Creating a Market Orientation: A Longitudinal, Multifirm, Grounded Analysis of Cultural Transformation

Market orientation is a foundation of marketing and is increasingly important in other fields, such as strategic management. Research in marketing has identified the characteristics of market-oriented organizations. However, how organizations change to become more market oriented has received less attention. In this article, the authors conduct an in-depth, longitudinal, multifirm investigation of firms that have successfully created a market orientation. Grounded by this in-depth understanding, they develop a theoretical model to explain how firms create a market orientation. The model identifies four path-dependent stages of change. In contrast to current conceptualizations, the authors find that creating a market orientation requires dramatic changes to an organization's culture and the creation of organizationally shared market understandings. The findings offer new insights into how organizations develop a greater market orientation, organizational change, and the nature of market orientation, including the role of intraorganizational power and organizational learning in creating and sustaining a market orientation.

[1]  Sunil Gupta,et al.  Valuing customers , 2007 .

[2]  D. Collings,et al.  Valuing customers , 2005 .

[3]  Ahmet H. Kirca,et al.  Market Orientation: A Meta-Analytic Review and Assessment of its Antecedents and Impact on Performance , 2005 .

[4]  E. Arnould,et al.  Reflections and Reviews Consumer Culture Theory (CCT): Twenty Years of Research , 2005 .

[5]  Koen Pauwels,et al.  Who Benefits from Store Brand Entry , 2004 .

[6]  D. Ketchen,et al.  Information Processing, Knowledge Development, and Strategic Supply Chain Performance , 2004 .

[7]  R. Steiner,et al.  The Nature and Benefits of National Brand/Private Label Competition , 2004 .

[8]  Florian Zettelmeyer,et al.  The Strategic Positioning of Store Brands in Retailer–Manufacturer Negotiations , 2004 .

[9]  Tülin Erdem,et al.  Performance of Store Brands: A Cross-Country Analysis of Consumer Store-Brand Preferences, Perceptions, and Risk , 2004 .

[10]  Katherine N. Lemon,et al.  Return on Marketing: Using Customer Equity to Focus Marketing Strategy , 2004 .

[11]  K. Seltman.  Marketing for management. , 2004, Marketing health services.

[12]  Sunil Gupta,et al.  Customers as assets , 2003 .

[13]  Dominique M. Hanssens,et al.  Impact of acquisition channels on customer equity, The , 2003 .

[14]  D. Wittink,et al.  Do Changes in Customer Satisfaction Lead to Changes in Sales Performance in Food Retailing , 2003 .

[15]  W. Reinartz,et al.  The Impact of Customer Relationship Characteristics on Profitable Lifetime Duration , 2003 .

[16]  R. Hess.  Power in organizations. , 2003, Journal of nursing scholarship : an official publication of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing.

[17]  Katherine N. Lemon,et al.  The Theoretical Underpinnings of Customer Asset Management , 2002 .

[18]  Katherine N. Lemon,et al.  Customer Equity Management , 2002 .

[19]  V. Srinivasan,et al.  The Asymmetric Share Effect: An Empirical Generalization on Cross-Price Effects , 2002 .

[20]  Gordon Swartz,et al.  Seven Barriers to Customer Equity Management , 2002 .

[21]  Ruth N. Bolton,et al.  Marketing Actions and the Value of Customer Assets , 2002 .

[22]  Donald R. Lehmann,et al.  Linking Customer Assets to Financial Performance , 2002 .

[23]  Lorin M. Hitt,et al.  Do Better Customers Utilize Electronic Distribution Channels? The Case of PC Banking , 2002, Manag. Sci..

[24]  Katherine N. Lemon,et al.  Developing Synergies between Promotions and Brands in Different Price-Quality Tiers , 2002 .

[25]  Pradeep K. Chintagunta,et al.  Investigating Category Pricing Behavior at a Retail Chain , 2002 .

[26]  Philip Hans Franses,et al.  Combining Revealed and Stated Preferences to Forecast Customer Behaviour: Three Case Studies , 2002 .

[27]  T. Ambler.  Comment: Customer lifetime values — credible, or utterly incredible? , 2002 .

[28]  D. Jain,et al.  Customer lifetime value research in marketing: A review and future directions , 2002 .

[29]  Jeffrey M. Wooldridge,et al.  Solutions Manual and Supplementary Materials for Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data , 2003 .

[30]  Jacquelyn S. Thomas.  A Methodology for Linking Customer Acquisition to Customer Retention , 2001 .

[31]  R. Sethuraman.  What Makes Consumers Pay More for National Brands than for Store Brands - Image or Quality? , 2001 .

[32]  Peter C. Verhoef,et al.  Predicting customer potential value an application in the insurance industry , 2001, Decis. Support Syst..

