Market orientation and corporate performance of small and medium-sized enterprises in Saudi Arabia

  • Received November 25, 2020;
    Accepted February 16, 2021;
    Published February 23, 2021
  • Author(s)
  • DOI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/im.17(1).2021.06
  • Article Info
    Volume 17 2021, Issue #1, pp. 66-77
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The goal of this paper is to examine the effect of business orientation on the success of small and medium-sized enterprises in Saudi Arabia. Corporate performance is a dependent variable, whereas business orientation, competitor orientation and inter-functional orientation are used as independent variables. This cross-section analysis was based on a quantitative survey design. The target population consisted of 72 SMEs (industrial, commercial and service) identified by the Saudi Chamber of Commerce in Riyadh. The companies were selected from Riyadh, Jeddah, Abha, Dammam and Bisha, which were founded before March 1, 2005 with less than 100 employees in Saudi Arabia. The findings showed that consumer orientation, competitor orientation and inter-functional cooperation had a substantial positive influence on the success of SMEs in Saudi Arabia during the study period. Market orientation dimensions, in particular, demonstrated a modest relationship to company efficiency. It was concluded that the greater the orientation of the business, the higher the output and the income of the enterprises. SME owners/managers are advised to understand the consumer orientation dimensions that have a positive effect on the success of their firms. Involved parties also need to establish more consistent business-oriented strategies that assess corporate success in order to boost the output of Saudi companies.

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    • Table 1. The results of some empirical studies that investigated the association between market orientation and business performance
    • Table 2. Company’s frequency distribution based on its location
    • Table 3. Characteristics of the type of companies investigated by the number of employees
    • Table 4. Reliability
    • Table 5. Descriptive statistics of customer orientation
    • Table 6. Descriptive statistics of competitor orientation
    • Table 7. Descriptive statistics of inter-functional coordination
    • Table 8. Descriptive statistics of business performance
    • Table 9. R-value interpretation for associations
    • Table 10. Analysis of correlation between market orientation and corporate performance
    • Table 11. Multiple regression analysis
    • Conceptualization
      Nabil Mohamed Abdo Alabsy
    • Data curation
      Nabil Mohamed Abdo Alabsy
    • Formal Analysis
      Nabil Mohamed Abdo Alabsy
    • Funding acquisition
      Nabil Mohamed Abdo Alabsy
    • Investigation
      Nabil Mohamed Abdo Alabsy
    • Methodology
      Nabil Mohamed Abdo Alabsy
    • Project administration
      Nabil Mohamed Abdo Alabsy
    • Resources
      Nabil Mohamed Abdo Alabsy
    • Software
      Nabil Mohamed Abdo Alabsy
    • Supervision
      Nabil Mohamed Abdo Alabsy
    • Validation
      Nabil Mohamed Abdo Alabsy
    • Visualization
      Nabil Mohamed Abdo Alabsy
    • Writing – original draft
      Nabil Mohamed Abdo Alabsy
    • Writing – review & editing
      Nabil Mohamed Abdo Alabsy