Brand and Market Orientations Linkage with Firm Performance: Towards a Hybridised Conceptual Framework: An Abstract

Market orientation over the years has received a lot of attention in academia with various studies establishing a positive relationship between market orientation and firm performance. In the last 1990s, following the research work by Urde (1999) discourse on brand orientation surfaced among scholars. Most of the studies on brand orientation have focused its conceptualisation (Mzungu et al. 2017), antecedents (Huang and Tsai 2013) and extensions (Anees-ur-Rehman et al. 2016). In more recent history, there has been calls for brand and market orientations to be synergized and treated as one strategic orientation due to their perceived complementary. A few studies conducted on synergizing brand and market orientations reports of the existence of a dynamic relationship depending on the focus of firm (Gromark 2013; M’zungu et al. 2017). Others have proposed brand orientation should be treated as a strategic resource of the firm. Brand and market orientations are perceived as being complementary with the potential to provide more value to businesses if “hybridised” and treated as one strategic orientation. Conceptual and empirical studies conducted on their similarities and relationship have fallen short of establishing the nature of interactivity between them and how this interactivity impacts firm performance. Neither has any study clearly established what type of interactivity between the two strategic orientation leads to enhanced firm performance. This paper sets out to assess the nature of interactivity between brand and market orientations on their influence on firm performance using a testable conceptual framework. This framework, is predicated on positions posited by Bridson and Evans (2004), Gromark (2011) and Reid et al. (2005) on what constitutes the components of brand orientation and the cultural components of market orientation by Narver and Slater (1990). Grounding the study on two theoretical frameworks – the Resources Based View (RBV) and Dynamic Capacity Theory (DCT), this study will seek to understand how the firm leverages its unique brand identity with its market sensing capabilities to generate value delivery services that lead to enhanced firm performance. To test the hypotheses, a purposive random sampling technique (Etikan 2016) will be applied in selecting hundred (100) service firms with the aim of reaching the managing directors, marketing managers, and financial controllers. Data collected will be analyzed using exploratory factor analysis to determine the strength of relationship between the constructs and confirmation factor analysis to test the fit of the model (Laukkanen et al. 2013). Findings from the analysis will reveal the validity or otherwise of the framework, the nature of interactivity and strength of the relationship between the constructs. This will inform the conclusion to be reached and help identify gaps in the study and opportunity for future studies.