Column 4 · Market Orientation · Era 4, Orientation and Relationships (1990s)
Market Orientation
Formulation, process · Landmark · Cluster II, Resources and Orientation
Description
Kohli and Jaworski defined market orientation as organization-wide generation of, dissemination of, and responsiveness to market intelligence, and Narver and Slater conceptualized it as a culture of customer orientation, competitor orientation, and interfunctional coordination and showed its association with profitability.
Managerial Implications
Market orientation is organization-wide intelligence on customers and competitors, shared across functions, and acted on. It raises performance across industries and conditions. Managers can build it: top management must signal priority, departments must share information, and rewards must reflect customer outcomes. Audit the three behaviors, generation, dissemination, and responsiveness, and fix the weakest; most firms generate intelligence and fail to disseminate or act.