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Learning organizations and market orientation are at the center of attention in the 1990s. Many businesses encounter cutthroat competition and operate in a turbulent, international and complex environment. To keep the business going which makes a sound profit is often a difficult challenge. Management theorists and consultants as well as marketing researchers have found these seemingly different concepts from two different disciplines of management as medicines for competition problems. This chapter tries to link these concepts in an empirical study investigating Dutch exporters. The Dutch experiment shows that there is a correlation between learning organizations, market orientation and business performance.

My doctoral adventure started in 2002 as a graduate student. However, getting there was not quite straightforward; it was the result of a trial and error process. When I was a college student studying Economics, I wanted to know what to do when I graduated. Thus, I started looking into different types of jobs via internships. First, I gave the government sector a try and worked at the Turkish Republic Prime Ministry Undersecretariat for Foreign Trade, in Ankara. I decided that I did not like working for the government, so I decided to pursue the private sector. Next, I tried finance. After my internship at the Istanbul Stock Exchange of Turkey, I decided that I did not like that either. Then came the marketing experience at the Cenajans/Grey Advertising Agency in Istanbul. I did not quite like the agency side of it, but I realized that I liked what clients were doing. I liked the strategy formulation and owning the brand and being responsible for all the decisions related with the brand. Therefore, after graduation, I started a job in marketing in the headquarters of a major bank in Istanbul.