National customer orientation: an empirical test across 112 countries

Abstract

Customer orientation is a central tenet of marketing. However, less is known about how customer orientation varies across countries and time. Mintz, Currim, and Deshpandé (Eur. J. Mark., 56: 1014–1041, 2022) propose a country-level construct, national customer orientation, and develop theoretical propositions on how a country’s wealth and average customer price sensitivity affect national customer orientation during and after global economic shocks without providing an empirical test. This paper tests drivers of national customer orientation by employing World Economic Forum and World Bank annual panel data from 112 countries between 2007 and 2017. The results show that customer orientation is a greater luxury of richer nations and price sensitivity is a partial mediator of that relationship; however, both relationships only transpire in non-recessionary times. The empirical test furthers scholarly research on national customer orientation and provides managers with country-level customer orientation benchmarks across countries and time.