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The purpose of this paper is to explore how market orientation is related to relationship building outcomes in the downstream distribution process. The authors examine the role of distributor satisfaction in mediating the association between market orientation in distribution and return on assets.

Market orientation in distribution was measured by distributor orientation, competitor orientation, and interfunctional coordination.

Results showed that the positive relationship between market orientation in distribution and distributor satisfaction was strongly supported. While distributor orientation and competitor orientation were both positively related to distributor satisfaction and return on assets, interfunctional coordination was not related to either distributor satisfaction or return on assets. However, interfunctional coordination lessened the positive relationship between distributor orientation and distributor satisfaction.

This study fills research void in downstream relationship building in the distribution process in a business-to-business context.

This study aims to explore how the distributor orientation of manufacturing-centered small and medium-sized enterprises (MCSMEs) influences relationship building outcomes, distributor satisfaction, and channel profitability.

This study examines the moderating role of competitive intensity and coordinative culture in the association between distributor orientation and relationship building outcomes.

Empirical results from 115 MCSMEs reveal a strong positive relationship between distributor orientation and distributor satisfaction. The findings also show a positive relationship between distributor orientation and channel profitability. Furthermore, although competitive intensity strengthens the positive relationship between distributor orientation and the two relationship building outcomes, coordinative intensity weakens the positive relationship between distributor orientation and the two relationship outcomes.

Managerial implications and future research opportunities were discussed.

The research contributes to the literature on the management of small and medium-sized enterprises and offers practical implications for manufacturers and distribution channel managers.

This paper seeks to examines the effect of manufacturer market orientation on distributor dependence and satisfaction with the relationship, and to analyse how this dependence affects distributor satisfaction, with specific reference to the Spanish ceramic tile industry,

Two parallel sets of individual interviews with a total of 222 manufacturers and distributors were conducted by a private research institute. They yielded 179 dyads of interaction. Market orientation, dependence and satisfaction were measured by five‐point Likert scales. The data were used to test 11 hypotheses by structural equation modelling.

Analysis of the findings suggests that all aspects of manufacturers’ market orientation have a positive effect on distributors’ satisfaction, except response implementation and the influence of distributor dependence. Contrary to expectations, dependence on the manufacturer adversely affects distributor satisfaction. The conclusion is that adoption of market orientation is justified in practice by increased dependence and satisfaction among distributors, in addition to other benefits discussed in the literature.

Although the study only focuses on one industry, and the dependence measurement scale has been limited to two items, in order to obtain an acceptable reliability level, the results are clear within those limitations and are transferable with appropriate caution to the general context.

This study addresses a gap in the research into the effect of market orientation on distribution channel relationships, and provides useful planning information on the market orientation dimensions that influence dependence and satisfaction in the relationships between members at different levels in a channel.

This paper studies the relationships between the manufacturer's market orientation behaviours and the distributor's trust in the relationship and satisfaction with it. It also analyses the effect of the distributor's trust on his/her satisfaction. Following a review of the literature, three alternative models of relationships between trust and satisfaction are compared. For this purpose the article presents the results of a study of the Spanish ceramic industry. These establish that the effect of the manufacturer's market orientation on the distributor's trust and on its satisfaction with the relationship is different depending on which dimension is considered. The model that best fits the data shows that trust improves the distributor's satisfaction with the relationship.

This study looks at the relationships between the market orientation of the manufacturer and the sources of his or her power over the distributor. The effect these power bases have on the distributor's satisfaction with the relationship is also analysed. The aricle offers the results of a study, conducted in the ceramic tile sector in Spain, aimed at measuring the market orientation of manufacturers, their power bases as perceived by their distributors, and the latter's satisfaction with the relationship. The results show that manufacturers' market orientation has a positive effect on their reward power but not on their referent power, nor on their power of coercion. However, the reward, expert and referent powers of the manufacturer have a positive effect on the distributor's satisfaction

The importance of architectural marketing capabilities (i.e. marketing planning and implementation) in exporting ventures has been recognised. However, extant literature has not taken into account the explicit roles and required synergy between the exporter and their foreign distributor in delivering these capabilities. Drawing from the resource-based theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the complementarity of distributor implementation capability and market orientation with exporter planning capability.

