Determining the Scope and Impact of Market Orientation Profiles on Strategy Implementation and Performance. (Strategic Management Journal)

Strategy implementation and performance in organizations are influenced by its market orientation.  Market orientation is the collective of employee behaviors that affect strategy implementation, how an organization interacts with its environment and adjusts to changes within that context.  This study identified ideal behavioral profiles for organizations seeking to maximize performance by considering the scope and impact of a market orientation on strategy implementation.  Important strategic and performance implications of this dynamic were also revealed.

Creating a Strategy Implementation Environment. (Business Horizons)

There are two main objectives of strategy – positioning to compete, and creating a climate to support implementation.  The current challenge for management lies in strategy implementation.  This article offers a six-point taxonomy for managers interested in creating an implementation context.  This taxonomy goes to the root of strategy implementation, that being the creation of an environment that harnesses individual activities into a collective whole for the purpose of creating value and enhancing performance.  After all, it is the employees that make things happen.

Behavioral Approaches to Marketing Strategy Implementation. (Marketing Intelligence and Planning)

The development and reinforcement of context-specific behaviors support the implementation of marketing strategy.  This article discusses the limitations of traditional strategy implementation pursuits, and then proceeds to report the results of two independent but related studies that consider methods of behavior management – market orientation profiling, and behavioral repertoires – and their affect on marketing strategy and organizational performance.  This article concludes by providing perspective steps that managers can consider in efforts to adopt these approaches to strategy implementation.

Implementing Marketing Strategy through a Market Orientation. (Journal of Marketing Management)

The adoption of specific marketing strategies is related to several factors including the organization’s mission, objectives, resources, and market orientation.  This study defines the relationship between marketing strategy and market orientation in a high technology environment – the telecommunications industry in the United States.  The results indicate that a market orientation provides a context for the implementation of specific marketing strategies by serving as a moderator of operational marketing strategy.  Specific examples of these relationships are provided.

A Model for Implementing Service Excellence in the Financial Services Industry. (Journal of Financial Services Marketing)

This article presents a model and provides considerations for implementing a service excellence initiative in the highly competitive financial services industry. This model identifies and defines service culture, desired employee service behaviors, operational standards and service outcomes necessary to enhance and sustain service excellence. When managed collectively, these components provide the organizational environment necessary to harness employee service-related activities for the purpose of creating value and enhancing performance. Implementation of this model resulted in a 20% increase in service quality scores across select areas in the sample organization over a two-year period.

Market Orientation and market strategy profiling; An Empirical Test of Environment-Behavior-Action Coalignment and its Performance Implications. (Management Decision)

Organization performance is greatly influenced by employee behaviors and the resulting market orientation that they possess.  Market orientation is a behavioral culture that affects strategy formulation and strategy implementation, and how an organization interacts with its environment and adjusts to changes in that context.  The relationship between market orientation and performance is robust across several environmental contexts that are characterized by varying degrees of market turbulence, competitive intensity, and products/services introduction rates.  This paper identified co-aligned market orientation and strategy profiles corresponding to unique competitive profiles that represent best practices for an organization.  This relationship becomes dynamic when one considers the assertion that organization culture is synonymous with strategy.  As a result, the ability to profile ideal orientations has significant strategic and performance implications for organizations.

Business Schools: Going Out of Business? (Journal of Education for Business)

This article uses Michael Porter’s “five forces model” to assess the state of competition in the Canadian university-bases business school industry.  The analysis indicated that Canada’s business schools are becoming increasingly vulnerable to competitive pressures and that their competitive fitness is dependent on an agenda of strategic re-orientation.  Specific susceptibilities and strategic options for dealing with them are discussed.

The Innovation Blueprint (Business Horizons)

In boardrooms across North America, executives extol the advantages of being innovative.  Some believe that it is the next level of competitive advantage, the Holy Grail of business.  Yet, according to consulting firms Arthur D. Little Inc. and Gary Hamel’s Strategos, many organizations that try to become innovative rate themselves poorly at it.  Why is this the case, and how do we overcome the barriers? 

This article sets out to answer these questions.  It introduces a blueprint that if followed, will direct organizations to the innovation zone.  Once organizations reach this zone, a level of synergy between strategy and innovation is achieved, effectively enhancing the organization’s ability to develop new wealth-creating opportunities, identify positive twists in strategic direction, and develop an ongoing capability to innovate. 

Developing and Innovation Orientation in Financial Services Organizations (Journal of Financial Services Marketing)

Innovation is the new business mantra, and recent studies have suggested that there is a strong positive relationship between innovation, market positioning strategy and performance.  Having an innovative organization can be an effective way in identifying and executing growth opportunities in the financial services industry.  Given the nature of the competitive landscape and the innovation disruption environment in the financial services industry, developing an orientation that will allow for emergent and ongoing innovation is the best way to provide a competitive advantage.

This article discusses the dynamics of innovation in the financial services industry and relationship between innovation and market related strategy.  It then introduces an innovation model that can be used as a platform by financial services organizations.  The model identifies three areas of consideration – context, culture, and execution – that will help organizations in this industry to develop and sustain ongoing innovation efforts.

