Market Orientation in Local Government Through the Analysis of Municipal Website Content : A Framework for its Measurement

Increased competition between cities requires them to adopt concepts and methods that have been used by the private sector, such as market orientation, strategic management, marketing, human resources management, competitive advantage or the definition of a competitive image and brand, etc. The aim of this study is to analyze the market orientation in Spain's regional capital cities by examining the content of their municipal websites. Local governments are increasingly represented on the Internet. The Internet enables them to combine elements of a town hall, tourist information bureau, chamber of commerce, business directory, shopping mall and local newsmagazine. This study also analyses whether, as a result of market orientation in management, the cities studied have fostered marketing strategies, such as the segmentation strategy, brand strategy, or city internationalisation, and it proposes a standard framework for measuring the city's market orientation by examining the content of the municipal website