Responsiveness to Customers and Competitors: The Role of Affective and Cognitive Organizational Systems

Quick responses to environmental changes have become a vital success factor for today's companies. This study aims to identify the differential mechanisms that drive responsiveness to customers and responsiveness to competitors. In particular, the authors propose a conceptual framework that distinguishes between a cognitive and an affective organizational system as two important antecedents of organizational responsiveness. The results from a large-scale, cross-industry study show that the affective organizational system is more important in driving responsiveness to customers and that the cognitive organizational system is more important in driving responsiveness to competitors. Moreover, the relative importance of the cognitive system as a driver of responsiveness is greater in firms with a low market share and in markets with low entry barriers for new competitors.