Market-Driven Management --– a business policy widely regarded a traditional marketing evolution in consequence of rampant globalization processes, a remarkable technological progress, highly facilitated communication, private and public infrastructure development and hyper competition dynamics. In front of such macro and micro environmental complexity, Market-Driven approach codifies firms new behavioral models centered on continuous competitors monitoring, uninterrupted offering innovation, networking and, finally, on a strong, integrated and flexible corporate culture. According to Slater and Narver MDM logic, in fact, articulates firms spirit combining three fundamental components: customer orientation, competitor orientation and inter functional coordination. George S. Day’s interpretative model, on the other hand, explains the market orientation by a bundle of three elements strongly interacting between each other: business culture (entrepreneurship, innovativeness, orientation to meet the customer’s needs, emphasis on learning), organizational configuration (organizational structure, support, checking and incentive systems, information systems) and resources and capabilities (outside-in, inside-out and spanning capabilities). Necessary to say, the interaction between the following resources is fundamental in order to make the competitive advantage sustainable and, as a consequence, critical for actions-reactions processes formulation.
In particular, scholars like Narver, Slater, Kohli, Jaworski, Lambin, Day and Brondoni claims the importance of such logic in global organizations as a direct response to complex global market conditions. In fact, the market concept itself requests a new theoretical refinement as a consequence of a virtual market solidification and global market crystallization. Thus, the market structure complexity imposes a new market-oriented managerial culture, where time (time-based competition) and space (market-space competition) are retained crucial for the firms competiveness. As George S. Day underlines, a Market-Driven Organization, is more skillful in understanding its markets complex structure and, as a consequence, more successful in establishing competitive and/or cooperative linkages with its competitors, distributors and third parties.
If seen in a systemic approach key, Market-Driven Organization’s functional and decisional areas are highly aware of their interaction and complementarity in the system. In particular, a flexible corporate culture, an integrated information system and an efficient internal communication play a prominent role in making all the organizational areas more receptive to share operational definitions about each other’s improvement projects and to formulate action plans. Thus, continuous information and skills flows becomes vital for the organizational structure intended in its broadest sense and reveals functional for the resources optimization. In fact, an efficient management of such turnover is particularly significant in a view of uninterrupted offering innovation, where the firm’s lack of flexibility may significantly compromise its final performance in monetary and non-monetary terms.
Bibliography
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Kohli Ajay K., Jaworski Bernard J.,(1990), Market Orientation: The Construct, Research Propositions, and Managerial Implications, Journal of Marketing, April
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