The dynamics of business orientation: the case of the Volvo Car Corporation

The traditional marketing literature generally sees the adoption of business orientation either from a static, cross-sectional viewpoint or as a one-way evolutionary or catastrophic process from production to sales to marketing. An examination of the changes in business orientation in the Volvo Car Corporation suggests that the pattern has been rather more cyclical than linear: market-production-market. The rationales of this pattern are analyzed in the context of both the nature of the particular market context and the evidence available. Both the managerial and academic implications are discussed.