Improving firm sustainable performance: the role of market orientation

Abstract

An outstanding objective of the UN and EU in recent years is to improve the environment in which firms operate. This has increased pressures on companies from consumers, governments, and shareholders alike to develop and implement sustainable business practices. Literature has covered other strategic decisions that will improve a firms’ sustainable performance but no study has looked at this from a market-orientation perspective. However, a firm’s market orientation is regarded its capability that enables it to identify and respond to customers’ desires in order to deliver superior value to them. Other literature has affirmed market orientation as the most critical source of sustainable competitive advantage. Evidently, market-oriented companies can incorporate sustainability activities into their overall business strategies but there is a gap in knowledge as to what extent this affects firm sustainable performance. This conceptual paper, therefore, fills this gap, hence, analysed the impact of market orientation on sustainable performance of firms, and provides an argument on the market orientation to sustainable performance relationship. To achieve this, the study reviewed literature obtained from several databases concerning the related fields. Literature search was conducted using the keywords search via Google scholar engine and other research databases including Scopus and Web of Science. The individual variables were used as key search terms, though a limited amount of information was found, literature on market orientation proved promising. Articles deemed relevant to this conceptual paper were retrieved and reviewed. Additionally, books on the topic were searched using the same key search terms used in the research database. The findings confirmed the relationship between market orientation and firm sustainable performance. Further, it evaluated the mediating and moderating variables that impact the relationship between market orientation and firm sustainable performance. It is recommended that an empirical study is done to prove the strength of the relationships.