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Market orientation is often mentioned as a key factor for the success of domestic and international activities, but our knowledge about differences in degrees of market orientation remains limited for firms that have varying degrees of international activities. In particular, the literature is very sparse with regard to studies of newly established firms. Our study empirically explores this gap examining how different types of new ventures adopt two strategic components of market orientation customer orientation and competitor orientation. Our empirical evidence is based on responses from CEOs of 249 Danish manufacturing firms that are categorized into four groups, depending on their degree of international operations within the first three years. We demonstrate that the most internationally oriented firms seem to be the most market oriented in general. They are significantly more competitor-oriented than domestically oriented firms, but the results regarding customer orientation are more mixed. Interestingly, we find indications that the strategic emphasis on customer orientation may be higher for firms with domestic operations than for those with limited international operations. We discuss implications for research and managers.

Nye vækstmuligheder er ikke altid en god idé. Det er naturligvis ikke en populær pointe i en tid med Innovation og Vækst på dagsordenen – men den er ærlig og redelig.

Danske fremstillingsvirksomheder får for lidt ud at indhente information om deres kunder og konkurrenter. Der mangler strategisk handling fra virksomhedernes side. Udgivelsesdato: 28. Juni

The management literature reflects remarkable little effort to investigate the nature and consequences of firms' business development activities. This exploratory research aims at synthesizing the scholarly knowledge on the subject with field interviews with senior business developers and executives from high-tech firms and venture capitalists in North America, Asia, and Europe to provide a foundation for future research. Business development is an emerging staff function providing an added level of sophistication to the firms' overall strategic management with interesting performance implications. The business development function is typically found in progressive firms especially within high-tech industries, but is argued to become critical for all types of firms across industries wishing to grow and accumulate wealth. Research propositions and managerial implications are discussed. The management literature reflects remarkable little effort to investigate the nature and consequences of firms' business development activities. This exploratory research aims at synthesizing the scholarly knowledge on the subject with field interviews with senior business developers and executives from high-tech firms and venture capitalists in North America, Asia, and Europe to provide a foundation for future research. Business development is an emerging staff function providing an added level of sophistication to the firms' overall strategic management with interesting performance implications. The business development function is typically found in progressive firms especially within high-tech industries, but is argued to become critical for all types of firms across industries wishing to grow and accumulate wealth. Research propositions and managerial implications are discussed.

Om fraværdet af grundlæggende kriterier for valide undersøgelser i danske journalisters, politikkeres, mv. brug af meningsmålinger og andre surveybaserede undersøgelser.

This study sheds light on the role that the competitive environment plays in determining how elements of market orientation and elements of entrepreneurial orientation interact to influence business success. We develop a model in which we postulate that market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, and competitive environment shape business performance via a three-way interaction. We test the model using primary data from the CEOs of 270 CEO of manufacturing firms, together with secondary data on these firms' profit performance. An assessment of the results indicates that customer orientation moderates the positive relationships between the competitiveness element of entrepreneurial orientation and market share and return on assets (ROA): the positive relationships between competitiveness and market share and competitiveness and ROA become stronger the greater the firms' customer orientations. Also, these moderating effects are stronger for firms operating in highly competitive environments. For the innovativeness component of entrepreneurship, however, the positive relationship between innovativeness and ROA decreases as the competitive environment becomes more hostile. This study sheds light on the role that the competitive environment plays in determining how elements of market orientation and elements of entrepreneurial orientation interact to influence business success. We develop a model in which we postulate that market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, and competitive environment shape business performance via a three-way interaction. We test the model using primary data from the CEOs of 270 CEO of manufacturing firms, together with secondary data on these firms' profit performance. An assessment of the results indicates that customer orientation moderates the positive relationships between the competitiveness element of entrepreneurial orientation and market share and return on assets (ROA): the positive relationships between competitiveness and market share and competitiveness and ROA become stronger the greater the firms' customer orientations. Also, these moderating effects are stronger for firms operating in highly competitive environments. For the innovativeness component of entrepreneurship, however, the positive relationship between innovativeness and ROA decreases as the competitive environment becomes more hostile.

Udgivelsesdato: 29. april

Danske fremstillingsvirksomheder får for lidt ud af at indhente informationer om deres kunder og konkurrenter. Udgivelsesdato: 1. april Danish manufacturing firms gain too little from generating informations about their customers and competitors

This paper extends the strategic management literature on how firms' sunk cost investments and market orientation mutually shapes firm performance. Using data from 314 manufacturing firms, we decompose firms' sunk cost investments into industry-specific resources and firm-specific resources and investigate their effect on firm performance. Our results suggest that the salient components of a firm's market orientation - i.e. customer orientation and competitor orientation - have different effects on firms' performance as well as moderate the relationship between a firm's sunk cost investments and its performance. In particular, we find that a firm's customer orientation positively influence the effect of industry-specific resources on return on assets. This paper extends the strategic management literature on how firms' sunk cost investments and market orientation mutually shapes firm performance. Using data from 314 manufacturing firms, we decompose firms' sunk cost investments into industry-specific resources and firm-specific resources and investigate their effect on firm performance. Our results suggest that the salient components of a firm's market orientation - i.e. customer orientation and competitor orientation - have different effects on firms' performance as well as moderate the relationship between a firm's sunk cost investments and its performance. In particular, we find that a firm's customer orientation positively influence the effect of industry-specific resources on return on assets.

