Learning Strategic Orientation for Enhancing Business Performance

Abstract

In the present globalized business climate, it is imperative for firms to interact with their environment and adopt the culture which stimulates behavioral change and performance improvements. In this context, strategic orientation has been accepted across the world as an excellent methodology for continuous improvement in every part of the organization. The study emphasizes the significance of different strategic orientations of firms by exploring seven important business philosophies (orientations), viz., production, selling, customer, market, learning, entrepreneurial, and relationship marketing orientation. It also throws light on the role of each strategic orientation in achieving competitive advantage and better firms performance. The study suggests that practicing single strategic orientation by firms is not appropriate for divergent market contexts. Further, firms adopting plural orientation are more likely to perform even better than firms adopting only single strategic orientation. Therefore, firms should shift their focus from one strategic orientation to the combination of strategic orientation that firms can pursue in different situations as their success and survival depend on the integration of different strategic orientations.

Keywords: Strategic Orientation, Production Orientation, Selling Orientation, Customer Orientation, Market Orientation, Learning Orientation

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