Abstracts from Research in Progress

Innovation Orientation: The Construct, Research Propositions, and Managerial Implications

Interest in the impact that an innovation orientation has on organizations is growing.  This article will outline work done to date on the construct, research propositions, and managerial implications of having an innovation orientation.

The Innovation Index: A Measure of Innovation in Organizations

This article introduces an empirical model that will allow organization to assess their innovation quotient (IQ).  This IQ is comprised of 12 distinct but related organizational areas.  The measures introduced in this article are significant in that they will allow organization to identify gaps, and then move to manage these gaps in efforts to develop and sustain an innovation orientation.

Innovation Orientation: Antecedents and Consequences

This article will address a number of questions, namely why are some organizations more innovative than others, and what effect does innovation have on business performance.

The Relationship between Innovation and Marketing Strategy

This article will view the relationships between innovation and the marketing stratgies chosen by organizations.  It will proceed to define the relationships between the level of innovation (as measured by the innovation index), and the organizations propensity to pursue select marketing strategies.

Determining the Scope and Impact of Innovation Profiles on Performance

Strategy implementation and performance in organizations are influenced by its market orientation.  Market orientation is the collective of employee behaviors that affect strategy implementation, how an organization interacts with its environment and adjusts to changes within that context.  This study identified ideal behavioral profiles for organizations seeking to maximize performance by considering the scope and impact of a market orientation on strategy implementation.  Important strategic and performance implications of this dynamic were also revealed.

The DNA of Innovation – Traits that Promote Innovation in Organizations
Innovation is the focus of many boardroom discussions today as executives realize that it is the key to developing a sustainable competitive advantage.  Knowing this, innovation is what organizations seek, but getting there has proven to be very challenging for most.  This article starts out by discussing the relationship between strategy, culture, and innovation, and then introduces innovation DNA that promotes innovative traits in employees.  The four DNA properties which include knowledge management, cluster enactment, venture experimentation, and co-alignment are banded together by employee constituency and psychological empowerment.  Together, these traits establish the foundation for the development and sustainment of an innovation orientation in organizations, effectively elevating strategy to the next level.

Other Research Citations (Chapters, Case Studies and Non-refereed Journal Articles)

Allen, T., Dobni, D.M., and Dobni, C.B., “Agri-Business Marketing - A Series of Case Studies” (1999).  ISBN #1-894148-50-9.  (This is a comprehensive 10 case manual published by the Canadian Farm Business Management Council - Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada).

Dobni, C.B., Painter, M., Brown, B., Brown, L., and Allen T., “The Agri-Business Management Development Program Manual” (1999).  (This is a comprehensive four module manual developed for agribusiness managers and executives.  All functions of agribusiness management are covered in this innovative offering).            

Grandey, G., Dobni, D.M., and Dobni, C.B., 1998. “Business Relationships: Handle With Care” Ivey Business Quarterly, Winter, pp. 59-64.

Dobni, D.M., Dobni, C.B., and Painter, M., 1996. “Navigating the Route to Privatization.  Business Quarterly, 60, 3, Spring, pp. 46–56.

Dobni, C.B., and Painter, M., 1996.  Venture Management:  Building Your Business with a Business Plan.  University of Saskatchewan, 249 pp.

Dobni, C.B., 1994.  Sid's Sunflower Seeds (A) - Entry Into Major League Baseball.  A Case Study.  In C. W. Hill and G. R. Jones, Strategic Management, 3rd Edition (Houghton Mifflin Company).

Dobni, C.B.,  and R. L. Lepnurm, 1993.  The Great Western Brewing Company, A Case Study in Management and Marketing.  In Pearce and Robinson, Strategic Management - Formulation, Implementation and Control, 5th Ed., Irwin.

Gass D., and Dobni, C.B., “To The Year 2000 - An Economic Strategy for the City of Saskatoon, Economic Development Authority,” September 1993.

Dobni, C.B., 1992.  The Strategic Management Simulation.  Edited and Adapted by Brooke Dobni, University of Saskatchewan.  Needham Heights, Ma.:  Ginn Press.

Dobni, C.B., CP Rail Strategic Management Training Program - Module E; The Transportation Simulation, 1992, 48 pp.

Dobni, C.B., and R. L. Lepnurm, 1992.  The Great Western Brewing Company, A Case Study in Management and Marketing.  In Thompson and Strickland, Strategic Management - Concepts and Cases, 7th American Edition.  Plano Texas:  Business Publications Inc., 1992.

Dobni, C.B., 1992.  Sid's Sunflower Seeds (A) - Entry Into Major League Baseball.  A Case Study.  In Strategic Management, Text, Readings and Cases, Third Edition (Irwin:  Baetz and Beamish).

Dobni, C.B., 1992.  Sid's Sunflower Seeds (A) - Entry Into Major League Baseball (condensed).  A Case Study.  In Beckman, Kurtz, Boone, Foundations of Marketing, 5th Canadian Edition (Dryden Press).