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The purpose of this paper is to present a new conceptual framework for service organizations to achieve sustainable business performance through strategic quality orientation and innovation capabilities on the basis of relevant literature review and integration of various innovation and business sustainability theories and models. The study tests if the strategic quality orientation enhances innovation capabilities in terms of exploitation and explorative innovation, which, in turn, can lead to sustainable business growth. Mediating impact of innovation capabilities between strategic quality orientation and sustainable business growth relationship is also examined.

A conceptual framework was developed to test and establish these relationships. Results were analyzed based on 442 questionnaires collected from five different service industries of Pakistan, and the structural equation modeling technique was used to empirically test the conceptual framework.

The results indicate that strategic quality orientation directly affects innovation capabilities and sustainable business growth and also indirectly impacts sustainable business growth through its effect on innovation capabilities.

The study suggests service organizations can jointly implement quality and innovation using a structured approach, with strategic quality orientation as the foundation. In this way, they can leverage from their strategic quality management, supplier relationship, corporate quality culture, continual improvement and people management in order to ensure innovation and sustainability in their business growth.

The study integrates strategic quality orientation and innovation capabilities, and validates a new organizational framework through empirical examination which can be used by service organizations to ensure their sustainable business growth.

This paper seeks to study the impact of adopting quality orientation as a business operations philosophy to enhance a firm's performance. Specifically, it aims to identify various indicators that make up a quality orientation philosophy, and to research their role in improving business performance in the banking sector of the service industry.

The paper surveyed retail banking firms for this study, and used path analysis and structure equation modeling (SEM) to develop the study model. This model was tested to develop the process by which quality orientation philosophy, if adopted, can impact a business's performance.

Results indicate that specific indicators of quality orientation, when operationalized as a business philosophy, can enhance a banking firm's performance. This study also provides an insight for managers as to the process of adopting quality orientation philosophy in their businesses.

Research was conducted on a specific sector of service industry: the banking sector. The relatively small size of the study sample may impact the outcome of research applicability in some large businesses. However, the research does provide valuable insights as to how other businesses can adopt quality orientation in their operations.

This paper examines the process by which operational activities should be designed to effect a service firm's performance by placing emphasis on the quality aspect of each indicator that comprises quality orientation. This differs from other studies in the sense that it first operationalizes quality orientation as a set of indicators, and then shows how individual indicators influence business performance.

The current work aims to analyze the complementary effects of relationship and service‐quality orientations on market and economic performance and their mediating role in the relationship between market orientation and performance.

In order to test the hypotheses proposed, an empirical analysis for financial and insurance companies was conducted.

The study reveals that market performance relates highly to relationship orientation and service quality as two alternative but complementary strategies, whereas the effect on economic performance is basically indirect through the market performance.

Results suggest that applying relational policies such as preferential treatment, communication and adaptation to customers' needs is critical for customer retention, reducing complaints and conflicts or improving the positioning. Moreover, the firms need to focus on quality service, as a consequence of relationship orientation and another requisite for market performance and, subsequently, economic performance.

This work integrates market orientation philosophy with relationship marketing and service quality as related drivers of the firm's performance. Few empirical works had related these concepts until now in this way.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the consistency with which quality is maintained in the orientation process. Orientation is a key university process intended to prepare new students for life in higher education (HE). For open and distance learning (ODL), orientation can be a key process for lessening some of the challenges associated with the separation of the learner and the lecturer. Indeed, for ODL students, orientation can be fraught with a variety of challenges one of which could be quality problems.

Convenient sampling was used to obtain a total of 89 students in the first semester and 34 students in the second semester. The respondents came from all the eight districts in the Midlands province of Zimbabwe. They belonged to various degree programmes found in the eight faculties of the institution. Correlation was used to determine quality variations. Using a mixed methods approach, the study sought the views of the students and the relationships between activities done in the two semesters of 2018. SPSS version 16.0 software was used to compute Spearman’s correlations whereas content analysis was used to analyze the open-ended responses to the questa-view. This mixed methods approach helped the researchers to analyze and compare the quality of the orientation sessions.

