Linking CIO-CMO Communication and Product Innovation via Virtual Customer Environment Engagement: A Moderated Mediation Study

Intuitively, we would expect that CIO-CMO communication plays a minimal role in product innovation performance, because product innovation is primarily driven by firms' market orientation, knowledge of customer needs and cross-functional integration among marketing, R&D and operations management. In a sharp contrast to this perspective, we propose that CIO-CMO communication increases product innovation performance through enhancing virtual customer environment (VCE) engagement. Such proposed effects are supported by two studies with different samples (i.e. MBA alumni in Study 1 and a representative sample in Study 2) and different performance measures (i.e. subjective ratings in Study 1 and objective sales data in Study 2). Furthermore, the effect of CIO-CMO communication on product innovation performance via VCE engagement is contingent upon two situational factors, namely marketing-IT integration policy and market uncertainty. The effect of CIO-CMO communication on product innovation performance via VCE engagement is positive and significant when marketing-IT integration policy is strong or when market uncertainty is high, but not when marketing-IT integration policy is weak or when market uncertainty is low. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications of these findings are discussed, especially on how managers can capitalize on CIO-CMO communication and VCE engagement to enhance the success of new product innovation.