EXAMINING THE EFFECTS OF MARKET ORIENTATION ON FIRM PERFORMANCE: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM CHILEAN RETAILING ENVIRONMENT.

Although the body of research related to market orientation is growing rapidly, there have been very few research studies undertaken in developing economies in general and the Latin American. countries in particular. Replication studies of market orientation are warranted in these markets because if these constructs are reliable and valid they should also be applicable in different environment and economies. Also, it is suggested that the most exciting measurement of the market orientation might lie in nontraditional organization forms, or non-standard marketing applications. The rapid growth in trade and the great potential for investments in South American countries make it imperative for the U.S. marketers to learn more about Latin American markets. With this in mind, this study was undertaken to examine the applicability of MARKOR model within a Chilean business environment. Specifically, this study investigates the market orientation of Chilean small businesses in the retail business environment with a focus on providing an overview of the marketing practices of Chilean retail businesses. Therefore, the objective of this study is twofold. The first objective is to re-examine the scale properties of the MARKOR in a Chilean marketing environment and the second objective is to empirically test the hypothesized relationships with regards to business performance and market orientation in such an environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]