Customer Orientation and Firm Performance among Nigerian Small and Medium Scale Businesses

Data from a survey of 159 hospitals was used to test the relationship between market orientation and firm performance for low cost and differentiation strategies. Hospitals pursuing a differentiation strategy had stronger market orientation than those pursuing a cost leadership strategy. Market orientation had a more positive impact on the performance of organizations pursuing a differentiation strategy than on those pursuing a cost leadership strategy. In the cost leader group, the inter-functional coordination component of market orientation significantly affected firm performance, while in the differentiator group the customer orientation and competitor orientation components of market orientation had significant impact on performance. The implications of these findings for managers also are discussed.

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Testing the Applicability of Narver and Slater’s Market Orientation Concept and Firm Performance in Botswana Companies

Journal of Business Theory and Practice ◽

10.22158/jbtp.v2n1p1 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 1 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Olumide Jaiyeoba ◽

Donatus Amanze

Keyword(s):

Firm Performance ◽

Market Orientation ◽

Questionnaire Survey ◽

Business Performance ◽

Customer Orientation ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Symmetric Component ◽

Sample Data ◽

Result Show ◽

Competitor Orientation

In existing Market orientation research, the components of the market orientation construct are generally theorized to follow the conceptualizations of either Kholi and Jaworski (1990) or Narver and Slater (1990). This study looks into the nature of the correlational relationship between market orientation and firm performance using sample data from firms in Botswana. How Narver and Slater’s scale for measuring the extent of market orientation is investigated, tested, and used for Botswana Context. Two symmetric component measures of market orientation (customer orientation and Competitor orientation) are developed, tested in a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Result show a positive correlation between market orientation and business performance, and Narver and Slater’s scale was discovered to be better suited for Botswana context, when focusing on the symmetric component measures of customer orientation and competitor orientation. Academicians are thus provided with insights with respect to the content and symmetry of component measures of market orientation construct and their relation to Botswana’s firm Performance.

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Service Brand Orientation and Firm Performance: The Moderating Effects of Relationship Marketing Orientation and Customer Orientation

Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science - Finding New Ways to Engage and Satisfy Global Customers ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-02568-7_60 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 233-250

Author(s):

Raphael Odoom ◽

Ernest Y. Tweneboah-Koduah

Keyword(s):

Firm Performance ◽

Relationship Marketing ◽

Customer Orientation ◽

Moderating Effects ◽

Brand Orientation ◽

Marketing Orientation ◽

Service Brand

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Executives with customer experience and firm performance in the B2B context

European Journal of Marketing ◽

10.1108/ejm-06-2020-0449 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Cong Feng ◽

Jiong Sun ◽

Yiwei Fang ◽

Iftekhar Hasan

Keyword(s):

Firm Performance ◽

Fixed Effects ◽

Customer Orientation ◽

Chief Executive ◽

Customer Experience ◽

Content Type ◽

Marketing Function ◽

Chief Marketing Officer ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship

Purpose This paper aims to examine the presence of an executive with customer experience (ECE) in a supplier firm’s top management team (TMT). The role of ECE presence remains understudied in the marketing literature. This study attempts to examine the relationship between ECE presence and firm performance. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws on the resource-based view of the firm and adopts a panel firm fixed effects estimator to test the proposed hypotheses. The empirical analysis uses a sample of 1,974 firm-year observations with 489 unique supplier firms. Selection-induced endogeneity is mitigated through the Heckman procedure. Findings ECE presence improves firm performance. Additionally, firms benefit less from ECE presence if a board member with customer experience (BCE) is also present, if a chief executive officer commands a higher pay slice (compared to other executives), and if a TMT is more functionally diversified. However, ECE presence is particularly beneficial if the overall economy is in contraction. Comparing the functional positions held by ECEs reveals that ECE in the marketing function (as a chief marketing officer) offers the largest benefit to an average supplier firm. ECE presence is also associated with other firm outcomes (e.g. bankruptcy odds, innovation and customer orientation). Research limitations/implications This study makes four contributions to the literature. First, this research contributes to existing studies that investigate marketing expertise in the upper corporate pyramid. Second, the study contributes to the burgeoning body of work across business disciplines that attempt to understand the impact of CxOs on firm performance. Third, the study contributes to the vast literature on customer orientation indirectly. Finally, this paper contributes to the broader literature studying the influence of board and TMT characteristics. Practical implications The findings are of particular importance to business-to-business firms. This paper shows that suppliers can benefit significantly from managers with customer experience. Four contingency factors moderate the relationship between ECE presence and firm performance. Among the various functional positions held by an ECE, the findings suggest that hiring an ECE for the marketing functional area is the most beneficial. ECE stands out as a better option for a company than BCE to improve firm performance. ECE presence is also associated with bankruptcy odds, innovation and customer orientation. Originality/value This paper provides the first empirical evidence regarding how ECE affects firm performance and also extends prior research on the value of human capital in TMT.

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The tyranny of the served market: The negative relationship between market orientation and performance among design-driven organizations

Journal of Design Business & Society ◽

10.1386/dbs_00006_1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 109-128 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ian D. Parkman ◽

Samuel S. Holloway

Keyword(s):

Firm Performance ◽

Market Orientation ◽

Business Strategy ◽

Customer Orientation ◽

Negative Relationship ◽

Empirical Support ◽

Narrow Focus ◽

Competitor Orientation ◽

And Performance ◽

Performance Project

As design has been slowly embraced as an element of business research, a number of well-established organizational strategy concepts have been called into question. This article empirically examines the relationship between firm performance and market orientation (MO), one of the most commonly employed variables within business strategy, among design-driven firms. Our findings suggest that the positive relationship between MO and performance present in most business strategy literature does not appear to hold among organizations with a strong strategic focus on design. Design-driven firms seem to actively downplay MO, resulting in a statistically significant negative relationship between the concept and its three sub-factors: customer orientation (CUST), competitor orientation (COMP), and inter-functional coordination (INTER) on two measures of firm performance, project-level success and competitive advantage. Drawing on related literature and follow-up interviews with firm managers, we rationalize these results as evidence of design-driven firms efforts to avoid the so-called ‘tyranny of the served market’ where a narrow focus on current customers and established competitors within incremental markets can lead to myopia and limit innovation. The implications of this study may be to provide support to managers of design-driven organizations to de-emphasize MO’s narrow focus on close industry rivals and well-defined customers as well as much-needed empirical support for anecdotal accounts of how many traditional business strategy variables, such as MO, may be insufficient, or at least incomplete explanations of design-driven organizations.

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