Implications of market orientation on the environmental transformation of industrial firms

Article history: Received 29 July 2005 Received in revised form 16 June 2006 Accepted 6 July 2006 Available online 27 October 2006 This article examines the role of industrial firms' market orientation as a moderator of the economic–ecologic conflict. Specifically, the authors consider the effect of industrial firms’ market orientation on perceptions of the environmental pressure exerted by stakeholders and the environmental practices implemented in response to that pressure. Because market orientation is related to the collection and assessment of and response to opportunities and threats, market orientation should act as a driver of perceptions of and responses to environmental pressures exerted by stakeholders. An empirical analysis of a sample of Spanish industrial firms shows that market orientation is linked to more intense perceptions of pressure fromnongovernmental stakeholders. However, the results are not conclusivewith respect to the relationship between market orientation and the intensity of the response to environmental pressures characterized by the implementation of environmental practices. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.