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The Market orientation (MO) phenomena have been meticulously studied in the marketing literature for more than three decades. While in the beginning MO had been investigated from a focal form perspective, it has evolved to account for the role it plays in distribution channels or supply chains. However, the perspective taken has consistently been from a focal firm perspective, either about its own or its partners market orientation. This study seeks to extend the theory on market orientation to account for the role that it plays within business relationships (i.e. inter-firm market orientation). IMO was initially conceptualized as the joint activities between the focal firm and its channel partner in joint intelligence generation, joint intelligence dissemination and joint customer responsiveness. This study develops the theory that a business relationship can be either market oriented or not and attempts to explain the effect of this inter-firm market orientation on relationship performance as well as focal firm performance. Specifically, this study asks the question, does inter-firm market orientation mediate the focal firm market orientation – performance relationship?This study was investigated using a two-stage approach. In the first stage, a measurement scale was developed and empirically tested to measure inter-firm market orientation. It was from the scale development efforts that the conceptualization of IMO was refined to include the joint intelligence cooperation and joint customer responsiveness efforts between the focal firm and its channel partners. It appears that the focal firm and their channel partner do not differentiate or separate the activities of intelligence generation and intelligence dissemination. They view it more as a cooperative effort. Additionally, the focus of the intelligence cooperation efforts appears to be more about intelligence collected through market research about end-user customers rather than by speaking with customers directly. Finally, the customer responsiveness efforts appear to be reactively focused rather than both reactively and proactively. The scale development was followed by the second stage where the revised IMO construct was included in a model in which it mediated the often-studied market orientation – performance relationship. A number of hypotheses were developed using various relationship theories such as transaction cost economics, resource-based view, and interaction approach. The model was tested with a sample of 130 informants using a variance-based structural equation modeling technique called partial least squares. The final analysis indicated that all paths were significant and that the IMO and relationship performance constructs partially mediated the MO – performance relationship. These findings suggest that it is important to understand both intra and inter-firm market orientation activities to truly understand their impact on business performance.

Investigating internal employee behaviors that influence firm results is an area of on-going interest to both academics and practitioners. This study combined the two recently developed constructs of internal market orientation and industrial service quality to investigate their relationship. The integration of the business outcomes of overall service quality, customer satisfaction, and commitment to the relationship were included to add practical application to study. Additionally, the moderator length of relationship between service provider and customer was included to examine its influence in the model. Internal marketing and market orientation influenced the development of the internal market orientation. Decades of studies into service quality lead to the development of the business-to-business service quality scales applied to this study. Studying these constructs in real world settings, including the moderator, and measuring subjective business outcomes was conducted to confirm scale use, broaden the settings, and offer depth to the field of study. Two surveys to employees and one survey to matching customers created 107 dyad records for structural equation model analysis. Results showed no significant relationship between internal market orientation and industrial service quality. There was a significant relationship between industrial service quality and overall service quality perception, confirming past studies. However, counter to past research industrial service quality did not influence customer satisfaction and commitment to the relationship. A surprising result was the significant relationship reported between employee perceived service quality and the two business outcomes of customer satisfaction and commitment. This research did not support the theoretical premise that internal market orientation is an antecedent to industrial service quality. This study reported mixed results for the connections between perceived service quality and the business outcomes included. Some of the limitations from previous research were addressed while a more integrated model was investigated to add to the understanding of the marketing concept.

This thesis concerns an investigation of the nature and meaning of speciality regional foods in the UK, by examining the products themselves as well as the producers who bring them to the marketplace. Speciality regional food production is making an increasingly important contribution to the economy and is pertinent to newly evolving policy objectives in the agrifood and rural sectors at both national and European Union levels. In spite of this, many uncertainties exist with respect to the properties of speciality regional foods and the characteristics and behaviour of the producers of these foods. In the literature review, territorial distinctiveness in foods is identified as comprising geophysical and human facets, these being influenced over time by macro-environmental forces such as trade and industrialisation. Territorial distinctiveness is also identified as comprising a range of end product qualities perceived by consumers. In terms of speciality regional food producers, the literature review identifies that such producers tend to be small or micro-sized firms incorporating some level of hand-crafted methods in their production processes. These characteristics imply complex behavioural tendencies, particularly in relation to the propensity of these producers to be market oriented. The weight of evidence suggests that small craft-based producers have characteristics and tendencies not conducive to market oriented behaviour. In the empirical study, in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 speciality regional food producers based in the north of England, with data analysis following a grounded theory approach. In terms of the nature and meaning of speciality regional foods, it was found that interviewees expressed varying levels of conviction regarding the existence of geophysical and human facets of territorial distinctiveness in their products. Furthermore, a variety of contrasting end product qualities were described. These variations and contrasts were explained with reference to the competitive contexts of the interviewees and the social history of the products respectively. In terms of speciality regional food producers it was found that contrary to expectations, these producers displayed a combination of highly market oriented, entrepreneurial and 'craft' dispositions, with a particular tendency emerging whereby strong evidence of marketorientation and entrepreneurship was partnered with a keen-ness amongst the interviewees to portray themselves as 'craftspersons'. This tendency was explained with reference to the competitive circumstances and prevailing market conditions in which interviewees found themselves. Overall, it is concluded that speciality regional foods have meaning .at an 'essential' as well as a 'projected' level, and that both need be taken into account for regional food policy initiatives to be effective. For speciality regional food producers, it is concluded that multiple tendencies and behaviours co-exist within these producers, and that it is the producers' prioritisation between these which determines the appropriateness of current policy support mechanisms.

