The effect of market orientation on buyer-seller relationship satisfaction

In recent years, much of the Marketing scientific community's interest has been dedicated to the study of the market orientation concept. Numerous works, which are centered on the analysis of this orientation's dimensions, outcomes, antecedents and moderating factors, may be found. Though the empirical evidence attained up to now is not conclusive in any of these areas, the study of the nonfinancial results derived from this focus has been specially scarce. Thus, this paper attempts to verify a model in which a firm's cultural market orientation serves as an antecedent for its degree of satisfaction with its main supplier. To this end, empirical data provided by a sample of 174 Spanish industrial firms were analyzed. The main conclusions of this research lead us to confirm the indirect influence that the buyer firm's cultural market orientation exerts on the level of satisfaction with its main supplier. On the other hand, the evidence attained also leads us to propose several suggestions relative to the supplier's business management in order to improve relationships with its customers. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.