M.Comm. / Although the marketing concept has been the cornerstone of the modern marketing discipline for twenty years, insufficient attention has been given to its implementation. In recent years there has been renewed interest from academics and practitioners regarding the marketing concept and market orientation. Market orientation, the skills and competencies related to it have accordingly prevailed in the marketing and management literature. This resurgence of interest is not surprising, since the implementation of the marketing concept represents the foundation of high quality marketing practice. Market orientation is a business philosophy that makes the customer the focal point of the company's entire operation. Becoming market orientated therefore requires significant changes in the culture, processes and structure of the traditional organization. Market orientated organizations nonetheless has an important competitive advantage in providing customer value and achieving superior performance. Market orientation is therefore a significant cause of business success. All over the world it has been recognized that the small business sector plays an important, if not critical role in the social and economic development of a country. This also applies to South Africa. Small businesses inadvertently have been more reluctant than larger firms to embrace the marketing concept to obtain organizational goals. The relative importance of both small businesses and market orientation in the business environment led to this study concerning the market orientation of small businesses. Therefore the research problem chosen for this study is to determine the market orientation of small businesses in South Africa.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:9499 |
| Date | 16 August 2012 |
| Creators | Labuschagne, Catharina Magrietha |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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