Impact of responsive and proactive market orientation on SME performance: The moderating role of economic crisis perception

• Author: Valérie Barbat,Stéphanie Petzold,Michel Zins,Frank Pons
• Date: 01 December 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1514
• Published date: 01 December 2019

Impact of responsive and proactive market

orientation on SME performance: The moderating

role of economic crisis perception

Stéphanie Petzold*

Kedge Business School

Valérie Barbat

Kedge Business School

Frank Pons

Université Laval, Visiting Professor Kedge Business School

Michel Zins

Université Laval

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between market orien-

tation (MO) and the performance of small and medium-

sized enterprises (SMEs) within the context of economic

crisis. It distinguishes between two levels of MO: respon-

sive market orientation (RMO) and proactive market orien-

tation (PMO). Data were collected on a sample of 300

SME. Findings indicate that SMEs, confronted with an

economic downturn, use a MO approach that is both pro-

active and responsive, and reveal the moderator effect of

the SME manager’s perception of an economic crisis on

PMO/RMO–performance. Research and practical implica-

tions are discussed. © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley

& Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: proactive market orientation, responsive market

orientation, SME performance, economic crisis perception,

locus of control

Résumé

Cet article étudie la relation entre l’Orientation Marché

(OM) et la performance des petites et moyennes entreprises

(PME) dans un contexte de crise économique. Il fait la dis-

tinction entre deux composantes de l’OM: l’Orientation

Marché Réactive (OMR) et l’Orientation Marché Proactive

(OMP). L’étude a été faite auprès d’un échantillon de 300

PME. Les résultats indiquent que même si les PME, en situ-

ation de crise, utilisent toutes une Orientation Marché à la

fois proactive et réactive, la perception de l’intensité de la

crise par le gestionnaire principal vient modérer l’inf‌luence

de chacune des composantes de l’OM sur la performance.

Les implications managériales et les futures recherches

reliées à ce résultat sont présentées à la f‌indel’article. ©

2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mots-clés: orientation marché proactive, orientation marché

réactive, performance des PME, perception de crise

économique, locus de contrôle

Introduction

Since the end of the twentieth century, we have observed

an accelerated recurrence of economic crises, which have af-

fected various parts of the world: 1980–1982, 1990–1999,

2000–2002, and more recently, the Great Recession of

2008. The latter downturn, the consequences of which are still

being felt today, is considered by many economists to have

been the most severe recession since the Great Depression

of the 1930s (The World Bank, 2009). Periods of recession

thus tend to become repetitive, and small and medium-sized

enterprises (SMEs) cannot escape them. Unlike the purely

economic def‌inition of the term, “recession”has been def‌ined

in the marketing literature as a “process of decreasing demand

for raw materials, products and services”(Shama, 1978) or as

a“state in which the demand for a product is less than its for-

mer level”(Kotler, 1973, cited in Shama, 1993). During times

of recession, f‌irms are thus confronted with new challenges.

SMEs are often seen as being the f‌irst victims of economic re-

cessions and downturns (Acs, Audretsch, & Carlsson, 1990;

Latham, 2009; Michael & Robbins, 1998), given their limited

resources, which do not allow them to create a sustainable

competitive advantage (Narver & Slater, 1990). Furthermore,

it is diff‌icult for these f‌irms to maintain their level of activity

given their limited number of markets and clients

(Papaoikonomou, Segarra, & Li, 2012).

However, not all f‌irms from the same sector of activity,

including among SMEs, seem to be affected in the same

*Please address correspondence to: Stéphanie Petzold, Kedge Business

School, 680 cours de la Libération, 33405 Talence cedex, France. Email:

stephanie.petzold@kedgebs.com

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

Published online 6 November 2018 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.1514

Can J Adm Sci

© 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

36: 459–472 (2019)

36(4), 459–472 (2019)459