Results yielded a positive and high significant correlation between first and second semester variables (r=0.916, p=0.000), a finding indicating that staff members in the Midlands Regional Campus of Zimbabwe Open University have not changed their ways of conducting orientation. On a scale of 1 (least effective) to 5 (most effective), the average ratings for the presentations in the first and second semesters were 4.08 and 4.26, respectively. In the qualitative analysis, adequacy of the venue, timing, coverage of aspects and use of media were all rated positively for the two sessions. However, for the two sessions, some students mentioned negative sentiments to do with the provision of needed materials at time of student registration, the public address system, orientation packages, time management and communication.

This paper looks at the process of orientation as it was done at one regional campus of an ODL institution in Zimbabwe. It also analyses the quality of the orientation using correlation as a lens that measures consistency and also by critically analyzing content in the respondents’ voices. Implications are that the findings and recommendations can also be applied in other ODL (and even non-ODL) institutions with a view of finally coming up with common policies and procedures with regards to providing quality service and support to the twenty-first century student.

Findings were relevant and could be used for designing applicable orientation programmes in ODL institutions and for improving the quality of student support and services.

While a number of studies have been carried out on orientation in HE, it would appear that research on orientation in ODL institutions, especially in Zimbabwe, appears minimal, hence this study covers an unexplored niche.

The authors explore the relationships among market orientation, service quality and business profitability. Based on an empirical study of Taiwan’s security brokerage service industry, the research results show that there are positive associations among the three constructs. More market‐oriented brokerage service firms seem to enjoy superior service quality perceptions and greater profitability. Further examinations reveal that market orientation has a stronger effect on service quality than on business profitability. Also, the service quality‐profitability linkage is stronger than the market orientation‐profitability linkage. The results suggest that service quality is an intermediate factor in the market orientation‐profitability relationship and is a better indicator of the effectiveness of a market‐oriented campaign than profitability measures.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between total quality management (TQM), market orientation and service quality in the Malaysian service industry.

Data from 150 service firms were collected. Structural equation modeling was employed in this study to examine the associations between TQM, market orientation and service quality.

This study provides empirical evidence and confirms findings obtained from previous studies that TQM has a positive and significant relationship with both market orientation and service quality. Moreover, it was discovered that market orientation is also significantly related to service quality.

This research study implies that if firms are not able to comprehend the importance of TQM dimensions, by which the different dimensions of it can influence a firm's performance, they may not succeed in harvesting the full value of market orientation and service quality. Meanwhile, the findings may guide the service practitioners to understand the importance of TQM in their managerial actions in enhancing market orientation and service quality, which serves as a sound foundation for building a distinguished point of differentiation in their services.

Past researchers have not looked into the tri‐dimensional relationship between TQM, market orientation and service quality and hence research is to be called for in this area. The paper provides practitioners with useful guidelines on the appropriate TQM practices to be implemented so that market orientation and the quality of service can be enhanced, creating superior value to the customers in a unique way, which subsequently improves a firm's competitiveness.

The purpose of this study is to explore the moderating effect of Confucian values and the mediating effect of relationship quality on the relationship between organizational justice and employee service orientation in the tourism and hospitality industry.

Structural equation modeling was applied to a sample of 421 responses in a questionnaire survey from employees of tourism and hospitality firms in mainland China.

Employee relationship quality fully mediated the relationship between organizational justice and service orientation. Confucian values negatively moderated the direct effect of organizational justice on employee relationship quality and the indirect effect of organizational justice on service orientation.

This study offers insights for hospitality managers how to improve employee service orientation and establish Confucian values in the practice of organizational justice. Tourism and hospitality organizations should equally treat all employees as internal customers and use distinct strategies to manage employees with high and low Confucian values in employee selection and management of training and development.

