MARKET ORIENTATION AND FIRM PERFORMANCE IN GHANA’S PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY

The study examined the relationship between market orientation and performance in the phar-maceutical industry in Ghana. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative research techniques. A semi-structured questionnaire was designed and distributed to firms in the phar-maceutical sector notably, manufacturers, wholesalers, prescription-only-medicine firms (POM) and over-the-counter shops (OTC). It was established that whereas an earlier study in 2001, found market orientation in the pharmaceutical industry in Ghana to be low (35%), the current study found that due to improved microeconomic indicators, market orientation in the industry has grown significantly to over 50%. The findings of the study also indicate a significant rela-tionship between market orientation and performance of firms in the pharmaceutical industry, and further indicate that, the practice of market orientation in the various categories of the sec-tor differs with an increase in size and organizational commitments of the firms involved. This study extends understanding of market orientation into a pharmaceutical setting and is one of the few studies on market orientation in the pharmaceutical sector emanating from a developing economy context and in a multi-strata approach