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This article describes the evaluation of the ACE club, a service for younger people with dementia in North Wales. The evaluation was conducted by the ACE club members and conducted through a relationship‐centred approach expressed through the Senses Framework (achievement, belonging, continuity, purpose, security, significance) (Nolan et al, 2006). Members of the ACE club found the sense of significance to be the most important and meaningful ‘sense’ in helping to structure their evaluation and use of the ACE club. The clinical interventions outline is shared within the text to help provide a grounded and inductively generated practice structure. The funding of ‘normalising’ activities for younger people with dementia is an area of dementia care that needs urgent attention.

The marketing literature indicates that a firm’s organizational culture plays a critical role in determining its market orientation (MO) and thereby the firm’s ability to successfully adapt to its environment to achieve superior business performance. However, our understanding of the organizational culture of market-oriented firms and its relationship with business performance remains limited in a number of important ways. Drawing on the behavioral theory of the firm and the competing values theory perspective on organizational culture, our empirical study addresses important knowledge gaps concerning the relationship between firm MO culture, MO behaviors, innovation, customer satisfaction, and business performance.

We used a survey methodology with Clan Cultural Orientation, Adhocracy Cultural Orientation, Market Cultural Orientation, and Hierarchy Cultural Orientation Clan. Market Orientation Behaviors, Innovation, and Customer Satisfaction and CFROA _t (Net Operating Income + Depreciation and Amortization – Disposal of Assets)/Total Assets.

The overall fit of the first Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) containing the three MO behavior sub-scales, the four organizational culture scales, and the innovation and satisfaction performance measures was good with a χ ² = 760.89, 524 df, p < 0.001; CFI = 0.916 and RMSEA = 0.055. The overall fit of the second CFA containing the business strategy, bureaucracy, and customer expectations control variables was also good with a χ ² = 243.26, 156 df, p < 0.001; CFI = 0.937 and RMSEA = 0.061. We also subsequently ran a third CFA in which the MO behavior construct was modeled as a second-order factor comprising the three first-order sub-scales (generation of market intelligence, dissemination of market intelligence, and responsiveness to market intelligence) each of which in turn arose from the relevant survey indicants. This measurement model also fit well with the data with a χ ² = 84.06, 63 df, p < 0.039; CFI = 0.955 and RMSEA = 0.047. Regressions using seemingly unrelated regressions (SUR) with control variables and with R ² values ranging from 0.28 to 0.54.

MO culture has an important direct effect on firms’ financial performance as well as an indirect effect via MO behaviors and innovations. Importantly, our findings suggest that MO culture facilitates value-creating behaviors above and beyond those identified in the marketing literature as MO behaviors. In contrast to a series of studies by Deshpandé and colleagues (1993, 1999, 2000, 2004), our empirical results suggest the value of the internally oriented Clan and to a lesser degree Hierarchy cultural orientations as well as the more externally oriented Adhocracy and Market cultural orientations. The benchmark ideal MO culture profile we identify is consistent with organization theory conceptualizations of strong balanced organizational cultures in which each of the four competing values orientations is simultaneously exhibited to a significant degree (e.g., Cameron & Freeman, 1991). Our findings indicate that the organizational culture domain of MO appears to be at least as important (if not more so) in explaining firm performance and suggest that researchers need to re-visit the conceptualization, and perhaps more importantly the operationalization, of MO as a central construct in strategic marketing thought.

In building an MO culture, an important first step is to assess the firm’s existing organizational culture profile (e.g., Goodman, Zammuto, & Gifford, 2001). Organization theory researchers have developed competing values theory-based organizational culture assessment tools that can provide managers with an easily accessible mechanism for accomplishing this (Cameron & Quinn, 1999). The profile of the firm’s existing culture and the profile of the ideal culture for MO from our study can then be plotted on a “spider’s web” graphical representation (e.g., Hooijberg & Petrock, 1993). This aids the comparison of the firm’s existing cultural profile with the ideal MO profile, enabling managers to easily diagnose the areas, direction, and magnitude MO culture profile “gaps” in their firm (Cameron, 1997). Specific gap-closing plans and tactics for gaps on each of the four cultural orientations can then be identified as part of the development of a change management program designed to create an MO culture profile (e.g., Chang & Wiebe, 1996). Cameron and Quinn’s (1999) workbook provides managers with an excellent operational resource for planning and undertaking such gap-closing organizational culture change initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to validate market orientation (MO) and business results scales in an area of significant interest for the literature: namely, service firms of a small and micro‐scale in a market sharing many similarities with Latin America (cultural, social and economic), specifically the Spanish rural tourism market.

On the basis of a literature review covering works specializing in MO and its impact on the service sector, and in the characteristics of small‐ and micro‐sized service firms (SMSF), a qualitative and a quantitative study are carried out in Spain, at a national level.

The results validate the scales and identify that MO comprises the following dimensions: information‐gathering, dissemination of information, and response to the market. The validated business results scale includes economic/financial results and others of a more personal nature linked to the entrepreneur business owner.

