Creating the market-oriented firm: A longitudinal qualitative study of organizational transformations

The notion of market-orientation has been a cornerstone of management thought and practice for nearly half a century. In this time, market-orientation has been the focus of extensive research. Studies have examined the differences between market-oriented firms and firms with other orientations. Empirical studies have explored the impact of market-orientation on firm financial performance, reporting a positive relationship. These results have fueled a growing interest in organizations becoming market-oriented. At the same time, research on organizational behavior has revealed processes through which organizations change. Despite these developments and the intense interest in market-orientation, the central question of how firms become market-oriented has received little attention.;In this study, I address how firms develop a greater market-orientation. To do so, I conducted an in-depth study of seven firms undergoing such a transformation to understand the process of change and to develop a more general understanding of market-orientation. The seven participating firms are distributed across various stages in this process---at the outset of the change, in the midst of the change, and those that have completed the process and are working to remain market-oriented. The firms were studied using the longitudinal-processual method, combining ethnographic inquiry with historical analysis of each firm and the changes it has undergone.;This research offers new insights in two areas. First, it offers new insights into the process of organizational change to a market-orientation. Second, it offers new insights into the larger issues of organizational change.