Barriers to market orientation: the view from the shopfloor Available to Purchase

Marketing theorists and practitioners have for many years extolled the need for and the value of developing a concept which has become known as a “market orientation”. Indeed, since the early 1950s a variety of researchers have argued that a market orientation is frequently associated with high levels of performance. However, despite the widespread acceptance of the merits of a market orientation, researchers have found comparatively low levels of adoption within British industry. The relatively limited extent of market orientation development is possibly explained through the findings of a number of studies which conclude that a wide range of organizational barriers impede market orientation. However, this paper argues that extant research into the barriers to market orientation is frequently restricted by the explicit concentration on management‐level barriers to the detriment of shopfloor‐derived impediments. Hence, via the exploratory case study of two retailing organizations, a typology of the barriers to market orientation development at the shopfloor level is presented. Implications for theorists and practitioners are identified and an action plan discussed.