Identification of Drivers and Obstacles of Market Orientation among Diversified Industries of Pakistan

Abstract

Market Orientation (MO), being charismatic in nature, has been considered as a high priority area for research by the Marketing Science Institute. The antecedents of MO, either act as drivers or impediments, have got paramount importance in making the organization more market oriented. The essence of umpteen times research in different cultures, mostly of the developed countries, validates the role that various organizational factors play in market orientation of organizations. But lacuna in the literature exists for such an important topic in utterly different culture of developing countries. Accordingly, the current study seeks to investigate whether or not the antecedents, proposed by Kohli and Jaworski (1990), could contribute in making Pakistani organizations market oriented. Top management emphasis, centralization and interdepartmental connectedness were found to be significant predictors of market orientation. The study results could facilitate leadership of Pakistani organizations in designing and implementation of corporate-wide change initiatives, geared at making their organizations more market orientated leading to improved organizational effectiveness and sustained competitive advantage.