The Impact of Market Orientation on SMMEs in Developing Economies: A Case-study of Botswana

Abstract

The anecdotal research conducted on market orientation in service small businesses and the mixed findings on the impact of market orientation and business performance reported complicate efforts amongst both academics and practitioners to conclude on the real effects of the construct upon business performance. This is exacerbated by the acute paucity of empirical research conducted on Market Orientation (MO) construct in Botswana, thus representing both an empirical and theoretical gap to which this proposed study seek to fill, using the service small and medium sized enterprises in Botswana as a study context. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of market orientation on business performance using service SMMEs in Botswana, in order to discern the relationship between MO and performance, test applicability of MARKOR scale in a new empirical context and develop MO framework to guide practitioners in their marketing efforts, so that their level of MO ensures that they deliver superior customer value and realise superior business results, with a competitive advantage over those that are not market oriented. It is envisaged that intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination and Responsiveness activities of a market oriented firm would have a positive impact on the performance of service SMMEs in Botswana. A cross-sectional survey is proposed to be conducted, using a sample size of 400 participants, selected using a snowball sampling technique on the basis of sub-sectors, size, and location. Data will be collected using a survey questionnaire, to be tested for reliability and validity using Cronbach alpha coefficient, and confirmatory factor analysis respectively. Finally the survey questionnaire will then be self-administered by the researcher using a drop-pick method, and data collected, analysed using descriptive statistics and hypotheses tested with SPSS for windows 18.0. 1. Introduction Conventional marketing wisdom holds that Market Orientation (MO) leads to superior firm performance (Kara, 2005). It is a popular term used by marketers as an indicator of the extent a firm implements its marketing concept (Aziz and Yassin, 2010) since it facilitates the firm's ability to anticipate, react to and capitalize on environmental changes, there by leading to superior performance (Vieira, 2010). Despite this agreement amongst a few scholars of a strong positive correlation between market orientation and business performance (Greenly, 1995; Matsuno et al., 2002; and Kara, 2005; Vieira, 2010), others have reported mixed findings (Jaworski and Kohli, 1993; Han et al., 1998; and Pelham, 2005). Therefore, the anecdotal research conducted on market orientation and the mixed findings reported complicate efforts amongst both academics and practitioners to conclude on the real effects of the construct upon business performance (Dauda, 2010). This is exacerbated by the absence of empirical research conducted on market orientation construct in Botswana, thus representing both an empirical and theoretical gap to which this proposed pragmatic study seek to fill, using MARKOR scale, with the service small and medium sized enterprises as a study context.