Using grounded theory to model market orientation experiences at practice

The purpose of this paper is to gain knowledge from the practitioners about market orientation implementation in Swiss watch firms. A purposeful stratified sampling method was employed, where in-depth interviews with 18 marketing managers and owners were carried out over a five-month period. Meaning units (MUs) were abstracted, which were compared and discussed with the interviewees until a basic agreement of terms could be made. Having identified three keys to market orientation success that the companies interviewed had to resolve when targeting emerging markets (the importance of culture, managing market intelligence, innovation as a core competence). The recommendations arising from this piece will be of use to market orientation implementation when entering emerging markets. Equally, it provides practitioners of the common problems to be faced when breaking into international markets based on the experience of colleagues in the industry. Both practitioners and scholar in the manufacturing domain will benefit from the synthesis offered in this paper, as it puts together convergent views on what market orientation implementation affect the performance of the organisation during this challenging time.