Market Orientation Among Small to Medium Sized UK Charitable Organisations: Implications for Fund-Raising Performance

ABSTRACT

A mail questionnaire was distributed to a sampling frame of 613 small to medium sized UK charities in an attempt to ascertain the extents of their fund-raising market orientation. Three major dimensions of market orientation were identified: donor orientation, competitor orientation, and 'influence of marketing personnel.' These factors substantially explained respondents' perceptions of their charities' recent fund-raising performances. Organisations scoring high in market orientation appeared on average to have increased their incomes by significantly higher percentages over the previous five-years than charities low on market orientation. Overall, the results suggest that the importance of effective marketing is widely recognised by smaller UK charities.     

Market Orientation and Business Performance in the PRC

Abstract

This study examined the applicability of Narver and Slater's market (1992) orientation model across different economies (planned versus market economy). First, we assessed the scale properties of market orientation from different cities in Mainland China (Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou). Second, we then tested the relationship between market orientation and business performance. Tests for convergent, discriminant and predictive validity across the four Chinese economies with different market environments were supported by our findings. On the other hand, the impact of market orientation on business performance were found to be different across the four cities.     

Market Orientation and Performance in the Public Sector

Abstract

Increased calls for transparency and accountability in government organizations underscores the need for a market orientation even in the public sector. The degree of market orientation and its effect on performance and on organizational commitment in government departments in three Australian states is considered. Results provide empirical support for a direct relationship between market orientation and performance and evidence of the mediating role of organizational commitment. Implications are drawn and directions for future research are discussed.     

Market Orientation,Competitive Strategy and Firm Performance

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the mediating effects of a firm's competitive strategy in the market orientation-performance relationship. Based on a sample of 371 manufacturing firms in China, evidence was found that the three dimensions of market orientation exert different effects on competitive strategy and performance. Among them, customer orientation has the strongest association with competitive strategy and market performance. This lends credence to a componentwise approach on the study of the relationship between market orientation and performance. The results of structural equation analyses indicate that the mediating effect of competitive strategy is mainly revealed in innovation strategy, the most vital factor in creating superior value for the company in the emerging market. Limitations of this study and implications for future studies are discussed.     

Are Market Orientation and Learning Orientation Necessary for Superior Organizational Performance?

There exists contradictory theoretical arguments and counter-intuitive empirical results regarding the market orientation, learning orientation and organizational performance nexus. We ask, can we simplify relations in this nexus? This study analyzes data from Australian organisations and employs non-nested encompassing tests. Contrary to recent findings extolling the virtues of a learning orientation, our results suggest that a market orientation may be the pre-eminent strategy to achieve superior organizational performance.     

Learning Orientation, Market Orientation, and Innovation: Integrating and Extending Models of Organizational Performance

Recent studies have demonstrated effects of learning orientation or market orientation on innovation-driven organizational performance. While these studies have enhanced our understanding of innovation processes in the firm, they have been unable to determine the relative contribution of learning orientation and market orientation to innovation. The integration of these two fundamental strategic orientations in this research enables such an assessment. The model in this research also measures the degree to which market orientation and learning orientation influence organizational performance, independent of their effect on product innovation. The most notable finding is the potential preeminence of learning orientation over market orientation. The implications are of critical importance to marketers because they provide insights into the type of organizational culture that is associated with high levels of performance.     

Market Orientation and Firm Performance: An Empirical Analysis of Ghanaian Microenterprises

ABSTRACT

While previous researchers have explored the relationship between market orientation and firm performance in larger organizations, such studies in microenterprises are scarce. This empirical study uses a structural equation model to examine the role of market orientation on firm performance of microenterprises operating in Ghana. To measure market orientation, we used a well-known scale (MARKOR), and the data (N = 347) for this study were collected from Ghanaian microenterprises using personal interviews. Study results indicated that the MARKOR scale provided a good measure of market orientation in Ghanaian microenterprises. The conceptualized model provided a good fit to the relationship between market orientation and the performance of Ghanaian microenterprises, indicating that market orientation as measured by MARKOR had a statistically significant positive impact on performance. However, the explanatory power of the model was relatively low, indicating the potential impact of other factors that were not incorporated in the model. Study implications are discussed.     

Market Orientation and Performance Measurement System Adoption Impact on Performance in SMEs

Previous research has shown a connection between market orientation (MO) and firm performance, as well as between performance measurement systems (PMS) adoption, but their mutual interactions are as yet little understood in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Using empirical data collected by a survey from 123 Finnish SMEs, we analyze the relationship between MO, PMS adoption, and performance. According to the results, MO has positive relationships with PMS adoption and nonfinancial performance. However, the impact of MO on financial performance is mediated by PMS adoption. PMS adoption is thus an important factor in explaining variance in firm performance. Finally, empirical analysis shows that the larger SME firms adopt PMS more extensively.     

