Environmental determinants of responsive and proactive market orientations

Purpose – Recent studies have conceptualized market orientation into two distinct components, responsive and proactive market orientation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the environmental antecedents that lead to the adoption of a responsive or proactive market orientation. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing upon the market orientation literatures, and using theory derived from environment strategy research as a starting point, a conceptual model is developed in which environmental factors are antecedent variables influencing the responsive and proactive market orientation. To test the conceptual model, data were collected from 308 companies across a wide range of industries. Findings – The results show that responsive market orientation is positively related to market turbulence, technological turbulence and competitive intensity. On the contrary, proactive market orientation is negatively related to market turbulence, technological turbulence, and competitive intensity. Originality/value – The paper makes a theoretical contribution in that it extends the market orientation literature and examines what environmental antecedents affect responsive and proactive market orientation. The paper also makes some managerial recommendations.