Anthony Foley

Seeing market orientation through a capabilities lens

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how conceptualising market orientation within a capabilities framework may assist in developing further understanding of the construct.Design/methodology/approach – Compelling issues in the market orientation literature relating to the nature of the market orientation construct, the relationship of the construct with performance, and identifying antecedents to market orientation are discussed. The capabilities perspective is explored in the context of these issues. In particular, a perspective of market orientation based on the market‐sensing capability is proposed, which may provide additional insights into the construct.Research limitations/implications – The capabilities framework facilitates a more comprehensive approach to understanding the nature of market orientation, which captures the complex interaction of behavioural and cultural factors in the conceptualisation of the construct.Originality/value – This paper addresses the need to examine how ma...

Towards a further understanding of the development of market orientation in the firm: a conceptual framework based on the market-sensing capability

While the relationship between market orientation and performance has been examined extensively in the literature, relatively little attention has been given to the antecedents of market orientation. So the basic question of how to develop a market-driven organisation remains to a large extent unanswered. The capabilities framework provides a useful conduit through which this issue can be approached, since it recognises that firms are innately heterogeneous because the different resources or capabilities they possess. However, this area has been accused of being tautological in nature, and requires further extensive empirical analysis. This paper presents a theoretical framework that uses the decomposition of the market-sensing capability as a way to facilitate understanding of the creation of market orientation. Thus it will not only add to the literature on the antecedents of market orientation, but also offers an empirical analysis of a significant capability. Furthermore, this model addresses the question of the relationship between market orientation and learning orientation, and proposes that a learning orientation precedes a market orientation.

Gifts and Gifting

The terms gift and gifting are rarely formally defined, but are associated with something given without receiving payment, often in the expectation of reciprocation and of changing the relationship with the recipient. Extensive prior work across a number of disciplines tends to focus on gifting as a process and shows a broad conceptualization of the gift construct to include actions as diverse as charitable giving, tipping, self-gifting and volunteering, where relationship development and reciprocation are largely irrelevant. As a way to develop the area, two proposals are made: first, that gifting research should recognize two different types of gift, transactional and relational; and second, that the exchange paradigm and its underpinning social exchange theory should become central in developing understanding of relational gifting. The authors argue that empirical researchers may usefully revisit the relational paradigm, but by adopting a more quantitative, modelling approach, and the paper illustrates how this might be achieved.

Unlocking the magic in successful tourism destination marketing: the role of sensing capability

ABSTRACT Tourism destinations are facing an increasingly competitive environment, and the need to offer a compelling visitor experience is intense. However, destinations are hindered by the fragmented nature of their governance structure, with a disparate group of actors from service providers to local government agencies involved. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the tourism destination can respond effectively to changing market trends and develop a shared vision for the destination among the various actors. The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm perspective is adopted to identify the role of network management capabilities, which facilitate the coordination of actors needed to ensure destination efficacy, thereby addressing a lack of scholarly attention to marketing capability in the tourism destination. The empirical context is set in Killarney, Ireland’s most enduring and popular tourism destination. The findings point to the presence of a dynamic destination sensing capability in Killarney, which is driving a market-sensing capability and orchestration capability. This investigation provides important insight into how a successful tourism destination is able to sustain the magical ingredient of tourist engagement over two centuries.

Engaging Entrepreneurs with a Blended Problem-based Learning Degree Programme

While larger tourism enterprises benefit from a graduate management intake and continuing executive development, the owner of the small tourism operation is limited in continuing education and professional development opportunities due to resource poverty, lack of appropriate and available tertiary tourism education. This chapter details the pedagogical and technological challenges faced by the education team at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) in developing and implementing an innovative blended learning degree, customised to meet the requirements of the entrepreneur for a sense of involvement, relevance and flexibility. Understanding how to harmonise blended learning with face-to-face PBL was the cornerstone of success in the design and implementation of the programme and the insights gained will provide guidelines to educators who are responsible for the development of relevant and accessible business degree programmes for owner/managers of micro/small business enterprises.