Market orientation and business performance : some evidence from Malta

Abstract

While market orientation has almost been taken for granted by both academics and some practitioners, attempts to define and operalionalise the construct have been very limiled. Moreover, efforts to link market oriellfation to business performance have been few and far between. Recent work in the USA has led to the development of a scale to measure the market oriemation of an organisation, and this measure has also been positively linked to perfomance. In this paper, efforts are described lo measure lhe level of market orientation in Maltese firms. The reliability of the measurement is confirmed, and some aspects of its validity are tested. While the link between market orientation and firm perfonnance is not found to be a strong one, it is indeed significant. Implications of the study are discussed, and some avenues for further research are identified.