Market orientation and corporate performance in the health industry

Abstract This study examines the market orientation and corporate performance of domestic enterprises in the health industry. The aim of the study is to explore the existence and the nature of the connection between market orientation adapted by SMEs in the domestic health industry and the subjective, perceived success, and competitiveness of these businesses. Market orientation was measured by the internationally standardised MKTOR scale. Corporate performance was tested by means of a scale based on subjective perception, during which the relative weight of particular performance categories for the enterprise was taken into consideration. With regard to corporate performance, two categories were examined: competitiveness and effectiveness. The basis for the primary research was provided by personal interviews, including 251 items, conducted with marketing specialists (for lack of them, general managers) of businesses in the health industry. Data collection was carried out in 2018 in collaboration with a market research company. The connection between market orientation and corporate performance was assessed using linear correlation and regression analysis. The results of our primary research revealed a positive, medium-strong relationship between market orientation and corporate performance. With a more detailed examination of the dimensions of market orientation, customer orientation, and competitor orientation were found to significantly explain competitiveness and effectiveness. It has been shown that with the increase in rival spirit, the market orientation of companies accounts for the dispersion of competitiveness to an increasingly lesser extent. This means that, for some businesses with good capacity to compete, the propensity to compete is obviously the result of market orientation. All the while, as regards the rest of those businesses, other factors may play an important role (such as social capital, production structure, and strategy). Their precise result is that these companies are not ‘forced’ in the market to adapt the market orientation. Since the increase in market orientation leads to better corporate performance, companies should lay more emphasis on the improvement of their market orientation, especially in the cases when other factors of competitive ability are not possible for the company to acquire or the costs are too high.