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The purpose of this paper is to extend the literature on market-driven and market-driving management and analyzes the Benetton’s market orientation change from a market-driving to a market-driven orientation. Additionally, this study uses longitudinal data to measure the degree of success of the market-driven orientation.

The study is based on a qualitative case study method and it discusses how Benetton has moved from a market-driving to a market-driven orientation.

The paper analyzes the principal transformations the Benetton Group has gone through to implement a market-driven orientation, including the delocalization of the manufacturing and of trusted suppliers; the downstream integration process; the adoption of a flexible, efficient and responsive logistics; the implementation of a modern information systems infrastructure. Revenues data show that the company has benefited of the new orientation, but only in the short-run. Moreover, the early adoption of the market-driven orientation by competing firms (e.g. Zara) and the economic environment seem to play an influence on the performance of market-driven companies.

The single case study approach may limit the generalizability of the findings. However, this case study is unique and of high importance for managers in different industries.

Although some studies have discussed the benefits of market-driven and market-driving orientations, no study has analysed how companies move from a market-driving to a market-driven orientation. Additionally, existing studies have proved market orientation’s influence on business performance using static measures. This study uses longitudinal data to show the effect of market-driven orientation on a company’s long-term competitive advantage.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how a company’s orientation enables sustainable practices in its supply chains. Specifically, it focusses on how the strategic orientation of a company may stimulate new behaviours in supply chains.

Two in-depth qualitative case studies were conducted. Each company’s orientation to sustainable supply chains was studied using cross-case analysis.

The organisations in this study have a market-driving (i.e. proactive) orientation instead of market-driven (i.e. responsive) behaviour. Using analysis from the process of change for sustainability and explaining some challenges faced by both organisations, findings indicate that a corporate strategy of sustainability modified the companies’ management processes, even for the company that changed its orientation during the time (i.e. sustainability was not the main strategy at first). Practical examples of actions are provided to illustrate the study’s conclusion that a corporate orientation towards sustainability is an enabling factor in developing sustainable supply chain management (SCM).

Strategic management plays an important role in a company’s orientation towards sustainability – internally and throughout its supply chains. Based on the findings, future research should measure the effect of a company’s orientation on sustainable SCM.

This study contributes to the understanding of companies’ strategic orientations and explores ways to introduce sustainability into supply chains.

The paper examines an underexplored debate regarding to how strategic orientations are related to sustainable SCM, focussing on both market-driving (i.e. proactive) and market-driven (i.e. responsive) orientations.

The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between corporate branding and market driving. This is achieved by focusing on key dimensions of brand identity such as brand values and staff behaviours, while acknowledging the role of vision and organisational culture. The links between these brand constituents and the actual activities of the firm in a market are explored through interactions with stakeholders.

This research is based on an in‐depth case study of IKEA at a corporate level and its local market activities in Russia. The single‐case approach is used to generate insights into how corporate branding is related to market driving practices and to identify the mechanisms of market driving in the Russian market.

The corporate brand provides a further source of the “leap” in customer value recognised as a requirement for a market driving approach. Through a case study of IKEA in Russia it is shown that the core values of the brand guide both the behaviour and activities of internal stakeholders and the relationships with external stakeholders, and the interactions between the corporate “global” brand values and local market level activities are explored.

The paper provides insights on the role of a corporate brand as a driving force of market driving from a broad stakeholder perspective.

Previous research studying larger market-driving businesses argues that successful entrepreneurs intuitively show market-driving capabilities. Even though market-driving is acknowledged as entrepreneurial action and practice, this phenomenon has rarely been studied from a micro-business perspective. Representing more than 40% of all food businesses in Norway, micro-businesses contribute significantly to both value creation and variety in the marketplace, and this study addresses the existing research gap by examining market-driving practices in food micro-businesses in a competitive Norwegian grocery market.

The study employs a multiple-case-study approach with four pioneering food micro-businesses within the Norwegian local food sector. Data collected during in-depth interviews with the individual founder-managers provide insight into understanding market-driving practices through the lens of entrepreneurial orientation.

The findings suggest that food micro-businesses are disrupting the grocery market through their pioneering practices. A three-pillared framework for market-driving practices in food micro-businesses was developed: (1) taking the risk and following their passion, (2) innovativeness led by a passionate personal value proposition, and (3) proactively and perseveringly building a new category.

The study offers a novel attempt to explore and conceptualize market-driving practices in a micro-business context. The findings present a new framework for market-driving contextualized in the local food sector, representing an under-investigated area in micro-business and enterprise development.

Organization change (OC) is increasingly important in today's volatile world. Understanding OC is a growing emphasis of management and organization (M&O) research and the singular focus of OC scholarship and practice. We show how selected M&O theories inform OC at the organization level. These theoretical perspectives diverge on issues central to OC. We explore what these conceptual differences mean for OC study and practice going forward.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how auditors’ professional and organizational identities are associated with commercialization in audit firms. Unlike previous studies exploring the consequences of commercialization in the firms, the study directs its attention toward the potential driver of commercialization, which the authors argue to be the identities of the auditors.

The paper is based on 374 responses to a survey distributed to 3,588 members of FAR, the professional association of accountants, auditors and advisors in Sweden. The study used established measures of organizational and professional identity and introduced market, customer and firm process orientation as aspects of commercialization. The study explored the data through descriptive statistics, principle component analysis and correlation analysis and tested the hypotheses with multiple linear regression analysis.

