A contingency theory approach to market orientation and related marketing strategy concepts: does fit relate to profit performance?

With a focus on the financial services industry, the current study takes a contingency theory approach to the relationships between market orientation and a variety of marketing strategy concepts, including profitability, a firm’s Miles and Snow strategy type, market growth, service growth, service focus, market coverage, the Porter strategy group, and strategic marketing initiative. Data for the study were gathered from a survey of chief executives from credit unions in the U.S. The results of the study are mixed. In particular, the findings suggest that despite the perceptions of management, it is the less aggressive and less costly approaches to market orientation and marketing strategy that actually pay off in terms of objectively measured ROA. The pattern that emerges seems to suggest that if the goal is overall firm profitability as measured by ROA, then the recommendation may be to focus on more conservative strategies combined with lower levels of market orientation. Additionally, the total number of strategic alignments is also relevant to profit performance. It was shown that companies with a higher number of recommended “fits” between market orientation and their marketing strategies achieved a larger ROA.