University of Texas at Dallas

Market Orientation of High Tech Firms in the Metroplex

I. Introduction



Market Orientation is the âstate to which a business tends toward its customers. It is also the name given to implementation of the marketing conceptâ�? (Dalgic, 1998). Firms today are shifting their focus toward their customers. Pleasing shareholders and the Board of Directors is no longer always the top priority. The action of being more aware of a company's customer and more educated on their everyday lives can have a tremendous impact on a company. Market Orientation is not a new concept, however. The idea that the customer is one of the most important aspects of a business has been around for over 200 years. This idea began when Adam Smith described the âsovereignty of the consumerâ�? (Dalgic, 1998).



Market Orientation of high technology firms is an interesting topic to be explored. According to Jaworski and Kohli, one of the most important factors affecting the market orientation of a company is technology. The faster technology within a company changes, the more important it is that the company listen to what their customers wants are. Competition is another dimension that Jaworski and Kohli mention as a factor in market orientation. It is common knowledge that there is a high rate of technological turn-over and also high rates of competition within the high tech industry.



II. Project



My project is to survey 400 high tech companies in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex area to see how market oriented they are. I will be sending out 650 surveys total so that I can obtain the 400 responses needed for a 95% accuracy rating. Statistics show that about 60% of the surveys sent out will be answered if I make one follow-up call after a reasonable amount of time. The surveys will be completed and sent back to me by November of this year. At that time, I will compute, based on the answers given, the relation between market orientation and business performance. The study will also help with determining the interdepartmental dynamics of the market oriented companies versus the non-market oriented companies. Since market orientation is supposed to be common knowledge that is disseminated throughout a company, it will be interesting to observe if this is, indeed, the case.



I will be using the survey tool QuestionPro. More information on this can be found at http://www.questionpro.com. This paper is to be completed by December 1, 2005.



III. Academic Background



I graduated with an undergraduate degree in business administration from UT Dallas in August of 2004. I am currently pursuing my MBA with a focus in marketing. I expect to graduate with my MBA in May of 2006. This paper will be fulfilling 3 marketing credit hours that I need in order to graduate.



IV. Some Works Cited



Dalgic, Tevfik (1998), âDissemination of Marketing Orientation in Europe: A Conceptual and

Historical Evaluation,� International Marketing Review, Vol. 15, No. 1, 1998, pp. 45-60.

MCB University Press.



Jaworski, B.J. and A.K. Kohli (1993), âMarket Orientation: Antecedents and Consequences,â�?

Journal of Marketing, 57 (July), 53-70.