Market orientation has evolved into a key construct in the marketing and strategy literature. While much progress has been made in empirical research, the concept lacks a coherent theoretical foundation. Essentially, much prior research has pointed to the role of market-sensing capabilities to explain performance differentials among firms (Day, 1994). We open up the black box of market-sensing capabilities by treating the issue of choosing marketing attributes of products as a problem of organizational search. Despite much robust research on organizational search in the strategy and organization literature (Cyert & March, 1963; Nelson & Winter, 1982; March, 1988; Levinthal, 1997; Sorenson, 2002), the organizational search processes underlying market orientation has received little, if any, attention in marketing research. Our research thus contributes to the growing body of marketing research drawing on the behavioral theory of the firm. A critical problem for marketing managers is the strategic positioning of a product in the market (Day & Wensley, 1988; Morgan & Hunt, 1995). The most basic framework to address the positioning remains the classic marketing mix, the 4 Ps (product, price, place, promotion, and their respective sub-components) of marketing. Viewed from this perspective, the main challenge for marketing managers is to find, select and deliver the attributes in the marketing mix that match the expressed and still unexpressed preferences of current and prospective customers. To shed light on this decision problem in marketing, we use two basic models drawn from the behavioral theory of the firm and analyze how firms search for and select the attributes of the marketing mix. Specifically, we draw on the aspiration-level model (March, 1988) and on the NK model of organizational adaptation (Levinthal, 1997) to study the market orientation of firms. We argue that the distinction between proactive and responsive approaches to market orientation (Jaworski & Kohli, 1996; Slater & Narver, 1998; Narver, Slater & MacLachlan, 2004) represent two very different search profiles, with their effectiveness depending on organizational and environmental factors. We provide an elaborate outline of the multidimensional aspect of firms' responsive and proactive search processes. First, we highlight the role of organizational aspiration-levels for market orientation. We then investigate the mechanisms underlying when a firm should allocate attention to customers and competitors. Moreover, we distinguish between two different types of competitive intelligence usage, namely for imitation of competitive marketing mix and for benchmarking to develop more effective aspiration-levels. Then we provide insights into how the complexity of the marketing mix influences a firm's market orientation. Lastly, by basing our research on results from model-based research, we get insights to the dynamic and temporal aspects of a market-oriented firm's market-sensing capability. We therefore argue that a theory of market orientation grounded in organizational search holds great promise to provide answers to the problem of how to strategically position a product in the market place. [References Available upon Request]

Atheoretical measure purification may lead to construct deficient measures. The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretically driven procedure for the development and empirical validation of symmetric component measures of multi-dimensional constructs. We place particular emphasis on establishing a formalized three-step procedure for achieving a posteriori content validity. We then apply the procedure on the development and empirical validation of two symmetrical component measures of market orientation; customer orientation and competitor orientation. Moreover, the results suggest that average variance extracted is particularly critical to reliability in the respecification of multi-indicator measures. In relation to this, the results also reveal possible deficiencies in using Cronbach alpha for establishing reliable and valid measures.

Danske fremstillingsvirksomheder får for lidt ud af at indhente informationer om kunder, konkurrenter og markeder. Markedsorientering hjælper ikke på indtjeningen, viser ny stor undersøgelse. Stik imod al forventning gavner det ikke indtjeningen, når virksomheden - ikke kun marketingafdelingen - indhenter informationer om markedet og foretager konkurrent- og kundeanalyser.

Se nedenfor Traditional empirical market orientation research predominantly focuses on the presence of firms' market-oriented activities. This paper empirically explores a novel structure of four multi-indicator measures assessing the purpose of firms' customer and competitor-oriented activities. The operationalization of the measures is based on a synthesis of the notion of exploitation and exploration with existing marketing research on firms' responsive and proactive activities.

Se nedenfor The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of structural liaison devices, specialization, the presence of a marketing function, and competitive intensity as antecedents to firms' customer and competitor orientation. Results based on a sample of 99 medium-sized (50-250 employees) manufacturing firms indicate, that while specialization and liaison devices facilitate customer orientation only liaison devices facilitate competitor orientation. Competitive intensity has no effects on customer orientation but influence competitor orientation. The results also indicate that the presence of a marketing function has no influence on the level of firms' customer and competitor orientation.

Om virksomheden har en marketingafdeling eller ej, gør ingen forskel på niveauet af virksomhedens markedsorientering. Det er den overraskende konklusion på en undersøgelse af danske fremstillingsvirksomheder. Virksomheder uden egentlige marketingansvarlige indsamler markedsinformation og handler i forhold til markedet på linie med virksomheder, hvor der sidder fuldtids marketingansvarlige. Der er ingen forskel. Det viser en undersøgelse blandt 99 mellemstore danske fremstillingsvirksomheder med 50 til 250 ansatte, som Institut for Marketing & Management på Syddansk Universitet står bag. Resultatet er mildest talt overraskende for forskerne. - Ja, vi havde klart forventet, at virksomheder med en separat marketingfunktion ville have systematisk flere kunde- og konkurrentorienterede aktiviteter end virksomheder uden. Sådan burde det være, men det er det ikke, fremhæver adjunkt og Ph.d., Hans Eibe Sørensen, som har inddraget den anerkendte professor i markedsorientering, Stanley F. Slater, fra Colorado State University i undersøgelsens resultater.

Danske ledere af fremstillingsvirksomheder skal i højere grad anerkende værdien af informationer om kunder, konkurrenter og markeder. Marketing skal ikke stå alene med markedsorienteringen, virksomheden skal være markedsorienteret. Marketing bør også tænkes som en efterretningsenhed, der skal være garant for at andre funktioner også indsamler markedsinformationer, spreder dem i organisationen og ikke mindst øger den ledelsesmæssige forståelse for at virksomheden tilrettelægger sin strategi ud fra konklusionerne og tilpasser mål her ud fra.

Udgivelsesdato: December

Udgivelsesdato: September