Market orientation development: a comparison of industrial vs. consumer goods companies

While significant empirical work exists around the conceptualization of the notion of market orientation (MO), as well as its relation to company performance, little empirical work has attempted to depict the actual steps a company has to take in order to increase its adaptability to market situation and, thus become market oriented. Furthermore, no empirical work has attempted so far to investigate the degree of MO between companies producing consumer goods vs companies producing industrial goods. By examining a number of research propositions, this paper attempts to investigate the marketing practices of consumer goods producers vis-à-vis the practices of companies that participate in industrial markets and to discriminate industrial from consumer goods companies based on their marketing practices and MO adoption profile.