<p>This paper studies the impact of market orientation strategy on brand awareness. Zara, a Spanish leading fashion retailer and an example of a brand using this strategy, is compared to three other multinational brands operating in Stockholm, Sweden, namely Topshop, Mango and United Colours of Benetton. The latter brands are known to use advertising to create brand awareness.</p><p>Fashion magazine attention was used as a measure of brand awareness. Data on the brand awareness was gathered by browsing three leading Swedish fashion magazines – Elle, Glamour and Damernas Värld – and the fashion section of the biggest Swedish tabloid, Aftonbladet.</p><p>It was found that market orientation can compete with advertising as a marketing strategy to create brand awareness, but only in part of the market segment. This was concluded from the fact that Zara was featured in some of the magazines, but not all of them.</p>

This paper studies the impact of market orientation strategy on brand awareness. Zara, a Spanish leading fashion retailer and an example of a brand using this strategy, is compared to three other multinational brands operating in Stockholm, Sweden, namely Topshop, Mango and United Colours of Benetton. The latter brands are known to use advertising to create brand awareness. Fashion magazine attention was used as a measure of brand awareness. Data on the brand awareness was gathered by browsing three leading Swedish fashion magazines – Elle, Glamour and Damernas Värld – and the fashion section of the biggest Swedish tabloid, Aftonbladet. It was found that market orientation can compete with advertising as a marketing strategy to create brand awareness, but only in part of the market segment. This was concluded from the fact that Zara was featured in some of the magazines, but not all of them.

In  turbulent  environments,  the  infused  marketing  function  has  become  an  essential and natural part in the firms’ new product development (NPD). Some scholars define NPD as the transformation of a market opportunity into a product  as a result of the coupling of market assumptions with technological possibilities. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the role of market orientation in NPD, with the specific focus on how market orientation is carried out in NPD and how it affects NPD. This study is built  on  a  conceptual  framework  and  a  tool,  both  are  formed  from  literature.  The authors use the case study to conduct this research, and one company’s (Tylö’s) data is  gathered  through  the  semi-structured  interview.  Some  findings  are  obtained  from analysis: Firstly, market orientation contains two approaches, one is the market-driven approach and the other is the driving-market one, and firm could choose one of them according  to  the  new  product  features.  Secondly,  there  are  four  areas  in  market orientation, for each approach, the specific content in each area is different. Thirdly, the    four    areas    are    identifying    customers’    needs,    collecting    information, inter-functional  coordination  and  taking  action  and  they  move  on  sequentially.  In addition, two crucial factors-time and cost should be paid much attention in NPD.

Participating in the growing research stream involving the market orientation-performance relationship, this investigation explores the impact of firms’ planning, implementation, and evolution of market orientation on financial performance. A longitudinal approach is used to capture the formation and evolution of market orientation. Evidence of market orientation as depicted in top management’s stated strategy is assessed through content analysis of 150 SEC filings (S-1s and 10-Ks) of seventy-five initial public offering (IPO) firms. The sample covers companies that went public in the years 2001-2003, and the study spans a six-year period from 2001-2007. Customer and competitor orientation are independent variables tested to predict stock return. Moderator variables of firm size, top-management-team (TMT) heterogeneity, services or manufacturing industry, and industry competitive intensity are tested in a series of regression analyses. The study involves a unique combination of features in that: 1) the market orientation of top management is captured; 2) the market orientation formation and evolution is captured; 3) secondary archival data is used in the analysis; 4) objective performance measures are utilized; 5) data from multiple industries is analyzed; 6) factors that moderate the market orientation performance relationship are studied. Contributions of this study are that it: 1) builds on the work of Gebhardt, Carpenter and Sherry (2006) using longitudinal analysis to capture the dynamic nature of the market orientation; 2) establishes evidence of variation of the market orientation across time; 3) examines the division of market orientation as separate constructs of customer and competition; 4) provides insight about important moderators of the relationship; 5) moves literature towards a foundation for a more general theory of market orientation by providing some further evidence of the construct’s relation to financial performance. Results of regression analysis provide support for customer orientation leading to superior financial performance. Significant moderator variables in this relationship include manufacturing vs. service firms, top-management-team (TMT) heterogeneity, and firm size. Unexpected results are found for competitor orientation and some moderator results are not significant.