[33]  Scott A. Neslin,et al.  Pursuing the Value-Conscious Consumer: Store Brands versus National Brand Promotions , 2001 .

[34]  Christian Homburg,et al.  A Multiple-Layer Model of Market-Oriented Organizational Culture: Measurement Issues and Performance Outcomes , 2000 .

[35]  W. Reinartz,et al.  On the Profitability of Long-Life Customers in a Noncontractual Setting: An Empirical Investigation and Implications for Marketing , 2000 .

[36]  R. Lal,et al.  Building Store Loyalty through Store Brands , 2000 .

[37]  Indrajit Sinha,et al.  Consumer-level factors moderating the success of private label brands , 2000 .

[38]  A. Galinsky,et al.  Perspective-taking: decreasing stereotype expression, stereotype accessibility, and in-group favoritism. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[39]  D. Wittink,et al.  Building Models for Marketing Decisions , 2000 .

[40]  V. Zeithaml.  Service quality, profitability, and the economic worth of customers: What we know and what we need to learn , 2000 .

[41]  George S. Day,et al.  The Market Driven Organization: Understanding, Attracting, and Keeping Valuable Customers , 1999 .

[42]  Francis J. Mulhern,et al.  Customer Profitability Analysis: Measurement, Concentration, and Research Directions , 1999 .

[43]  James M. Sinkula,et al.  The synergistic effect of market orientation and learning orientation on organizational performance , 1999 .

[44]  Raj Sethuraman,et al.  Factors influencing the price premiums that consumers pay for national brands over store brands , 1999 .

[45]  Katherine N. Lemon,et al.  A dynamic model of customers' usage of services : usage as an antecedent and consequence of satisfaction , 1999 .

[46]  Katherine N. Lemon,et al.  A Dynamic Model of Customers’ Usage of Services: Usage as an Antecedent and Consequence of Satisfaction , 1999 .

[47]  Byung-Do Kim,et al.  Measuring upselling potential of life insurance customers: Application of a stochastic frontier model , 1999 .

[48]  William P. Putsis,et al.  Assessing the Competitive Interaction Between Private Labels and National Brands , 1999 .

[49]  V. Srinivasan,et al.  Asymmetric and Neighborhood Cross-Price Effects: Some Empirical Generalizations , 1999 .

[50]  P. Berger,et al.  Customer lifetime value: Marketing models and applications , 1998 .

[51]  Scot Burton,et al.  A scale for measuring attitude toward private label products and an examination of its psychological and behavioral correlates , 1998 .

[52]  Pravin K. Trivedi,et al.  Regression Analysis of Count Data , 1998 .

[53]  Rohit Deshpandé,et al.  The Market Orientation Construct: Correlations, Culture, and Comprehensiveness , 1998 .

[54]  Stanley F. Slater,et al.  Additional Thoughts on the Measurement of Market Orientation: A Comment on Deshpande and Farley , 1998 .

[55]  John C. Narver,et al.  Creating a Market Orientation , 1998 .

[56]  Edward F. McQuarrie,et al.  Implementing the Marketing Concept One Employee at a Time: Pinpointing Beliefs about Customer Focus as a Lever for Organizational Renewal , 1998 .

[57]  Anselm L. Strauss,et al.  Basics of qualitative research : techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory , 1998 .

[58]  John F. Sherry.  Servicescapes : the concept of place in contemporary markets , 1998 .

[59]  Leonard M. Lodish,et al.  Store Brands and Category Management , 1998 .

[60]  Jan B. Heide,et al.  Transaction Cost Analysis: Past, Present, and Future Applications , 1997 .

[61]  Stephen J. Hoch,et al.  Why Store Brand Penetration Varies by Retailer , 1997 .

[62]  F. Dwyer.  Customer lifetime valuation to support marketing decision making , 1997 .

[63]  Tudor Rickards,et al.  Built to last: successful habits of visionary companies , 1997 .

[64]  R. Sethuraman.  A Model of how Discounting High-Priced Brands Affects the Sales of Low-Priced Brands , 1996 .

[65]  Bart J. Bronnenberg,et al.  Asymmetric Promotion Effects and Brand Positioning , 1996 .

[66]  Robert C. Blattberg,et al.  Manage marketing by the customer equity test. , 1996, Harvard business review.

[67]  Arun K. Jain,et al.  Household store brand proneness: A framework , 1996 .

[68]  Jennifer A. Chatman,et al.  Culture as social control: Corporations, cults, and commitment. , 1996 .

[69]  David E. Mills.  Why Retailers Sell Private Labels , 1995 .

[70]  C. Moorman.  Organizational Market Information Processes: Cultural Antecedents and New Product Outcomes , 1995 .

[71]  John C. Narver,et al.  Market Orientation and the Learning Organization , 1995 .

