Strategic marketing and business performance: a study in three European 'engineering countries'

Matti Jaakkola, Kristian Möller , Petri Parvinen, Heiner Evanschitzky, Hans Mühlbacher

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In spite of its relevance, the effects of strategic marketing on business performance are sparingly studied, especially in particular business contexts. We address this gap in two ways. First, we examine the influence of four key strategic marketing concepts—market orientation, innovation orientation, and two marketing capability categories (outside-in and inside-out capabilities)—on company performance. Second, these relationships are studied in three European “engineering countries:” Austria, Finland and Germany. Their relative homogeneity enables testing the generality versus context-specificity of strategic marketing's performance impact. Using SEM analysis, surprisingly weak relationships between market orientation and outside-in capabilities, and business performance are identified, as opposed to the strong role of inside-out capabilities and innovation orientation. These results can be understood through the “engineering country” characteristics. Moreover, clear differences in results are identified among these relatively homogenous countries. This is a major finding as it challenges the widely assumed generality of the strategic marketing–performance relationship. Country-specific results have also considerable managerial relevance.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1300-1310
Number of pages11
JournalIndustrial Marketing Management
Volume39
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2010

Bibliographical note

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Industrial marketing management. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Jaakkola, M, Möller , K, Parvinen, P, Evanschitzky, H & Mühlbacher, H, 'Strategic marketing and business performance: a study in three European 'engineering countries'' Industrial marketing management, vol 39, no. 8 (2010) DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2010.06.005

Keywords

  • strategic marketing
  • business performance
  • resource-based view
  • business orientations
  • structural equation modeling

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