This study highlights the contributions of organizational justice and relationship quality to employee service orientation. It also demonstrates that Confucian values explain why many Chinese employees are less sensitive to low fairness: these values negatively moderate the organizational justice–relationship quality–service orientation relations. By linking organizational justice to relationship quality and employee service orientation, the findings enrich our understanding of the applications of internal marketing and social exchange theories under Confucian values.

The purpose of this paper is to integrate the distinctive streams of research on market orientation, quality orientation, and organizational mindfulness, and examine the mediating role of mindful marketing between market orientation and quality orientation, and their linkages to two emerging key outcomes: mindful consumption and value co‐creation.

Based on extant orientation and organizational mindfulness research, a conceptual framework is presented to characterize the nomological network among market and quality orientations, mindful marketing, mindful consumption and value co‐creation. In total, 14 propositions are extracted.

The paper proposes that the synergistic interaction of market and quality orientation has a direct influence on mindful marketing, which in turn influences two outcomes: mindful consumption and value co‐creation. The dual moderating role of market structure is also incorporated among the findings.

The proposed framework demonstrates how managers can emphasize market and/or quality orientation in order to develop an optimal mindful marketing strategy that would take the stakeholders' intrinsic benefits into account. It is suggested that this approach will lead to mindful consumption and increase the opportunities for value co‐creation among the stakeholders, which will ultimately lead to better organizational performance.

The paper represents a first attempt to integrate two strategic orientations, and the concept of mindfulness. It examines the intimate relationship between market and quality orientations and how they jointly lead to the development of mindful marketing. It also explores the role of two emerging constructs in marketing: mindful consumption and value co‐creation.

Internal organizational orientation of service quality and its impact on service delivery performance of the employees have received considerable attention from financial management literature. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue by conducting empirical research focusing on the Pakistani Islamic banking industry. It conceptualizes and measures key determinants of internal organizational orientation of service quality from the employees' perspective.

The data were collected from a sample of 150 employees of pure Islamic banks and conventional banks with IBBs (Islamic Banking Branches or windows) across the entire country. The paper uses principal component factor analysis and regression methods.

Statistical results demonstrate that the employee perceptions of organizational service quality orientation mainly depends upon four main predictors: employees' perception about training and development; development and positioning of Islamic banking products/service concept; customer service orientation; and employees' service quality performance. Principal component factor analysis results indicate four predictive internal organizational service quality orientation factors (ISQF) where 16 per cent of the variation is being explained by employee perception of organizational orientation towards employees' training and development (ISQF1), 13 per cent variation explained employee perception of organizational orientation towards development and positioning of Islamic banking products/service concept (ISQF2), 11 per cent variation explained by employee perception of organizational service quality orientation towards customer service orientation (ISQF3), and 10 per cent variation explained employee perception of organizational service quality orientation towards employees' service quality performance (ISQF4).

Management of Islamic Banks in Pakistan need to be mindful about the fact that ISQFs identified by this study have the potential to indirectly influence customer perceptions through effective employees' recruitment and selection criteria, complemented by training to improve service oriented skills and knowledge development about Sh´ria principles related with the products/services offered by Islamic banks in Pakistan.

The purpose of this research is to empirically develop a service‐driven market orientation construct and test its relationships with service quality.

The researcher employs Critical Incident Technique to generate items for the survey instrument. Then, the quantitative‐based descriptive research uses structured questionnaires to capture the perceptions of 558 university students from Malaysia which are used to understand the nature of the customer‐perceived market orientation and its relationship with service quality.

The results show that the service‐driven market orientation (SERVMO) that consists of six components (customer orientation, competitor orientation, interfunctional orientation, performance orientation, long‐term orientation, and employee orientation) has a significantly strong and positive relationship with service quality.

The SERVMO scale is developed using data from the higher education sector and is yet to be validated in other industries.

The proposed strategic construct and current findings on its relationships with service quality provide practical insights for service managers to monitor their service orientation and enhance service quality.

The newly developed SERVMO scale is originally derived from the customer perception data in the Malaysian higher education sector.