Marketing orientation : A component analysis approach to facilities management.

The facilities management industry in the UK is relatively young but has experienced a rapid growth within the past two decades. This rapid development has increased the number of players in the industry and consequently, the need for greater market responsiveness. Despite this reality, an extensive literature search could not find any empirical study addressing the issue of marketing orientation in the industry. It was the aim of this study to fill the above gap in the marketing literature. The study aimed to reconceptualise marketing orientation and broaden-its dimensions in order to accommodate the paradoxes that are emerging as new contexts are focused. The boundary conditions for this reconceptualisation is a young industry such as Facilities Management, that lacks a well established industrial culture, is presently experiencing market turbulence and rapid growth, and operating within a period of intersection of the modem and postmodern cultures. The limits of present conceptualisation of marketing orientation as applicable to nascent industries are explored. Attempts to overcome these limits revealed a new conceptual framework for businesses trying to create and sustain a competitive advantage in the industry. The study also aimed to address implementation problems being faced in the industry by identifying useful antecedents that can enhance or impede the implementation process. The later part of the study was devoted to developing a benchmarking model that can be used by managers, to benchmark their organisations against the best practices in the field, in terms of marketing orientation. The study depended heavily on a positivist paradigm, where the quantitative research approach was heavily used. In-depth interviews were conducted in the later part of the research to explore some of the issues arising from the quantitative approach. It is hoped that this methodological triangulation will correct some of the inherent flaws of one-sided methodological approaches. Various methodological issues affecting the study were considered and necessary action taken. These methodological issues include, self assessment, reverse score items, non response bias, scope of study, sample frame, reliability and validity issues, interviewer effect, and others. Mail survey was used to collect data for the quantitative aspect of the research and 107 responses were used in the analysis.Being exploratory in design, the study sought to develop a scale that can adequately capture the operationalisation of the marketing concept within the facilities management industry. This was achieved by identifying aspects of marketing orientation that are not properly accommodated by the marketing literature, leading to the construction and validation of a new model of measurement. The scale development process provided empirical evidence that all components should be given equal weighting whencalculating the level of marketing orientation of an organisation. This confirms empirically what was previously assumed only from theoretical conceptualisation. Three new antecedents to marketing orientation were identified, namely; structural flux, employee flexibility, and teamwork orientation. The study established a higher level of marketing orientation pro-activity among firms with a formal customer service plan than those without. Paradoxically, the existence of a written customer service guideline was not found to have any significant impact on organisational marketing orientation stances. A benchmarking model that can be used by managers was developed and validated.