MARKET ORIENTATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM SMES MALAYSIA

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between market orientationand performance and its effects on the  organizational performance of the Malaysian SMEs industry. Using the Malaysian SMEs industry’s as a primary research target, this study will use the ‘‘contingency–structure–output’’ framework (Fiedler, 1967). Employing factor analysis and the Linear Structural Relations method for verification, we hope the results will contribute something important since we postulate that there is a significant relationship between market orientation and organizational performance. We argue that the degree of SMEs market orientation will depend on nine sets of antecedents (Jaworski and Kholi, 1993). Besides, the relationship between SMEs market orientation and performance is hypothesized to be moderated by environmental factors (Narver and Slater, 1994).