Market orientation and firm performance across value disciplines in the Illinois beef sector

Previous research studies have suggested market oriented firms achieve superior performance relative to their peers (Narver and Slater, 1990). Furthermore, researchers have suggested that firms that can clearly define their value discipline will also benefit. Recent studies have shown that highly market oriented and innovative firms are able to define more clearly their chosen value discipline. This study extends that research by examining firm performance across value disciplines. Using a sample of Illinois beef producers, we find that levels of market orientation and performance are not equal across value disciplines. Our results show the level of market orientation is lowest for firms with an operational excellence value discipline and highest for a customer intimacy/product leadership value discipline. Furthermore, our findings show that firms with high market orientation scores outperform firms with low market orientation scores regardless of degree of value discipline clarity