Marketing Practice and Market Orientation: An Exploratory International Study

Abstract

SUMMARY Despite the criticism of the role of marketing in the firm, a market-oriented corporate culture is considered as a key element of superior corporate performance, with many studies demonstrating this linkage. A recent study by Matsuno and Mentzer (2000) considers the effect of strategy type on the relationship between market orientation and corporate performance. However, these linkages between market orientation, strategic stance and corporate performance are by no means clear-cut. This paper argues that generic measures of strategy implementation are at too high a level of abstraction. The current study proposes that the CMP (Contemporary Marketing Practice)1 typology of marketing practice, which explains a wide range of relationship marketing approaches, provides greater insight into the relationship between market orientation and performance. Various studies have suggested that market orientation influences business performance. It is proposed that business performance is too coarse a measure of the influence of the type of marketing practice. Marketing outcomes are proposed as intervening between marketing practice and corporate performance. In addition, in this study we investigate further the role of turbulence as a moderator of market orientation by gathering comparative data from Argentina and the UK. These discussions are summarised by a theoretical model and a series of theoretical propositions. The study seeks to test and refine these propositions as the output of this study and as the basis for further work.

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