Effective Quality And Effective Marketing - The Dual Combination For Business Success?

Abstract

Many advocate the importance of a strong marketing orientation - however, few studies illustrate a positive link to business performance. Practitioners in particular still remain unwilling to invest real resources and energy to support the marketing function. Titls paper proposes that the effect of marketing orientation will be mediated by the attention which is paid to the quality function. Companies which are good at marketing and quality will perform more effectively than those which are effective in only one area. The paper develops a model from the literature which is validated through extensive data collection. Data was collected through personal interviews with over 600 managers from l 04 companies. Marketing orientation and quality orientation are found to be correlated. There is some evidence that jointly these two factors positively influence business performance.