| This dissertation developed and tested a framework positing a direct relationship between stage of market maturation and strategic orientation toward the market. A four by four framework of market maturation by orientation was devised from the literature.;The four strategic orientations toward the market are product orientation, customer orientation, competitor orientation, and process orientation. Each of four stages of market maturation are dominated by the relative dynamics of one element of the market. In temporal order, the four stages are (1) dynamic product stage, (2) dynamic customer stage, (3) dynamic competitor stage, and (4) dynamic process stage.;The empirical study was a content analysis of the letter to the shareholder in annual reports of firms in four industries. Market maturation was operationalized by selecting four industries operating in markets of varying degrees of market maturation. From the least mature to the most mature, the industries were Electromedical, Auto Parts, Steel, and Oil and Gas Production. The sample from each industry consisted of about twenty firms.;Strategic orientation was measured with a content analysis of the shareholder letter. Two independent coders coded two years data. Twenty percent of the data was recoded. Intercoder reliability and code-recode reliability was adequate.;The four by four cross tabulation of market maturation stage by strategic orientation was examined and tested for a direct relationship between the two variables. Data for each year and each coder was considered separately. With minor exceptions, all tests and examinations strongly support the hypothesis that strategic orientation is directly related to market maturation stage. This relationship occurs not only in the diagonal but in the remainder of the table as well.;This study provided the first link between two major concepts in marketing--market maturation and orientation. One implication is that the orientation a firm adopts is contingent, at least in part, on market maturation. Second, in studies of orientation, researchers should consider market maturation as a major covariate. Third, the framework provides instructors with a market maturation by orientation contingency framework. Perhaps most important, the results of this study suggest that universal application of one orientation is wrong and may be harmful. |
