Market orientation in Indian organizations: an empirical study

This article investigates the extent of market orientation in a country about which most readers of Marketing Intelligence & Planning will know little, at least in the marketing context. In India, the need to deliver superior value to consumers has assumed paramount importance, as globalization increases at a fast pace and local consumers become more demanding day by day. This empirical study of 22 Indian firms is based on the antecedents and determinants of market orientation, and hence of continuous superior performance, proposed by Narver and Slater. It finds that they exhibit some key features of market orientation, but fall short on others, notably internal communication and senior management's attitude to risk. The overall outcome is a commitment to intelligence gathering and dissemination, but a comparative lack of responsiveness to the market environment.