An Exploration of the Meaning and Outcomes of a Customer-Defined Market Orientation

Abstract To date the marketing literature has failed to substantiate the linkage between market orientation and customer satisfaction. This is surprising particularly when considering the attention that has been given to the implementation of the marketing concept in recent years. Furthermore, market orientation is not yet commonly positioned as a customer-defined organization state, despite the literature strongly promoting the importance of customer perceptions when determining extent of organization success. The exploratory research reported here supports the customer-defined position and seeks to redress this gap in the context of the services industry. An analysis of customer perceptions of market orientation suggests that a reduced and amended version of a well-known market orientation measurement instrument can meaningfully be applied to customers, and that a strong relationship exists between customer-defined market orientation and both service quality and customer satisfaction. The discussion of findings is facilitated through the adoption of an amended satisfaction/dissatisfaction motivation theory model. In addition, areas for further research are proposed.

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