Market orientation in quality-oriented organizations and its impact on their performance

Studying the impact of market orientation on business performance has been a popular research topic in recent years. However, there seems to be a lack of empirical studies that measure market orientation in quality management environments, even though marketing and quality management are considered complementary business approaches. This paper explores the effects of market orientation on a sample of 304 quality-oriented firms, and its impact on their performance. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate the measures of market orientation, quality management implementation, and business performance. Correlation analysis was performed to determine whether market orientation is associated with quality management implementation and a firm’s performance. Three aspects of market orientation are found to correlate with 10 critical factors of quality management implementation, and with four dimensions of business performance. The findings indicate that market orientation is strongly correlated with quality management implementation and business performance in a positive direction in the sampled firms. The implications of the results are discussed, and suggestions for further research are proposed. r 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.