[72]  A. V. D. Ven,et al.  Explaining Development and Change in Organizations , 1995 .

[73]  Jagmohan S. Raju,et al.  The introduction and performance of store brands , 1995 .

[74]  Contemporary Marketing and Consumer Behavior: An Anthropological Sourcebook , 1995 .

[75]  Paul Wang,et al.  Applications for the lifetime value model in modern newspaper publishing , 1995 .

[76]  Melanie Wallendorf,et al.  Market-Oriented Ethnography: Interpretation Building and Marketing Strategy Formulation , 1994 .

[77]  A. Jain,et al.  Extrinsic and Intrinsic Cue Effects on Perceptions of Store Brand Quality , 1994 .

[78]  I. Nonaka.  A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation , 1994 .

[79]  Francis Gouillart,et al.  Spend a day in the life of your customers , 1994 .

[80]  Ruth N. Bolton,et al.  A Dynamic Model of the Duration of the Customer's Relationship with a Continuous Service Provider: The Role of Satisfaction , 1994 .

[81]  Bernard J. Jaworski,et al.  Markor: A Measure of Market Orientation , 1993 .

[82]  Bernard J. Jaworski,et al.  Market Orientation: Antecedents and Consequences , 1993 .

[83]  Peter E. Rossi,et al.  Quality perceptions and asymmetric switching between brands , 1991 .

[84]  R. Rao.  Pricing and Promotions in Asymmetric Duopolies , 1991 .

[85]  G. Huber.  Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures , 1991 .

[86]  E. Schein.  Organizational Culture and Leadership , 1991 .

[87]  Rajiv Lal,et al.  Manufacturer Trade Deals and Retail Price Promotions , 1990 .

[88]  A. Pettigrew.  Longitudinal Field Research on Change: Theory and Practice , 1990 .

[89]  Bernard J. Jaworski,et al.  Market Orientation: The Construct, Research Propositions, and Managerial Implications , 1990 .

[90]  R. Lal,et al.  The Effects of Brand Loyalty on Competitive Price Promotional Strategies , 1990 .

[91]  Chris Argyris,et al.  Overcoming organizational defenses : facilitating organizational learning , 1990 .

[92]  Vijay Mahajan,et al.  New Product Diffusion Models in Marketing: A Review and Directions for Research: , 1990 .

[93]  John C. Narver,et al.  The Effect of a Market Orientation on Business Profitability , 1990 .

[94]  K. Eisenhardt.  Building theories from case study research , 1989, STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI.

[95]  William B. Locander,et al.  Putting Consumer Experience Back into Consumer Research: The Philosophy and Method of Existential-Phenomenology , 1989 .

[96]  Peter C. Reid,et al.  Well Made in America: Lessons from Harley-Davidson on Being the Best , 1989 .

[97]  R. Deshpandé,et al.  Organizational Culture and Marketing: Defining the Research Agenda , 1989 .

[98]  F. Webster,et al.  Organizational Culture and Marketing: Defining the Research Agenda: , 1989 .

[99]  Russell W. Belk,et al.  A Naturalistic Inquiry into Buyer and Seller Behavior at a Swap Meet , 1988 .

[100]  C. Narasimhan.  Competitive Promotional Strategies , 1988 .

[101]  J. Bartunek,et al.  First-Order, Second-Order, and Third-Order Change and Organization Development Interventions: A Cognitive Approach , 1987 .

[102]  F. Dwyer,et al.  Developing Buyer-Seller Relationships: , 1987 .

[103]  T. Bonoma.  Case Research in Marketing: Opportunities, Problems, and a Process , 1985 .

[104]  Robert A. Burgelman.  A Process Model of Internal Corporate Venturing in the Diversified Major Firm , 1983 .

[105]  R. Deshpandé,et al.  “Paradigms Lost”: On Theory and Method in Research in Marketing , 1983 .

[106]  O. Williamson.  The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost Approach , 1981, American Journal of Sociology.

[107]  L. Stern,et al.  Distribution Channels as Political Economies: A Framework for Comparative Analysis , 1980 .

[108]  A. Pettigrew.  On Studying Organizational Cultures , 1979 .

[109]  Michael A. Berger,et al.  Social Movements in Organizations: Coup d'Etat, Insurgency, and Mass Movements , 1978, American Journal of Sociology.

[110]  V. Turner.  Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society , 1975 .

[111]  P. Burger,et al.  Can Private Brand Buyers be Identified? , 1972 .

[112]  W. French,et al.  Organization development : behavioral science interventions for organization improvement , 1999 .

[113]  A. Strauss,et al.  The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research aldine de gruyter , 1968 .

[114]  John G. Myers,et al.  Determinants of Private Brand Attitude , 1967 .

[115]  L. Stern.  The New World of Private Brands , 1966 .