Customer Orientation: Its Surprising Origins, Tumultuous Development and Place in the Future of Marketing thought and Practice

Abstract

This paper demonstrates that the concept of customer orientation has its genesis not in marketing, but rather in management thought; specifically, within the Scientific Management movement. We trace the concept through its popularisation in the marketing discipline with the work of Theodore Levitt, the subsequent difficulties in translating the concept into practice through the late twentieth century, and its eventual integration and application of into more recent streams of popular marketing thought and practice, such as service-dominant logic and co-creation. We conclude with an exposition of the contribution of customer orientation to the disciplines of marketing and strategy in the guise of design thinking, the business model canvas, disruptive innovation, and lean startup. In this way, we are “righting” two “wrongs” by correcting the received wisdom in both management and marketing. We are also helping researchers, educators and practitioners in these two disciplines avoid falling into the related traps of repeating their mistakes if do not have an adequate grasp of their past or ‘re-inventing-the-wheel’.

The Role of Planned Behavior in Predicting Customer Orientation

“…Organizations that have a customer orientation strategy direct their internal efforts towards creating superior value for customers (Slater and Narver, 1998). Over the last 80 years, the terms "customer orientation", the marketing concept "customer-led" and "market orientation" have been used interchangeably in practice (Brady and Cronin, 2001), but customer orientation is conceptually different from the other constructs (Duffy et al 2020). Organizations should not only think about what they produce, but also consider what value that can provide to customers.…”

Location, market orientation, and firm performance: An analysis of the Colombian healthcare industry

“…Market orientation (MO) is a topic that has been studied extensively within the context of a firm's strategy and culture, particularly given its effects on business performance and its potential to stimulate competitive advantage (Narver & Slater, 1990;Duffy et al, 2020).…”

Competitive Imitation Strategy for New Product-Market Success

“…Mobilizing existing entry resources might have a positive impact on product differentiation. Resource based view (RBV) supports that firms with good capability to mobilize their existing resources would also be able to differentiate their products (Barney, 1991; Duffy et al, 2020; O’Cass et al, 2012). For an additional analysis, we added a path from mobilization of existing entry resources to product differentiation in SEM.…”