The study was carried out using a survey. Data were collected from 147 Greek exporters who replied to our questionnaire and the hypotheses were tested using the full information maximum likelihood estimation procedure.

The results support the hypotheses about the importance of exporter planning capability on financial performance and the complementary role of distributor market orientation. Further, the authors find that the distributor’s implementation capability partially mediates the impact of the exporter’s planning capability on financial performance.

This study contributes to a better understanding about the complementarity of exporter and distributor capabilities. It demonstrates the crucial role of the distributor in the deployment of architectural capabilities for the export venture: the distributor’s market orientation and implementation capability have the final say in achieving higher levels of export performance.

This paper aims at investigating and uncovering the potential effect of exporters' market orientation upon international business relationship with particular emphases on cooperation, dependence, and relationship distance.

This is a quantitative study using a mail survey among Thai exporting firms in various industries. The final sample size was comprised of 388 strategic business units (SBU's) from 279 Thai export firms in over eight industries. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling by means of AMOS 4.01.

Exporters' market orientation enhances the cooperation between the exporters and their major overseas distributor while minimizing their dependence and relationship distance. In addition, export performance is higher with greater exporter cooperation and lower relationship distance. Interestingly, the influence of exporter dependence on export performance varied among industry groups.

This study extends the domain of market orientation in international contexts by illustrating and empirically testing how exporters' market orientation serve as an antecedent to the development of business‐to‐business relationships, which ultimately enhances export performance. To business practitioners, this research pinpoints a particular challenge faced by exporters in managing their relationships with their overseas distributors in order to achieve better performance. Our findings show that market orientation plays a crucial role in developing and nurturing cooperative efforts with overseas distributors. As a result, exporters and their overseas distributors are recommended not only to form cooperative norms that are critical to joint marketing decisions and actions, but also aim to establish and maintain mutual dependence for their superior performance enhancement.

This study contributes to marketing and international business literature and provides insights to exporters by investigating the relationships among market orientation, behavioral aspects of business relationships and export performance. It also provides some evidence that market orientation practices are beneficial in enhancing cross‐cultural relationships, which have been given limited attention in previous literature.

The concept of market orientation has attracted attention from both academics and managers and it has been widely used in the marketing discipline to explain marketing phenomena in business and consumer markets (Deshpande, Farley, & Webster, 1993; Jaworski & Kohli, 1993; Kohli & Jaworski, 1990; Steinman, Deshpande, & Farley, 2000). The most common output or effect attributed by the literature to the market orientation concept has been the firm's achievement of good or superior financial performance by delivering superior value to customers (Deshpande et al., 1993; Hunt & Lambe, 2000; Kohli & Jaworski, 1990; Narver & Slater, 1990). The market orientation concept has also generated a stream of research in both domestic and international markets (Breman & Dalgic, 2001; Cadogan & Diamantopoulos, 1995; Cadogan, Diamantopoulos, & de Mortanges, 1999; Dalgic, 1994; Siguaw, Simpson, & Baker, 1998).

Previous research in the area of distributor performance proposed different scales, mostly in western, developed country context. These studies also lacked the consideration of dynamic interaction between variables, which determine the distributor’s performance. This paper proposes a composite Distributor Performance Index (DPI) to evaluate distributors’ performance based on at the “Enables” and “Results”, taking a system dynamics approach. The model results have been discussed and validated, in business marketing channel. The context of this study is India, an emerging market.

The concept of supply chain management (SCM) started in the logistics literature, and logistics has continued to have a significant impact on the concept. This study, however, proposes that the concepts of the marketing concept, a market orientation, relationship marketing, and SCM are not separate. Rather they are inextricably intertwined. The main purpose of this study is to highlight the role of marketing in the implementation of SCM by suggesting cause‐and‐effect relationships. Research propositions are presented and future empirical studies are called for to test the cause‐and‐effect relationships suggested in an integrative model.