Development of a model relating internal organizational variables with customer orientation in the context of the emerging economy of India

Purpose – The purpose of the study is to establish the relationship of customer orientation (CO) with internal organizational variable like transformational leadership fostering acceptance of group goals (TLFAGG), organizational citizenship behavior conscientiousness (OCBC), empowerment competence (EC) and organizational commitment (OC). Design/methodology/approach – The study was conducted by a structured survey questionnaire on 398 managers related to marketing function in India, employed in both private and public sector firms. The data were analyzed using SPSS 20 and AMOS 18 for structured equation modeling. Findings – The results of the study indicated that the exogenous variables were TLFAGG and OCBC. The intervening variables were EC and OC. The endogenous variable was CO. TLFAGG showed significant positive relationship with EC and OC and CO. OCBC had significant positive relationship with EC and OC and CO. EC was found to have significant positive relationship with CO. OC has significant positive relationship with CO. Research limitations/implications – This is one of the first studies developing a model involving CO with two internal organizational exogenous variables TLFAGG and OCBC. The model also had two intervening organizational variables EC and OC. Practical implications – Human resource managers involved in bringing CO culture especially in emerging economies can take the inputs from this study to engineer elements of TLFAGG, OCBC, EC and OC amongst the employees. Originality/value – In the context of emerging economy markets, the model developed on CO relating it with TLFAGG, OCBC, EC and OC is one of the foremost studies.