Market orientation and entrepreneurship : a study and comparison of two Maltese service companies

Abstract

The ability to learn faster than competitors may be the only source of sustainable competitive advantage. Empirical data has shown that a Learning Organisation is skilled at creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behaviour to reflect new knowledge and insights. A market orientation, complemented by an entrepreneurial drive, provides the cultural foundation for organisational learning which should lead directly to superior outcomes, such as greater new product successes, superior customer retention, higher customer defined quality and ultimately, superior growth and I or profitability. This work attempts to study two Maltese service organisations - Thomas Cook Malta Limited and The Trade Club - through a qualitative assessment of the level of market and entrepreneurial orientations present in both companies. The results were compared to Benchmark data obtained from studies conducted in the UK. The two orientations were measured by two instruments: MARKOR, the 32 item instrument proposed by Jaworski and Kohli (1993) and the 12 item entrepreneurship scale used by Morris, Avila and Allen (1993). Both instruments were amalgamated into a questionnaire which was distributed to the heads of the departments within both companies and followed up by interviews. The results were analysed and interpreted per individual scale and on a company wide level and then compared between the two companies. Recommendations based on the findings were put forward to the management teams to adopt as part of their efforts towards becoming more profitable, better performing, learning organisations.