Market Orientation in the Tourism and Hospitality Industries

Dear Colleagues,

The studies by Narver and Slater (1990) and Kohli and Jaworski (1990) on market orientation created a starting point for a boom in the market orientation research, providing the background for the proposal of several theoretical and empirically tested measurement models to assess market orientation like the MKTOR (Narver and Slater, 1990) and the MARKOR (Kohli et al., 1993) scales.

Further measurement models were proposed (e.g., Deng and Dart, 1994; Deshpandé and Farley, 1998; Deshpande et al., 1993; Ruekert, 1992) without particular acceptance from the scientific community.

The early developments of the market orientation discipline, despite their intensity, were mainly directed toward the industrial and consumer goods sectors (Quintana-Déniz et al., 2007; Sin et al., 2005). However, in the 21st century, attention increased on the market orientation research field in the service sector, and particularly on the hospitality and tourism industries (e.g., Agarwal et al., 2003; Ibrahim and Jane, 2019; Jogaratnam, 2017; Kasim et al., 2018; Sampaio et al., 2019; Sampaio et al., 2019; Vega-Vázquez et al., 2016; Ye et al., 2012; Zhou et al., 2009).

The tourism industry depends on hotels and restaurants to provide accommodation and food, and it is a critical industry influencing economic development and employment, and social and environmental variables. Travel and tourism represented 10.4% of the global GDP and 3.9% of the direct travel and tourism GDP growth in 2018 (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2019).

In this context, we invite authors, especially those interested in the market orientation research field and from a broader perspective on strategic marketing and strategic management, to submit research articles mainly focused on the tourism and hospitality industries.

Authors are advised, but not limited, to submit papers focused on the following topics:

• Relationship between market orientation and business performance in the tourism and hospitality industries;
• Market orientation and customer decision making;
• How sustainability, competitive advantage, and business performance interact in the tourism and hospitality sectors;
• Tensions between service quality and the pricing strategy in the tourism and hospitality industries; and
• Sustainable market orientation.

Agarwal, S., Erramilli, M. K., and Dev, C. S. (2003). Market orientation and performance in service firms: role of innovation. Journal of Services Marketing, 17(1), 68–82. doi:10.1108/08876040310461282

Deng, S., and Dart, J. (1994). Measuring Market Orientation: A Multi-factor, Multi-Item Approach. Journal of Marketing Management, 10, 725–742.

Deshpandé, R., and Farley, J. U. (1998). Measuring Market Orientation: Generalization and Synthesis. Journal of Market-Focused Management, 2(3), 213–232. doi:10.1023/A:1009719615327

Deshpande, R., Farley, J. U., and Webster, F. E. (1993). Corporate Culture, Customer Orientation, and Innovativeness in Japanese Firms - A Quadrad Analysis. Journal of Marketing, 57(1), 23–27. doi:10.2307/1252055

Ibrahim, A., and Jane, H.-B. (2019). Market orientation and hotel performance: investigating the role of high-order marketing capabilities. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 31(4), 1885–1905. doi:10.1108/IJCHM-07-2018-0564

Jogaratnam, G. (2017). The effect of market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and human capital on positional advantage: Evidence from the restaurant industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 60, 104–113. doi:10.1016/J.IJHM.2016.10.002

Kasim, A., Ekinci, Y., Altinay, L., and Hussain, K. (2018). Impact of market orientation, organizational learning​ and market conditions on small and medium-size hospitality enterprises. Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management, 27(7), 855–875. doi:10.1080/19368623.2018.1438955

Kohli, A. K., and Jaworski, B. J. (1990). Market Orientation: The Construct, Research Propositions and Managerial Implications. Journal of Marketing, 54(April), 1–18. doi:10.2307/1251866

Kohli, A. K., Jaworski, B. J., and Kumar, A. (1993). MARKOR : A measure of market orientation. Journal of Marketing Research, 30(4), 467–477. doi:10.2307/3172691

Narver, J. C., and Slater, S. F. (1990). The Effect of a Market Orientation on Business Profitability. Journal of Marketing, 54(4), 20–35. doi:10.2307/1251757

Quintana-Déniz, A., Beerli-Palacio, A., and Martín-Santana, J. (2007). Human resource systems as antecedents of hotel industry market orientation: An empirical study in the Canary Islands, Spain. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 26(4), 854–870. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2006.07.007

Ruekert, R. W. (1992). Developing a market orientation: An organizational strategy perspective. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 9(3), 225–245. doi:10.1016/0167-8116(92)90019-H

Sampaio, C. A. F., Hernández-Mogollón, J. M., and Rodrigues, R. G. (2019). Assessing the relationship between market orientation and business performance in the hotel industry – the mediating role of service quality. Journal of Knowledge Management, 23(4), 644–663. doi:10.1108/JKM-08-2017-0363

Sampaio, C. A. F., Rodrigues, R. G., and Hernández-Mogollón, J. M. (2019). The Relationship Between Market Orientation, Customer Loyalty and Business Performance – A Sample from Western Europe Hotel Industry. Tourism and Hospitality Research. doi:10.1177/1467358419829179

Sin, L. Y. M., Tse, A. C. B., Heung, V. C. S., and Yim, F. H. K. (2005). An analysis of the relationship between market orientation and business performance in the hotel industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 24(4), 555–577. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2004.11.002

Vega-Vázquez, M., Cossío-Silva, F. J., and Revilla-Camacho, M. Á. (2016). Entrepreneurial orientation-hotel performance: Has market orientation anything to say? Journal of Business Research, 69(11), 5089–5094. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.04.085

World Travel and Tourism Council. (2019). Travel and Tourism: World Economic Impact 2019.

Ye, Q., Li, H., Wang, Z., and Law, R. (2012). The Influence of Hotel Price on Perceived Service Quality and Value in E-Tourism: An Empirical Investigation Based on Online Traveler Reviews. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, 38(1), 23–39. doi:10.1177/1096348012442540

Zhou, K. Z., Brown, J. R., and Dev, C. S. (2009). Market orientation, competitive advantage, and performance: A demand-based perspective. Journal of Business Research, 62(11), 1063–1070. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2008.10.001

Dr. Ricardo Gouveia Rodrigues
Dr. Carlos Sampaio
Dr. José Manuel Hernández-Mogollón
Dr. Paulo Duarte
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Market orientation
• Hospitality industry
• Tourism
• Strategic marketing