Testing the Applicability of Narver and Slater’s Market Orientation Concept and Firm Performance in Botswana Companies

Abstract

<p><em>In existing Market orientation research,</em><em> </em><em>the components of the market orientation construct are generally theorized to follow the conceptualizations of either Kholi and Jaworski</em><em> </em><em>(1990)</em><em> </em><em>or Narver and Slater</em><em> </em><em>(1990).</em><em> </em><em>This study looks into the nature of the correlational relationship between market orientation and firm performance using sample data from firms in Botswana.</em><em> </em><em>How Narver and Slater’s scale for measuring the extent of market orientation is investigated,</em><em> </em><em>tested,</em><em> </em><em>and used for Botswana Context.</em><em> </em><em>Two symmetric component measures of market orientation</em><em> </em><em>(customer orientation and Competitor orientation)</em><em> </em><em>are developed,</em><em> </em><em>tested in a cross-sectional questionnaire survey.</em><em> </em><em>Result show a positive correlation between market orientation and business performance,</em><em> </em><em>and Narver and Slater’s scale was discovered to be better suited for Botswana context, when focusing on the symmetric component measures of customer orientation and competitor orientation.</em><em> </em><em>Academicians are thus provided with insights with respect to the content and symmetry of component measures of market orientation construct and their relation to Botswana’s firm Performance.</em><em></em></p>