Marketing resource-capability complementarity and firm performance in B2B firms

Purpose – This study aims to examine how market orientation (MO), marketing resources and marketing resource deployment are related and impact business-to-business (B2B) firm- and customer-level performance. Design/methodology/approach – A self-administrated questionnaire was used to collect data from 251 firms out of a sample of 1000 B2B firms selected from a database of businesses. Findings – Marketing resources and marketing capability are complementary in contributing to both firm and customer performance. In addition, they are partial mediators of the relationship between MO and firm- and customer-level performance. Only marketing resources fully mediate the relationship between MO and firm-level performance. Research limitations/implications – This study relied on self-reporting by marketing executives, thus inferences about causality should be made with caution. Specifically, the time sequence of the relationships among resource possession and resource deployment and marketing results is not easily discernible with cross-sectional data. Originality/value – This study sought to address research gaps in the two research streams; MO-firm performance via the mediating role of marketing resources and deployment, and the resource based view (RBV) resource–deployment interaction. Our contribution to the literature is threefold. First, MO indirectly enhances performance at both firm and customer level via marketing resources and marketing resource deployment. Second, while possessing marketing resources does explain some of the economic rent differentials, the effect depends fundamentally on how firms deploy their marketing resources. Third, our findings suggest research on resources, resource deployment and cross-level firm performance should be conducted at the business process level within firms.