Paper info

IS MARKET ORIENTATION DRIVING RELATIONAL CAPABILITIES DEVELOPMENT?THE CASE OF RUSSIAN INDUSTRIAL FIRMS

MariaM Smirnova, Pete Naude , SergeyP Kouchtch, Stefanos Mouzas and Stephan Henneberg

The paper was published at the 25th IMP-conference in Marseille, France in 2009.

 The paper investigates the role of market orientation as a driver of the development of relational capabilities in Russian firms. The study tests the role of market orientation not only as a driver of business performance, but mainly as a platform for the creation and enhancement of a firm's embeddedness in relational structures through developing organizational capabilities and adapting internal processes within a dynamically changing environment. The results of the study demonstrate existing differences in the role of market orientation subcomponents  customer orientation, competitor orientation and interfunctional coordination  in determining the level of relational capabilities and firm performance of the firms in the sample. We confirm the positive and significant impact of the level of relational capabilities on firm performance indicators  growth, adaptability and customer satisfaction.