Managerial perceptions of marketing performance: efficiency, adaptability, effectiveness and satisfaction

Abstract

While marketing as a field has researched how marketing behaviours can affect objective measures of performance, we know relatively little about how managers make performance judgements. This paper reports the results of a study on how managers evaluate the performance of marketing in terms of efficiency, adaptability to the environment and effectiveness (results versus expectations). A survey of 130 senior marketing managers reveals that managerial perceptions of marketing performance appear multidimensional both in terms of the number of measures used and the methods of evaluating those measures, with important implications for research and practice. Of all the perspectives, effectiveness is the most important concern of managers. It has not only a strong direct effect on perceived performance, but mediates the effects of a number of other variables.