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Arthur, Emmanuel (2016) Market orientation and firm performance in Ghana's telecommunications industry. Doctoral thesis, London Metropolitan University.
This study set out to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the adoption levels of market orientation (MO) in Ghana’s mobile telecommunications industry, and to assess its relationship to performance. This was necessitated by the fact that, in-spite of the superfluity of literature on market orientation and its relationship to performance in developed economies and a few on developing nations such as Ghana, there are hardly any studies on Ghana’s mobile telecommunications industry despite its impressive performance. Furthermore, available studies generally assessed market orientation without incorporating any assessment by customers. The study, in addressing these deficiencies, makes significant contribution to academic knowledge on market orientation.
Based on literature reviewed, a conceptual model and nine hypotheses are proposed for this study. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods, underpinned by realism philosophy enabled the assessment of the market orientation performance relationship. Qualitative data collection entailed an in-depth interview of ten senior officers of five mobile telecommunications firms operating in Ghana selected by a judgmental sampling method, whose response was analysed by thematic analysis. Quantitative data was obtained by administering questionnaires on 275 staff selected by a simple random sampling method and 302 subscribers selected by a two-stage process of quota and convenience sampling methods. Confirmatory factor analysis, correlation matrix, structural equation modeling and T-test are utilized in the analysis of the quantitative data and the testing of the hypotheses.
The findings of the study established that in Ghana’s mobile telecommunications industry, market orientation is determined by one internal antecedent - top management emphasis with no external antecedent influencing it. The significant effect of market orientation on business performance, customer satisfaction, customer retention, employee commitment and employee esprit de corps have also been established by this study. Finally, the study establishes that, when compared, subscribers and staff assessment of the dimensions of market orientation differed with staff rating them higher than subscribers.
Based on the findings, the study recommends the need not only for mobile telecommunication operators to continue in the pursuit of market orientated activities, but also undertake measures to close the market orientation gap between them and their subscribers. Top management should also continue with the pivotal role they are playing in the implementation of market orientation, and enhance their information generation, dissemination and responsiveness processes not only to sustain market orientation but also their performance.
Notwithstanding the shortfalls identified, which did not adversely affect outcomes of the study, the study has developed an empirical model for market orientation, firm performance relationship for the mobile telecommunications industry incorporating a comparison of the assessment of the dimensions of market orientation by subscribers and staff. It is hoped that this new model will be used for further studies in both developed and developing countries to test the viability of its application.
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