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A Review Of The Literature On The Topic Of Market Orientation And The Firm With Reference To Three Articles.

A Review of the Literature on the Topic of Market Orientation and the Firm with reference to three articles.



Word count: 2,990

Introduction

Because the focus on market orientation has steadily increased over the last decade, academicians and marketing managers have begun to debate the effectiveness of market orientation as a profit enhancing strategy. Researchers and marketing managers are attempting to measure the benefits and costs associated with the implementation of market orientation. For researches and managers, the key questions that surround market orientation are whether or not it increases performance, and if so, in which circumstances should market orientation be implemented. In order for market orientation to become a cornerstone of business practices in years to come, these questions must be answered. This review will focus on three articles which address these key questions: "Market Orientation and Company Performance: Empirical Evidence from UK Companies" by Greenley, G (1995), "Market Orientation: Antecedents and Consequences", by Jaworski and Kohli (1993) and "The Effect of a Market Orientation on Business Profitability" by Narver and Slater (1990).
Summary of "The Effect of a Market Orientation on Business Profitability" by Narver & Slater (1990)
In "The Effect of a Market Orientation on Business Profitability" (1990), Narver and Slater address the lack of empirical evidence surrounding the effectiveness of market orientation. They begin the article by stating: "market orientation is the very heart of modern marketing management and strategy – yet to date, no one has developed a valid measure of it or assessed its influence on business performance…as a result, business practitioners have had no specific guidance as to what precisely a market orientation is and what its actual effect on business performance may be." Their study attempts to develop a valid measure of market orientation and its effect on the profitability of the...