The work provides knowledge regarding the activities undertaken by SMSF in the area of MO. Professionals from the small‐ and micro‐sized service sector can use this knowledge to plan and design market‐focussed actions that will lead to improved business performance.

The work validates MO and business results scales that have been widely studied throughout the literature but that leave a significant gap in the case of SMSF operating in Latin American countries. The business base in these countries comprises a large percentage of such small‐scale operations.

El objetivo de este trabajo es validar las escalas de orientación al mercado y de consecución de resultados empresariales en un ámbito de interés para la literatura como es el de las empresas de servicios de tamaño pequeño y micro en contexto próximos al de Iberoamérica, como es el sector del turismo rural en el ámbito español.

A partir de la revisión de la literatura especializada en orientación al mercado, su impacto en el sector servicios y en las características de las empresas de servicios pequeñas y micro, se lleva a cabo un estudio cualitativo y un estudio cuantitativo a nivel nacional en España.

Los resultados alcanzados permiten validar las escalas e identificar que la orientación al mercado queda integrada por las dimensiones de captación de información, diseminación de la información y respuesta hacia el mercado. Por otra parte, los resultados empresariales incluyen resultados económico‐financieros y otros de carácter personal vinculados al empresario.

Este trabajo aporta un mayor conocimiento en relación con las actividades que las empresas de servicios pequeñas y micro pueden llevar a cabo para orientarse al mercado. Este conocimiento puede ser utilizado por los profesionales del sector al planear y diseñar las acciones de mercado de sus empresas, conduciendo a un mayor desempeño de la actividad empresarial.

La orientación al mercado y sus efectos en empresas de servicios pequeñas y micro en un contexto próximo al iberoamericano como es el de España difiere con respecto a otros ámbitos de aplicación más generales. El conjunto de aspectos considerados en este trabajo, permiten llevar a cabo una adecuada aplicación empírica en esta área donde en la revisión de la literatura aparece una carencia de trabajos empíricos.

Retailer loyalty card marketing intelligence presents actual customer purchasing preferences, competitor activities and performance. Typically, extant literature implies that larger firms with formal marketing planning approaches will be more able to leverage it, structured as it is within a formalized statistical format. Small business literature on the other hand emphasizes their more informal approach to marketing planning. The purpose of this paper is to consider, for the first time, the potential relationship between retailer loyalty card marketing intelligence and small business market orientation.

A conceptual model is developed which diagrammatically interprets how retailer loyalty card marketing intelligence can relate to small business market orientation. Propositions provide a basis for further discussion with applied and research implications.

A pertinent aspect of the conceptualization is the role of small business owner‐manager insight and intuition within an experiential learning context. A complementary relationship is posited in the leveraging of retailer loyalty card marketing intelligence to enhance small business market orientation, which with higher levels of entrepreneurship orientation can lead to positive organizational outcomes, such as facilitating more successful and informed engagement with larger suppliers.

The paper addresses the increasing pressure small businesses face in dealing with retailer loyalty card marketing intelligence. Generally, literature has yet to adequately address marketing planning implications for firms. The informal/formal tension when considering small businesses presents a particularly interesting area of conceptual development, integrating market orientation literature and also recent developments which point to interaction between market and entrepreneurship orientations. This paper therefore provides a basis for a new small business research agenda in an area which is highly topical and important, with a synthesis of the extant literature in developing a conceptualization and propositions. The conceptualization and propositions can facilitate the development of new research and thinking in this potentially fruitful area of future enquiry.

While literature has examined market orientation, it is limited with respect to small businesses. More specifically, previous research has not considered empirically the relationship between small business market orientation and environmental uncertainty. Due to resource constraints, smaller businesses are especially vulnerable to environmental uncertainty. To address this, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between environmental uncertainty and small business market orientation.

Drawing from small business literature, the authors developed a research model advancing and testing hypotheses to address the research aim. An empirical study was conducted with 104 small grocery retailers from Brazil. A questionnaire was administered, divided into two sections relating to measurement of market orientation and the market turbulence and technological turbulence as dimensions of environmental uncertainty. ANOVA technique and a multinominal logistic regression model were employed to analyze the results.

The findings reinforce the view of market orientation as a dynamic construct which can explain the relationship between small businesses and environmental uncertainty. Small businesses with higher levels of market orientation emphasized responsiveness as a critical dimension in orienting to turbulent markets. The findings also show that aspects of technological turbulence, particularly pertaining to the opportunities for competitive advantage and new ideas for product supply related to higher levels of market orientation.

The paper's findings, addressing a knowledge gap in the small business literature, emphasize the importance of small businesses orienting themselves to the market, particularly in environments characterized by higher levels of market and technological turbulence.

The role of marketing as a business function is rapidly changing in China. Consequently, their views on marketing orientation – whether it is accepted, rejected, modified or reframed – have been seriously impacted. This paper aims to report on the results of a survey among Chinese small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) managers and their perceptions of the market-orientation philosophy. In particular, emphasis was placed on three dimensions of market orientation: intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination and responsiveness. The effect of market orientation on business performance was also examined.

