John C. Narver

• Ph D, Univ. of Cal., Berkeley
• University of Washington

It has become conventional wisdom that an organization's ability to continuously generate intelligence about customers' expressed and latent needs, and about how to satisfy those needs, is essential for it to continuously create superior customer value. However, intelligence generation typically has been treated as a generic firm activity. The auth...

Marketing academicians and practitioners have been observing for more than three decades that business performance is affected by market orientation, yet to date there has been no valid measure of a market orientation and hence no systematic analysis of its effect on a business's performance. The authors report the development of a valid measure of...

The concept of responsive market orientation addressing the expressed needs of customers is discussed. The conceptual case and empirical evidence in support of a business manifesting both proactive and responsive market orientation behaviours is also discussed. It is found that inclusion of proactive market orientation will add substantially to exp...

Narver and Slater's (1990) finding of a positive relationship between market orientation and business profitability is retested in a broad sample of product and service businesses operating in a variety of industries. The assessment of the extent of market orientation is provided by the chief marketing officer, and profitability is assessed by the...

Connor, in ‘Customer-led and market-oriented: A matter of balance’, argues, among other things, that we propose that market oriented businesses focus on future customer needs to the neglect of current customer needs, that market oriented businesses over-emphasize marketing activities in their value chains, that market oriented businesses emphasize...

Conner, in 'Customer-led and market-oriented: A matter of balance: argues, among other things, that we propose that market oriented businesses focus on future customer needs to the neglect of current customer needs, that market oriented businesses over-emphasize marketing activities in their value chains, that market oriented businesses emphasize g...

Christensen and Bower (1996) report the results of a study of how customer power contributes to the failure of leading firms during a period of industry discontinuity. They conclude that developing a customer orientation appears not to be wise advice under these conditions. However, this conclusion is contradicted by long-standing theory and recent...

Christensen and Bower (1996) report the results of a study of how customer power contributes to the failure of leading firms during a period of industry discontinuity. They conclude that developing a customer orientation appears not to be wise advice under these conditions. However, this conclusion is contradicted by long‐standing theory and recent...

Deshpande and Farley examine the reliability and validity of three well-known market-orientation scales from which they derive a single market-orientation scale. We believe that their synthesized scale effectively captures a business's customer-value orientation which is the essence of a market orientation, and that this scale development is a defi...

A market orientation is a business culture in which all employees are committed to the continuous creation of superior value for customers. However, businesses report limited success in developing such a culture. One approach to create a market orientation, the approach taken by most businesses, is the “programmatic” approach, an a priori approach...

Christensen and Bower (1996) report the results of a study of how customer power contributes to the failure of leading firms during a period of industry discontinuity. They conclude that developing a customer orientation appears not to be wise advice under these conditions. However, this conclusion is contradicted by long-standing theory and recent...

Market orientation is a business culture which enlists the participation of all employees for the purpose of creating superior value for its customers and superior performance for itself. A substantial body of research finds a positive relationship between a business's magnitude of market orientation and its performance. However, there has been no...

Effective organizations are configurations of management practices that facilitate the development of the knowledge that becomes the basis for competitive advantage. A market orientation, complemented by an entrepreneurial drive, provides the cultural foundation for organizational learning. However, as important as market orientation and entreprene...

Effective organizations are configurations of management practices that facilitate the development of the knowledge that becomes the basis for competitive advantage. A market orientation, complemented by an entrepreneurial drive, provides the cultural foundation for organizational learning. However, as important as market orientation and entreprene...

Recent studies have shown evidence of a positive relationship between market orientation and performance. However, some scholars have suggested that competitive environment could moderate this relationship. The authors investigate how competitive environment affects the strength of the market orientation-performance relationship and whether it affe...

Recent studies have shown evidence of a positive relationship between market orientation and performance. However, some scholars have suggested that competitive environment could moderate this relationship. The authors investigate how competitive environment affects the strength of the market orientation-performance relationship and whether it affe...

The Miles and Snow typology of product-market strategy is a potential source of rich insights for developing marketing strategy. However, the drivers of performance for the Prospector, Analyser and Defender strategies have not been thoroughly studied. Using multiple measures of the entrepreneurial dimension of the Miles and Snow typology, clusters...

textlessptextgreaterMarketing academicians and practitioners have been observing for more than three decades that business performance is affected by market orientation, yet to date there has been no valid measure of a market orientation and hence no systematic analysis of its effect on a business's performance. The authors report the development o...

Marketing academicians and practitioners have been observing for more than three decades that business performance is affected by market orientation, yet to date there has been no valid measure of a market orientation and hence no systematic analysis of its effect on a business's performance. The authors report the development of a valid measure of...

The impact of a government economic policy is an extremely complex question, but obviously an important one for rational decision making by enforcement agencies and firms. Facts on the real productivity of mergers are slowly coming to light, gradually replacing a sizable folklore on the sources and magnitude of merger success. Relating marketing, m...

The impact of a government economic policy is an extremely complex question, but obviously an important one for rational decision making by enforcement agencies and firms. Facts on the real productivity of mergers are slowly coming to light, gradually replacing a sizable folklore on the sources and magnitude of merger success. Relating marketing, m...

Conglomerate mergers are the most prevalent and the most controversial of the three types of mergers-horizontal, vertical, and conglomerate. The controversy stems in part from the marketing possibilities inherent in some conglomerate mergers, but it also stems, unfortunately, from basic misconceptions of the meaning of these mergers. The present ar...

Conglomerate mergers are the most prevalent and the most controversial of the three types of mergers—horizontal, vertical, and conglomerate. The controversy stems in part from the marketing possibilities inherent in some conglomerate mergers, but it also stems, unfortunately, from basic misconceptions of the meaning of these mergers. The present ar...