Implications of Improved Information on Market Performance

The retail food market in Edmonton, Alberta represents an unusual market to study. The basic problem inherent in this metropolitan market area of 500,000 people, is the dominance of a single retail food chain whose food sales represent up to 65 percent of total food sales. Conventional economic theory would normally lead to the conclusion that market performance would be improved by a direct attack on the structure of the market which in turn would involve the absolution of a highly successful retail operation. However, the application of monopoly anti-trust laws was certainly not an alternative available to the research team, even if it was considered to be a feasible solution to the problem. Therefore an attempt was made by the authors to observe the impact of improved consumer market information on corporate performance. The following article documents the research and leads towards a time honored conclusion that additional market information would improve consumer welfare in a meaningful manner.     

市场导向与出口绩效关系的研究

市场导向由顾客导向、竞争者导向和部门协作所组成,每一部分都包含对信息的获取、共享、认知和响应四个步骤。本文通过对浙江中小出口企业的实证分析,发现市场导向对出口绩效(除财务绩效)有着积极的促进作用,企业内部因素对市场导向的程度有着较高的相关性。从管理角度看。市场导向程度可以作为企业的标杆基准来识别企业的瓶颈和检验战略的有效性。     

Market Orientation,Corporate Social Responsibility,and Business Performance

This study examines the moderating effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the association between market orientation and firm performance in the context of an emerging economy. The results from a sample of firms that operate in Dubai indicate that CSR has a synergistic effect on the impact of market orientation on business performance. The results of our research on the moderating effects of CSR on market orientation subsets reveal that although CSR moderates the association between customer orientation and business performance, it does not moderate the association between competitive orientation and inter-functional coordination and performance. The results of this study are discussed, and implications for practitioners and researchers are presented.     

Channel Collaboration,Market Orientation and Performance Advantages: Discovering Developed and Emerging Markets

Abstract

Channel collaboration has occupied an increasingly prominent role in contemporary business strategy, and has been considered a key driver for providing value for the partnering firms involved. Drawing on the resource based theory of the firm, the present study aims to explore the effects of collaborative capability and market orientation on firms' performance advantages in the context of marketing channels. We also investigate whether the firms in developed and emerging markets significantly differ in their capability profiles. The data consists of 545 responses to a survey of small, medium-sized and large companies representing the grocery goods sector (manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers) in nine countries. In line with the theory, channel collaboration enhances positional and performance advantages of firms, and this collaboration is shaped by the type of economy adopted.     

Online Media,Market Orientation,and Financial Performance in Nonprofits

The combination of social, political, and economic changes causing simultaneously decreasing funding and increasing demand for services is driving nonprofit managers to engage in proactive marketing in a for-profit model, including the use of online media. This research extends the MARKOR model of market orientation to examine the relationship between market orientation practices, as reflected in the utilization of online media, and their effects on the financial viability of nonprofit organizations (NPOs). The Wayback Machine website (http://waybackmachine.org) provided a unique ability to track site content over time, for comparison with each organization's financial indicators at corresponding points in time. The results of this study confirm the positive relationship between higher market orientation via online media presence and improved financial viability for the sampled group of NPOs. This study provides a simple, actionable, and free measure that NPOs can use to assess their current and planned online media.     

Market Orientation Plus: Antecedents and Consequences of Market Orientation and Corporate Social Responsibility in Mexico

ABSTRACT

The evolution of the market orientation (MO) concept toward stakeholder-based corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been recognized recently. Nevertheless, the two variables remain conceptually and operationally different, and very little is known about the relationship between MO and CSR. The current study addresses this question empirically by embedding measures of MO and CSR into a framework of antecedents and consequences in the context of an emerging economy (Mexico). The results show that companies with high levels of MO also attain high levels of CSR. Further, CSR partially mediates the relationship between MO and corporate reputation and fully mediates the relationship between MO and employee commitment. Informal organization has a positive influence on MO and fully mediates the relationship between innovation and MO. The findings may encourage companies in emerging economies to implement CSR initiatives without fearing that their focus on customer and competitor orientation will be negatively affected.     

