The Role of Supply Chain Resource Orchestration and Supply Chain Knowledge in Improving Product Launch Performance in Emerging Markets

As mature markets become more saturated, managers increasingly recognize the value of emerging markets as the next horizon for future growth opportunities. Launching products into these markets is extremely risky, as they are characterized by weak supply chain institutional environments -- i.e. lack of physical supply chain infrastructure and scarcity of supply chain market intermediaries. Literature points to the need to acquire country specific resources and knowledge in order to improve performance in these countries. However, improvement in product launch performance may lie with a firm’s ability to orchestrate its acquired supply chain resources (i.e. create and leverage supply chain capabilities to generate customer value). Further, performance of a product launch may also depend on what type of supply chain knowledge (customer or supply knowledge) is accumulated about the market. In this dissertation, these ideas are examined by collecting data from industry professionals who have been involved in a product launch in an emerging market.