Authors: Gulakova Olga; Rebiazina Vera; Smirnova Maria
This paper challenges the current understanding of the nature of customer orientation in the context of B2B firms in an emerging market using the example of Russia. The Russian market is considered as representing an example of a post-soviet market, evolving to a market economy, and simultaneously, a dynamically developing emerging market. While the field of customer orientation has been studied extensively since 1990s, there have hardly been attempts to review the concept with the consideration of the specifics of the markets undergoing transformation to a market economy or emerging markets. This study revisits existing approaches to defining and measuring customer orientation. An empirical survey of 272 Russian B2B firms represents the platform for re-testing well-known customer orientation measurement tools as an integrated complex measure. The resulting conclusions confirm the role of customer orientation in shaping a firm’s vision and differentiating its strategy, and provide insights into the potential next steps of working with the concept in new contexts, by highlighting the fact that the characteristics of the customer orientation differ dramatically from those in developed markets.
Journal: n.a. (n.a. – n.a.)
Web Address: n.a.
Publish Year: 2016
Conference: Poznan, Poland (2016)