| The essence of the success of a business is to develop sustainable competitive advantages whilst the key to competitive advantages is to continuously create and deliver value for customers. Marketing literature has suggested that one of most important antecedents of competitive advantages and customer value is adoption of market orientation. Recently, studies on market orientation based on American companies come to one conclusion that market orientation is a business philosophy embedded into a company and it directly drives the business performance. And based on market orientation, companies can develop competitive advantages, better satisfy the wants and needs of consumers, and consequently gain good business performance. However, due to the differences between countries and disparity in market environments, culture, and economic development stages, market orientation shows different performances. The influences from environments and business strategies on the relationships between market orientation and business have not gained the consensus among scholars. Furthermore, little study on China in relation to market orientation was found from past literature. Market orientation models derived from the west have not been examined sufficiently in China. This thesis surveyed 570 Chinese companies to investigate the applicability of market orientation model proposed by Gray, Matear et al (1998, 2002) in the Chinese business environment as well as the relationships between market orientation and business performance, and other underlying factors. The author adjusted the market orientation model of Gray, Matear, et al based on other literature. In the adjusted model, six constructs were selected and defined. The first construct is market orientation comprised of customer orientation, competitor orientation, interfunctional coordination, responsiveness to customer intelligence, and profit emphasis based on customers. The second is market environments that consist of market turbulence, competitive hostility, and technological turbulence, and economy. The third is business strategies that mainly focus on cost leadership and differentiation as suggested by Porter (1985). The fourth is corporate image that is represented by brand value and corporate reputation. The fifth is market performance which selects customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and brand awareness. The last one is the sales and profitability performance. The objectives of this paper are, in the context of China, ? Investigate the applicability of market orientation model and measure based on Gray, Matear, et al (1998, 2002) ? Examine the relationships between market orientation and market environment, also between market orientation and business strategies ? Examine the relationships between market orientation and business performance (sales and profitability) ? Examine the relationships between market orientation and marketing performance ? Examine the relationships between market orientation and corporateimage ? Determine the moderating effect of market environment on the relationships between market orientation and business performances ? Determine the moderating effect of business strategies on the relationships between market orientation and business performances This research applied quantitative data and analyses methods such as demographic description, variance analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analyses to determine the difference between groups characterized with high, middle and low market orientation, and examine the relationships between market orientation and business performance, or other underlying factors as well as the moderating effects of market environment and business strategies on the relationships between market orientation and business performance. Based on the statistical analyses, in combination with existing literature, the research found that the legality and applicability of market orientation model and measures proposed by Gray, Matear, et al (1998, 2002) were proved in this research. The statistically significant relationships between market orientation and environmental factors in China showed that the environmental influences have in some ways effected the development of market orientation of Chinese companies. This research also confirmed the relationship between market orientation and business strategies examined by Gray, Matear, et al (2002), which may lead to a proposition that market orientation contributes to the competitive advantages in relation to cost leadership or differentiation. Moreimportantly, this research has found the positive relationships between market orientation and business performances. In addition, it examined more effects on marketing performance than corporate image and sales and profitability performance from market orientation. However, the fitness of market orientation model in explaining the business performance is still low. This implies that market orientation as the execution of marketing concept still has limitations, and calls for improvement. Furthermore, this research found that customer orientation and Interfunctional coordination have significantly moderate effect on business performance, but other dimensions of Market Orientation, such as competitor orientation, responsiveness, and profit emphasis have not. This may imply that the competitor orientation of Chinese companies has not been reflected in deeper level. Responsiveness to customer intelligence, an important dimension in western study on market orientation, was found not significant in this study on Chinese firms. It was also found that consistent with Kohli and Jarworsky (1992) and Slater and Narver (1994), overall environmental factors have not had significant moderating effects on the relationship between market orientation and Business performances. However, technological turbulence was found to have statistically significant and marginal effects on the relationship between customer orientation and corporate image, and between interfunctional coordination and corporate image. This means that customer orientation and intefunctinal coordination have more effects on business performance when technologies applied in the industry become stable.Based on the above findings, some suggestions were given to the business managers by the researcher. ? Managers need to place more emphases on the adoption of market orientation due to the popularity of marketing orientation in China and its effects on business performance. ? Customer orientation and interfunctional coordination need to be given priority among dimensions of market orientation in consideration of their examined effects on business performance in this research. ? Based on monitoring competitors and tailor competitors'action into marketing plans, managers need to emphasize the implementation of marketing strategies, and take effective actions to differentiae themselves from competitors. ? Profit emphasis on key customers needs to be integrated with effective customer solutions to create and deliver value to customers ? Responsiveness to customer intelligence, although not significantly examined in this research, is still worthwhile for business managers to attempt due to its effect examined in other studies. ? The technology orientation needs to be shifted towards market orientation where the technological turbulence tends to be leveled off. ? Whatever markets the companies in, market orientation is regarded as a business philosophy, core concept, and culture. Managers need to engage in developing this culture, although it may take long time, a lot of financial resource, and intellectual input, and all these will be rewarded with good performance in the long run. In acknowledgement of some limitations of this study, further research can deepen this topic in the following aspects: first, some qualitative approaches can be used to develop constructs and measures of market orientation more tailored to the Chinese business context. Second, the use of bigger samples and across sectors study is suggested. The comparison between Chinese companies and western companies is very useful to develop market orientation theory across culture. Further study on the relationship between market orientation and business strategies is very necessary due to the importance of both theories. It is another challenging task for both academia and practitioners to improve the sales and profitability performance by leveraging the market orientation and shift superb marketing performance to business performance. |
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