A market-oriented culture remains a source of competitive advantage for organisations. Despite calls for an integrated research perspective on the linkage between organisational culture and market orientation (e.g., Deshpande and Webster 1989; Deshpande and Farley 2004), scholars have made limited attempts to examine the relationship between the two concepts. The objective of this study is to investigate what kind of organisational culture encourages and rewards market orientation behaviours.
A structured survey was administered to 870 senior managers attending part-time EMBA programmes in prestigious business schools in China. A total of 370 completed questionnaires were returned, representing a response rate of 43 percent. The research findings suggested that different organisational cultures have different impacts on market orientation. Specifically, the results indicate that an adhocracy and a market culture facilitate the development of a market orientation, while a hierarchical culture hinders market orientation behaviours. However, the hypothesised negative relationship between a clan culture and a market orientation was not supported.
This study seeks to extend the literature by responding to Deshpande and Webster ’s (1989) call for an integrated research of organisational culture and marketing. Besides its theoretical contributions, this study also offers some important insights for leaders of organisations. As organisations are driving to become more market-oriented, leaders need to understand why certain organisational cultures exist and their impact on market orientation practices. Although this research provides interesting insights on the understanding of market-oriented organisational culture, it is important to recognise the limitations of the research. Culture is a complex system of norms and values that develops over time and influences organisational processes and behaviours (Hurley and Hult 1998; Schneider and Rentsch 1988). On the other hand, time affects market orientation in a number of ways, such as lagged or cumulative effects during the implementation of a market-oriented strategy (Gauzente 2001). The inclusion of

• Yuhui Gao(Dublin City University, Ireland)
• Mengxia Zhang(University of International Business and Economics, China)