Market orientation and service quality: opponents or colleagues

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the effects of market orientation (MO) and service quality (SQ) logic on business performance. It is generally believed that MO and SQ are different philosophies, as the first, mainly, focuses on the “external orientation or market based considerations”, whereas the second mainly falls into the “internal orientation or resource based” of the firm. However, very little empirical evidence is provided to examine their relationships and comment on their role in achieving superior business performance. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing evidence from 400 shipping firms, this study examines the role of these two concepts (MO and SQ) on shipping companies’ business performance and attempts to classify cases according to their score on those constructs. Findings – Analysis revealed that despite what was thought by most managers inside and outside the maritime sector, all shipping firms are strongly market-oriented and that SQ and business performance are closely related to each other. Originality/value – The present survey, using a sample of 700 maritime professionals from some 400 shipping companies in Greece, aimed at exploring the combined effects of marketing orientation and quality on their performance. It further discriminates among three types (states) of companies based on their MO and SQ scores.