'The topic of market orientation has been the subject of much recent empirical investigation. While there is a substantial amount of research to be found on the relationship between market orientation and performance in the general domain of marketing, research into this relationship within tourism organisations remains scant. Thus, the purpose of this research is to investigate the degree of market orientation in Irish tourism organisations and its impact on organisational performance. The study employs a two-stage research strategy. The first stage of the research includes an extensive literature review and exploratory interviews with respondents from four sectors of the industry (i.e. hotels, transport, travel organiser's and attractions). This resulted in the development of a research model and thirteen hypotheses establishing the links between market orientation antecedents and market orientation and its impact on organisational performance. In the second stage, data from 322 respondents was analysed to test the hypotheses. The findings of the research suggest that certain antecedents are necessary in order to adopt a market orientation. Such antecedents having a positive impact on the degree of market orientation include, senior management emphasis on market orientation, interdepartmental co-operation and financial resources allocated to marketing. The findings are consistent with evidence from the literature where significant positive links between market orientation and overall performance were found. The results also show that significant differences in the degree of market orientation exist across four sectors of the Irish tourism industry. Transport providers and hotel operators exhibit greater degrees of market orientation compared to those organisations in the other two sectors.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:633062 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Bohan, Peter |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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