Are Maltese firms market oriented, and does it matter?

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a revival of interest in market orientation and what it involves. While its importance has been relentlessly expounded by business schools, underlying, as it does, any marketing course, there have been fewer attempts to define the construct, and delineate what market orientation really means. Furthermore, while it is held that one of the major reasons for its importance is that the market orientation of a firm results in improved business performance, this link appears to have had little empirical support. What little confirmation there is, comes from the U.S.A Gaworski and Kohli 1993; Narver, Park and Slater 1990; Narver and Slater, 1990; Reukert, 1992) In this study we seek to further investigate the market orientation - business performance link and report the results of a study, from a cross-section of firms in Malta.