Abstract

The value of a market-oriented culture as one that sustainably satisfies customers, engages employees, and provides profitable growth is well-established. Market-oriented firms are more profitable, more innovative, and deliver higher customer and employee satisfaction than their competitors. However, we still know little of how leaders of such operations create and sustain their organizations’ market orientation. This research, positioned at the intersection of leadership and marketing strategy, draws on interviews with 66 CEOs and senior executives across a variety of firms and industries to generate insights into how these leaders developed their market-oriented approach and to identify the behaviors they engage in to create and sustain a market-oriented organizational culture. The analysis uncovers five key forces that shape market-oriented leadership styles, nine characteristics common across these leaders, and identifies the key practices market-oriented leaders use to influence employees to behave in a customer-centric manner. The research provides insights into how leaders conceive of and convey the notion of market orientation. Through the lenses of construal theory and narrative theory, I demonstrate the varied ways in which market-oriented leaders continually transform their businesses and instill customer centricity in their organizations. The Customer-Centric Leadership Framework and its archetypes provide a fine-grained understanding of the leadership styles that may be most appropriate to establish market-orientation in different contexts, be they founders focused on building businesses with an employee-first approach or disruptors with a big vision or hired professional leaders needing to transform or sustain their levels of market orientation.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Leadership; Corporate culture; Customer relations—Management; Relationship marketing; Marketing—Management

Date of Award

2022

School Affiliation

Graziadio Business School

Department/Program

Business

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctorate

Faculty Advisor

Cristel Russell

Download

Included in

Business Commons

Share

COinS