| Recent research in the continuing development of the marketing concept has focused on its implementation. This embodiment of the marketing concept in action has been termed "market orientation." Its stated emphasis on putting the marketing concept into action notwithstanding, the conceptual development of this construct elucidates much more on culture than it does on operational mechanisms. In response to a continuing reticence to specify how marketing concepts, strategies, and cultures actually deliver the positive financial results attributed to them, the research undertaken here attempts to fill that gap. Specifically, it proposes that the management practices of modern approaches to TQM may couple with a market orientation to add the delivery component for customer added value.; The shortline railroad industry is the setting for research into this theoretical gap. Using matched dyads of 58 railroads and their customers, relationships between market orientation, quality management and customer satisfaction are explored. A new measure of quality management, based on Baldrige National Quality Award criteria, is developed, and found to exhibit excellent reliability and evidence of construct validity. Market orientation is validated as a major influencer of customer satisfaction, with quality management contributing a significant component. The two strategies, one of culture and the other of practices, together deliver higher levels of satisfaction to industrial customers than either does alone. Attempts to correlate these positive findings with single-item self reports of financial parameters were not successful, raising methodological issues with this common practice.; Suggestions for future research in both marketing and management disciplines are offered. Dyadic research is shown to offer rich insights, and a substantial ability of customers to specify their supplier's market orientation. Implications for management are included. |
