Reconsidering Market Orientation

Abstract

Over the course of the last decade, the benefits of thedevelopment of a market orientation reflecting the cus-tomer focus of the marketing concept have becomealmost dogma among marketing scholars (Narver andSlater 1990). Unfortunately, much of the normativeadvice regarding the appropriate foci of market orienta-tion as well as the precise nature of the relationshipbetween market orientation and performance was notgrounded in empirical research (Kumar, Subramanian,and Yauger 1998). The continued interest in this topic hasgenerated several major theoretical and empirical studiesin the marketing literature addressing the concept ofmarket orientation and its consequences for organiza-tional performance (e.g ., Kumar, Subramanian, andYauger 1998; Slater and Narver 1994). The result hasbeen the generation of a substantial body ofliterature thatsuggests a positive relationship between market orienta-tion and organizational performance (Slater and Narver1994). Generally, it is held that businesses that focus onthe needs of their customers and strive to continuallymeet these needs through the provision of superior valuewill experience consistently positive performance out-comes.