Abstract
A market orientation is a business culture in whichall employees are committed to the continuous creation of superiorvalue for customers. However, businesses report limited successin developing such a culture. One approach to create a marketorientation, the approach taken by most businesses, is the ’’programmatic‘‘approach, an a priori approach in which a business uses educationprograms and organizational changes to attempt to implant thedesired norm of continuously creating superior value for customers.A second approach is the ’’market-back‘‘ approach, an experientialapproach in which a business continuously learns from its day-to-dayefforts to create and maintain superior value for customers andthereby continuously develops and adapts its customer-value skills,resources, and procedures. Theory suggests that both approachescontribute to increasing a market orientation. It also suggeststhat when the a priori education of the programmatic approachis sharply focused on providing a foundation for the experientiallearning, the combined effect of the two learning strategiesis the largest. The implication is that the two strategies mustbe tailored and managed as a coordinated joint strategy for creatinga market orientation.
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Narver, J.C., Slater, S.F. & Tietje, B. Creating a Market Orientation. Journal of Market-Focused Management 2, 241–255 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009703717144
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009703717144