Antecedents,Environmental Moderators and Consequences of Market Orientation: A Study of Pharmaceutical Firms in Ghana

Abstract

Despite the widespread recognition attached to market orientation (MO) as a strategic drive for firms to attain and maintain competitive advantage, relatively little is known of its performance implication for pharmaceutical firms. An MO concept successfully applied to the pharmaceutical industry should drive the manufacturing, distribution or over-the-counter sale of medicines for new diseases or medicines with better results in terms of health outcomes, which would enable the focal firms to enjoy some competitive advantages. This study examines both internal and external factors affecting MO while relating MO to the performance of pharmaceutical firms. A popular MO construct in the scientific literature was replicated by estimating three multiple regression equations to test some hypotheses based on data collected on pharmaceutical firms in Ghana. The results show a strong positive association between MO and overall performance (R² = 0.291; P ≤ 0.001). It was observed that senior management factors consistently shaped the direction of MO of pharmaceutical firms; however, there were some inconsistencies regarding how interdepartmental dynamics, organizationwide systems and external factors affect MO of these firms.

Keywords

market orientation;performance;innovation;pharmaceutical industry;Ghana

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