Understanding Role of Market-orientated IT Competence and Knowledge Sharing Mechanism in Gaining Competitive Advantage

Contemporary research on start-up firms primarily focuses on business ecosystem and assessing its contribution into the mainstream business economies. Research featuring investments in information technology (IT) and market-oriented IT (MOIT) competence to facilitate the flow of firm innovativeness (FI) across multisectoral start-ups is yet to be identified. Further, the role of innovation orientation (IO)-enabled firm innovativeness (FI) on sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) needs further exploration in the light of customer orientation (CO) of the enterprise. It is partially because the underlying mechanism remains largely unexplored in the context of rippling start-ups. In the current research, we conceptualized and tested a model that examines the role of MOIT competence and knowledge sharing mechanism (KSM) on FI and SCA, in the light of Resource Advantage (R-A) theory and SD logic (SDL) framework. This model also proposes and establishes IO as an important enabler for firm's competitive advantage. Using a sample of 267 start-up ventures registered under Start-up India Programme (DIPP, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India), we tested above-mentioned relationship using SPSS AMOS 22. Results show that MOIT competence is an important enabler for FI and in turn SCA of the firm. CO strongly moderates the role of IO on firm's competitive advantage.