This thesis studies the business performance of Thai firms in both domestic and export markets by using the market orientation theoretical framework to explain why some firms are more successful than others. It also investigates how firms become more market-oriented and whether the relationship between market orientation and business performance is moderated by business environment.

This report combines theoretical and empirical findings to create a holistic framework for market oriented practices within professional service firms. Changes in the business environment of technology consultancy firms, has developed a need to adopt more structured procedures in assessing the market place and in responding, both through external activities as well as through internal optimization. An assumption was made that the market orientation concept was of relevance in addressing this need. A qualitative empirical investigation was conducted at a large professional service firm mainly operating within the construction consulting industry in Sweden. The result provides a conceptual framework for practising market orientation, based largely on empirical findings, which in the conclusion is summarized into a model to visualize the interconnection of the different parts of market orientation. The framework developed is ‘The Market Orientation Model’ which is made up four stages; (1) ‘Assess Current State’ in which the goal is to understand the current state of the firm; current market, current services and current competences. (2) ‘Collect Intelligence’ where the collection of market intelligence, using a set of different processes, about the needs and demands of current, new and internal customers should be gathered. (3) ‘Create Insight’ which is the process of identifying the Market Potential or the Market Demand through processes of organization wide dissemination and analysis of the gathered intelligence. (4a) ‘Create Response Initiative’ where the aim is to create new, or develop existing service offerings to meet the demand or need of the market. (4b) ‘Create Sales Initiative’ which is the initiation of a sales attempt of existing services to new or existing customers. The model creates a summarized picture of what constitutes market orientation and how it can be adapted to an organization. It can be used to create a standardized approach for an entire organization in building a market oriented firm. By continuously following this model in a market oriented firm, greater alignment with market should be achieved. / Denna rapport kombinerar teoretiska och empiriska resultat för att skapa ett helhetstäckande ramverk för marknadsorienterad verksamhet inom professionella tjänsteföretag. Förändringar i dessa företags omvärld har utvecklat ett behov av att införa mer strukturerade rutiner för att bedöma marknaden och genom både marknadsinsatser och interna processförbättringar möta dessa förändringar. Ett antagande gjordes att marknadsorientering var ett relevant koncept för att bemöta detta behov. En kvalitativ empirisk studie genomfördes på ett större professionellt tjänsteföretag på den svenska teknikkonsultmarknaden med inriktning mot byggbranschen. Resultatet består av ett konceptuellt ramverk för marknadsorientering, som till stor del bygger på empiriska resultat. Detta sammanfattas i en modell för att visualisera kopplingarna mellan de olika delarna av marknadsorientering. Ramverket benämns som "The Market Orientation Model" som består  av fyra steg; (1) "Utvärdera aktuellt läge" där målet är att förstå den nuvarande situationen för företaget, den aktuella marknaden, nuvarande tjänster och nuvarande kompetenser. (2) "Samla information" med  målet  att  samla  in  marknadsinformation  om  befintliga,  nya  och  interna  kunders tjänstebehov med hjälp av en uppsättning processer. (3) 'Skapa ins ikt’, som är processen för att  identifiera  marknadens  potential  eller  efterfrågan  genom  processer  för  organisatorisk spridning och analys av informationen som erhållits i steg två. (4a) ’Bemötande’ där syftet är att skapa nya, eller utveckla befintliga tjänsteutbud för att möta efterfrågan eller behov på marknaden.  (4b)  'Försäljningsinitiativ’  där  man  skapar  en  riktad  säljinsats  av  befintliga tjänster till nya eller befintliga kunder. Modellen ger en sammanfattad bild av vad som utgör marknadsorientering och hur den kan anpassas   till   en   organisation.   Det   kan   användas   för   att   skapa   ett   standardiserat tillvägagångssätt för en organisation att bygga ett marknadsorienterat företag. Genom att följa denna modell inom ett företag bör en bättre anpassning till marknaden uppnås.