The findings indicated that the organizational identity of auditors has a positive association with three aspects of commercialization: market orientation, customer orientation and firm process orientation. Contrary to the arguments based on prior literature, the study has found that the professional identity of auditors is also a positively associated with commercialization. This indicates a change of the role of professional identity vis-à-vis commercialization of audit firms. The positive association between professional identity and commercial orientation could indicate the development of “organizational professionalism.” The study also found differences between the association between professional identity and commercialization in Big 4 and non-Big 4 firms. While in Big 4 firms, professional identity is positively associated only with the firm’s process orientation, in non-Big 4 firms, professional identity has a positive association with all three aspects of commercialization.

The paper provides insight into how auditors’ identities have influenced commercialization of audit firms and into the normalizing of commercialization within auditing. The study also developed a new instrument for measuring commercialization, one based on market, customer and firm process orientation concepts. This paper suggests that this instrument is an alternative to the observation through proxies.

This research focuses on the effects that three different strategic orientations have on firm performance in the specific domain of retailing. The paper also aims to deal with the mediating role that innovation plays in this relationship.

Component analysis is used to find out which factors really build up each of the constructs involved. In order to analyze the convergence of the model a confirmatory factor analysis is performed by means of a structural equation model based on LISREL 8.54 technique.

From the 244 responses the results show that market driving proved to be a strong predictor of performance in addition to innovation acting as a mediator between strategic orientations in retailers and business performance.

In a future research it would be advisable to include supplier and customer perceptions of the strategic orientation carried on by retailing firms. The study of different innovation categories should also be enlarged. Furthermore, a wider sample that encompassed several countries and different retailers‐type strata could help to understand culture and industry depending factors.

Among the strategic orientations developed by retail firms, market driving (MD) proved to be better both in its direct influence on performance and by jointly developing innovations – to benefit from the role of innovation as a mediator between MD and performance.

Although there are many references in literature devoted to market orientation (MO), hardly any research has addressed before the role of MD as strategic orientation in the retailing industry – and consequently the relationship between MO and MD. Moreover, the paper researches the role of innovation – in a twofold perspective: innovation in management processes and product innovation – as a mediator between strategic orientations in retail firms and business performance.

This research aims to investigate how entrepreneurial orientation influences a firm’s differentiation–cost advantage ambidexterity (DCAA) and performance indirectly through dynamic capabilities, while also investigating the impact of the interactive effect of the level and consistency of entrepreneurial orientation on dynamic capabilities. The goal of this study is to better understand the importance of consistently following an entrepreneurial orientation, as well as the linkage of such a consistently implemented strategy upon gaining both a cost and differentiation positioning enhancement.

Two empirical studies are conducted to test the proposed hypotheses – one longitudinal with multiple forms of data (i.e. text data, survey data and archival data) from 100 Taiwanese electronics firms and the other using primary data from a survey of senior managers.

Entrepreneurial orientation improves dynamic capabilities, which in turn promote superior DCAA and enhanced firm performance. In addition, as captured through a unique measure of consistency allowed through computer-aided text analysis, the results indicate that the effect of entrepreneurial orientation on dynamic capabilities is amplified when a firm consistently adopts entrepreneurial decisions and actions.

The specific context was a sample of electronics firms in Taiwan. This limits the generalization of findings, as would be possible with assessing the hypotheses in other industries.

This research clearly demonstrates the significance of consistency in pursuing a strategic orientation. The consistent support and deployment of resources facilitates an organization’s achieving positive outcomes associated with an entrepreneurial orientation.

While entrepreneurial orientation contributes to firm performance, extant knowledge on the internal process through which entrepreneurial orientation affects performance is relatively limited. The findings not only highlight the full mediating role of dynamic capabilities and DCAA, but also shed light on the importance of consistency in entrepreneurial orientation over time.

The paper aims at providing insights into how market orientation and organisational culture together contribute to brand performance, shedding light on the nexus between innovative culture and market orientation, and examining the relative importance of innovative culture over market orientation in affecting brand performance.

In a cross‐sectional survey, a variance‐based structural equation modelling was used to test hypotheses on a convenience sample of 180 marketing executives in Australia.

Organisations with a strong innovative culture appear to recognise that building a successful brand depends not always on the interpretation of feedback received from current customers and competitors, but instead on organisations' ability to innovatively develop unique ways of delivering superior value to customers. The findings were consistent with this advice to both market orientation and innovative culture. In addition, the findings indicate that market orientation is a response partially derived from the organisation's innovative culture. Finally, it was also found that organisational culture was relatively more important than market orientation in affecting organisational performance.

The paper advances the understanding of performance‐based market orientation research by investigating structural relationships among market orientation, organisational culture, and organisational performance at the micro level (e.g. brand performance).

This investigation seeks to elaborate on how proactive market orientation (MO) and responsive MO motivate firms to conduct business model innovation (BMI) through the breadth of market knowledge search (BMKS) and the depth of market knowledge search (DMKS).

Based on the survey data of 259 high-tech firms in the industrial parks of the Yangtze River Delta, this study uses multiple hierarchical regressions to examine the hypotheses and conducts Sobel and bootstrapping methods to further test the mediating effects.

The findings indicate that the positive effects of proactive and responsive MO on BMI are mediated by BMKS and DMKS. It also shows that proactive MO has a greater impact on BMKS than responsive MO, while responsive MO has a stronger impact on DMKS than proactive MO.

Firms with different MOs can choose different types of market knowledge search to promote BMI, which reminds managers to give attention to the importance of bridging MOs with knowledge search strategies in BMI.

This study introduces a constructive theoretical framework by examining the roles of MO and market knowledge search on BMI. The findings reveal that MO as a key initiating factor and market knowledge search as an important conduit play vital roles in the experimental process of BMI and identify the differential effects of proactive and responsive MO on two types of market knowledge search.