Market Orientation and the Marketing Strategy Process

Abstract

Market orientation refers to the generation, dissemination, and responsiveness to market intelligence by organizations. The focus in this paper is on the process of strategy formulation and implementation in a market-oriented organization. Using the ‘rational’ approach to strategy formulation as a framework, and drawing on literature from the ‘incremental’ and ‘political’ approaches, an attempt is made to describe how strategy is formulated, implemented, and evaluated in an market-oriented organization. The ‘key variable’ concept is suggested as an alternative means of strategy evaluation to the marketing audit. Implications for marketing managers are discussed.