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Customer‐led and market‐oriented: a matter of balance
Author(s) -
Connor Tom
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
strategic management journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 11.035
H-Index - 286
eISSN - 1097-0266
pISSN - 0143-2095
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(199912)20:12<1157::aid-smj72>3.0.co;2-3
Subject(s) - market orientation , argument (complex analysis) , balance (ability) , function (biology) , endowment , proposition , marketing , scale (ratio) , business , customer orientation , resource (disambiguation) , reductionism , industrial organization , economics , computer science , law , political science , psychology , epistemology , philosophy , evolutionary biology , biology , computer network , biochemistry , chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , neuroscience
This article is prompted by Slater and Narver’s (1998) SMJ article entitled ‘Customer‐led and market‐oriented: Let’s not confuse the two’. It is suggested here that Slater and Narver’s contention that strategic success is a function of market‐led orientation rather than customer‐led orientation is too reductionist a proposition which gives inadequate weight to the resource endowment and scale differences between companies. The argument is offered that success through time for the bulk of businesses will be directly related to close relationships with existing customers, particularly for smaller companies, which are the vast majority. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.