The authors collected data from 214 managers from SMEs. These businesses were located in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. The commonly used market orientation (MARKOR) measure was used to test the hypotheses.

Consistent with the extant literature, the findings provided empirical support for the three dimensions of market orientation among Chinese SME. The authors also found that a positive relationship existed between Chinese SME market orientation and firm performance.

This study provides major insights into the market orientation measurement and practices of SME in China. From a measurement perspective, the empirical support for MARKOR across a non-Western context is noteworthy. From a practitioner perspective, the implications relating to understanding Chinese SME and how these companies can best market their products and services to their respective markets are critical. Some of the limitations of our study relates to the sample size, convenience sampling and geographic concentration of the respondents.

This study addresses the gaps in the literature by exploring market orientation in non-large scale businesses as well as the adaptation of the concept in a non-Western cultural setting. The findings extend the conceptualization and application of market orientation to Chinese SME.

This study aims to investigate the role of market orientation (MO) in improving learning for innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the facilitation of the organisational structure and links to innovation.

The data for this research were collected through a survey that was applied to a sample of 169 SMEs in Ecuador. Existing scales were used to measure all the studied variables, i.e. MO, organisational structure for innovation, linkages and learning for innovation. The last three variables correspond to the characteristics of the innovation management process. Partial least square path modelling was used to analyse the data using the SmartPLS 2.0 software.

The results showed that MO enhances the learning for innovation in firms both directly and indirectly through improving organisational structure and linkages towards innovation. The research finding also showed that organisational structure for innovation is more important to enhance learning than linkages. Specifically, the mediation between MO and learning through linkages is smaller than the mediation through the organisational structure.

The study informs executives of the relevance of developing MO as a way of improving learning for innovation, which in turn, is favoured by an organisational structure that supports creativity and technological changes and by the internal and external linkages for innovation in market-oriented firms.

The findings of this study provide new insights regarding how MO can work together in an innovative context and highlight the importance of MO as an enabler of innovation characteristics in SMEs. This study also contributes to the existent innovation literature by shedding light on strategic questions regarding the development of innovation process in market-oriented SMEs. Specifically, it provides some evidence regarding the nature of innovation process in SMEs, which can orient future studies focused on the understanding of how successful innovation occurs.

This paper aims to examine the influence of the culture of the service firm on its interpretation of the role of the brand and on the development and implementation of its brand values.

A grounded theory approach was used. Interviews were conducted with 20 managers within two leading banking firms in Ireland and two leading grocery retailers in Ireland.

The development of the brand, and its role within the firm, is closely related to the firm's culture. The research shows obstacles and opportunities created by the cultural context of firms wishing to disseminate and embed a set of brand values. The paper presents an “involvement model” of brand values implementation and outlines changes required to implement brand values.

The study was bound by access to firms, and managers' availability. The authors sought an insight into the relationship between each firm's culture and its brands. They advocate quantitative research to further investigate the findings within these service sectors and to test proposed antecedents (transformational leadership, employee involvement) and outcomes (employee‐based brand equity and consumer‐based brand equity) of values adoption.

The paper identifies aspects of retail and banking cultures which support or detract from brand development. In particular, it presents the learnings from successful brand values implementation in a clan culture, aspects of which are applicable across other cultures.

The paper provides valuable insights into the role of the brand within the service firm and the positive and negative influence of context on brand values and their development and implementation.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

Focuses on one of the most widely used service quality measurement scales, SERVQUAL, and looks at some of the areas of concern which have recently been raised regarding its viability as a comprehensive measurement tool for the service industry as a whole. While acknowledging the significant contribution that this model has made, it is suggested that it does not go far enough ‐ the dimensions of SERVQUAL do not adequately address some of the more critical issues associated with the assessment of individual services. Having carried out citation analyses of both the 1985 and 1988 versions of SERVQUAL, it can be shown that although there is a plethora of published work in the marketing and retail sectors about its applicability, relatively little empirical work has been carried out in other service sectors. Indeed, more than one‐quarter of all published papers where SERVQUAL was a major theme, appear to have severe reservations about this scale. In place of the SERVQUAL scale, a model which takes the form of a hierarchical structure ‐ based on three main levels of attributes ‐ pivotal, core, and peripheral (P‐C‐P) is proposed. This P‐C‐P model has the ability to span any service sector since what is proposed is a skeletal framework within which to consider respective services. The authors are currently in the process of using this model for the empirical analysis of the quality of information which is provided by government bodies to the business community. The results of their empirical study will form the subject matter of the next paper in this series. This is, therefore, largely theoretical in nature with the emphasis on a critical appraisal of the existing models in the service quality arena and it also describes the authors’ own model to encourage discussion and debate among researchers, perhaps allowing them to make further refinements to their proposed model.