企业社会绩效管理模型及趋势

作为企业与社会议题研究中的一个重要领域，企业社会绩效概念及其模型的产生。是长期以来关于企业社会责任争议的结果。是对如何在实践中实施企业社会责任管理所进行思考的总结。[编者按]     

SMEs and CSR Theory: Evidence and Implications from an Italian Perspective

This paper reviews the development of socially responsible investment (SRI) in the Spanish financial market. The year, 1997 saw the appearance in Spain of the first SRI mutual fund, but it was not until late 1999, that major Spanish fund managers offered SRI mutual funds on the retail market. The development of SRI in the Spanish financial market has not experienced the high levels of development seen in other European countries, such as France or Italy, where interest in SRI began during the same period. This paper presents an analysis of the impact of SRI mutual funds managed by Spanish fund managers comparing the evolution of managed assets and number of investors. We also analyse the investment strategies adopted by these funds, which mainly use negative screening criteria and the participation of non-governmental organisations as institutional investors. An analysis of the take up of socially responsible investment in the Spanish financial market shows majors deficits in this process. This is due to Spanish investors having limited sensitivity to social issues and knowledge of SRI, and a lack of development of SRI investment strategies, such as engagement or shareholder activism by fund managers. Furthermore, the take-up of SRI mutual funds in the Spanish financial market coincided with a fall in the stock market at the beginning of the 21st Century. We conclude with an analysis of the relationship between SRI and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).Josep M. Lozano is currently Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at ESADE, Universidad Ramon Llul-URL and Director of the school’s Institute for the Individual, Corporations and Society (IPES). Co-founder of ética, Economía y Dirección (Spanish branch of the European Business Ethics Network), member of the international Editorial Board of ‚Ethical Perspectives’ and member of the Business Ethics inter-faculty group of the Community of European Management Schools (CEMS). He has been a highly-commended runner-up in the European division of the Beyond Grey Pinstripes Faculty Pioneer Award. Author of Ethics and Organizations. Understanding Business Ethics as a Learning Process. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2000.Laura Albareda is a Researcher at the Institute for the Individual, Corporations and Society (IPES), ESADE, Universidad Ramon Llull-URL. She is manager of the Observatory on Ethical, Ecological and Social Investment funds in Spain, an annual IPES publication on Socially Responsible Investment in Spain. Fields of research and academic interest are Corporate Social Responsibility, Business Ethics, Global Governance, Governments and Public Policies on CSR and Socially Responsible Investment.M. Rosario Balaguer is a Lecturer in the Department of Finance and Accounting at Universitat Jaume I. Research areas focus on finance-based analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility and Socially Responsible Investment, covering issues such as profitability, risk and performance. She has taken part in several national and international conferences and published a number of articles in this field.     

Measuring Market Orientation: Generalization and Synthesis

This paper reports on an integrative, cross-nationalstudy which synthesizes and retests work of three separate groupsof researchers who in the late 1980s developed measurementsof a firm's Market Orientation. The projects resulted in threedifferent but syntactically similar Market Orientation scaleswhich, along with other measures, were used to support substantiveconclusions, particularly those involving firm Performance. Basedon a new study of 82 managers in 27 European and U.S. companies,we show that all three scales are reliable and valid. The scalesalso seem to generalize well internationally, both in terms ofreliability and prediction of Performance. We also show thatthe scales are similar to one another in terms of various validitymeasures and in terms of correlations with Performance measures.Finally, we synthesize a 10-item scale based on a more parsimoniousdefinition of Market Orientation as: the set of cross-functionalprocesses and activities directed at creating and satisfyingcustomers through continuous needs-assessment.     

Measuring Market Orientation: Exploring a Market Oriented Approach

This paper demonstrates that applications of existing approaches to measuring market orientation are myopic, non-comparative and over-reliant on the views of single respondents. Consequently, a multi-perspective, multi-informant approach for measuring market orientation is generated which focuses on gauging customers', competitors' and intra-organizational members' perceptions of the market orientation of an organization. To evaluate the psychometric properties of this approach an application of this design in a survey of manufacturing industry is subjected to tests for inter-rater reliability, scale reliability, content validity, criterion-related validity and construct validity. The conclusion of this evaluation is that the developed measure is both a reliable and valid means of gauging market orientation. The paper concludes with a series of implications for both theorists and practitioners.     

KD玩具厂:切实履行责任抢占市场先机

落实企业社会责任．对很多处于产业链低价值部分的加工企业来说，必然会增加一些成本负担，这不是针对一家企业的压力，而是对于整个制造业的要求，是大势所趋，只有正面积极地应对，才有可能提高企业的管理水平，提高企业在市场的竞争力，才能寻求向产业价值链的高端转移，获得公司持续发展。[编者按]