Market orientation, managerial perceptions, and corporate culture in an emerging market: Evidence from Turkey

Market orientation (MO) has inspired a rich literature in marketing and organizational behavior recently. Many of these studies have been conducted in developed market contexts, however, with only a few focusing on emerging markets (EM). The way MO is perceived and implemented by managers in EMs may be quite different than those in developed markets. The institutional contexts typically found in EMs and EM firms’ national and corporate cultures will likely influence how MO is perceived as practiced by different levels and functional areas of managers. In this paper, we focus on this phenomenon by empirically testing whether and the extent to which managerial perceptions of MO vary across functions, managerial levels, and company cultures in one EM setting, Turkey. Based on responses gathered from 587 managers employed in 14 separate businesses spread across the different SBUs composing a diversified conglomerate, our results indicate that MO perceptions embedded in the focal firm will vary by level of management and by function. Our findings also indicate that organizational culture contexts that inspire adaptability, cohesiveness, participation, and sense of family may be more conducive to creating higher levels of MO perceptions in EM managers. We discuss these findings and offer avenues for future research.