Using the I‐MARKOR scale to identify market‐oriented individuals in the financial services sector

Abstract

PurposeExtant studies of the market orientation of service firms rarely consider the contribution of individual employees to the realization of this orientation. Existing scales that measure market orientation reveal the perceptions of a key informant about the dominant orientation within the firm. These scales do not measure the willingness of employees to act in a market‐oriented way. This paper aims to report the development of a multi‐dimensional scale of individual market‐oriented behavior.Design/methodology/approachThe scale development process included identification of items from focus groups with employees of a major Canadian financial services firm and the market orientation literature. A pretest with marketing practitioners and academics helped to purify and reduce the number of items. Finally, a sample of North American financial services employees responded to the items in a web‐based questionnaire.FindingsConfirmatory factor analysis of the responses confirmed the presence of a single latent construct with three dimensions: information acquisition, information sharing and strategic response, measured by 20 items.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough scale validation included both qualitative and quantitative tests that triangulated the opinions of multiple stakeholders in the service delivery chain, future research must also test the predictive validity of this scale.Practical implicationsSuch research is important to increase understanding of how service organizations foster market orientation. The I‐MARKOR augments the organizational scorecard approach with individual level measurement.Originality/valueThe scale provides a method to assess differences between individuals within an organization, enabling empirical research on differences between departments, roles, training and other characteristics that may influence the extent to which an individual performs market‐oriented behaviors.