Sectoral variations in market orientation and performance among small service firms in Botswana

Jaiyeoba Olumide, Iwu Chux Gervase () and Marandu Edward
Additional contact information
Jaiyeoba Olumide: Botho University, Gaborone, Botswana
Iwu Chux Gervase: Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa
Marandu Edward: University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana

Management & Marketing, 2018, vol. 13, issue 3, 1076-1088

Abstract: The quest for the diversification of Botswana’s mineral-led economy necessitates an examination of other performing ones such as the Tourism-Transport and Finance-Consulting small service sectors which have been identified as also contributing immensely to its economy. So, this paper investigates variations in market orientation and performance among small service firms in Botswana. In more specific terms, it involves analysis of variations with regard to tourism-transport and finance-consulting firms. Set in Botswana, data were obtained, using a respondent-completed questionnaire from 54 managers in the tourism-transport sector and 121 managers in the finance-consulting sector. Despite the focus of the study on sectoral variations among service firms in Botswana, the study makes major contributions to our understanding of market orientation-performance link. First, the overall level of market orientation varied significantly between the two sectors. Secondly, two of the three components of market orientation, namely intelligence generation and intelligence responsiveness also displayed statistically significant differences between each component and the two sectors. Thirdly, organizational commitment, team spirit and customer satisfaction were significantly different between the two sectors. These findings suggest the need for a sustained and systematic study aimed at finding out the relative importance of market orientation in different sectors. Such a study may be helpful in suggesting differentiated marketing orientation emphases that may help firms optimize their marketing budget. Notwithstanding the several scholarly works on market orientation and firm performance, the value of market orientation in sub-Saharan Africa has only begun to receive attention in Africa. Research evidence is scanty in the case of Botswana.

Keywords: market orientation; small service firms; sub-Saharan Africa; Botswana; mineral-led economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.2478/mmcks-2018-0024 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:manmar:v:13:y:2018:i:3:p:1076-1088:n:5

DOI: 10.2478/mmcks-2018-0024

Access Statistics for this article

Management & Marketing is currently edited by Alina Mihaela Dima

More articles in Management & Marketing from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().