market environment, align market orientation choices with their lifecycle stages, and pay attention to cultivating synergistic effects and providing organizational structural support.