Customer Orientation and Performance in Small Firms: Examining the Moderating Influence of Risk‐Taking, Innovativeness, and Opportunity Focus

Abstract

Customer orientation is considered to be an essential element for small firm success despite relatively little empirical evidence to support such a claim. This research examines the customer orientation–performance relationship among 180 small firms, and the moderating influence of risk‐taking, innovativeness, and opportunity focus on that relationship. Results support the overall positive influence of customer orientation on performance and indicate that the influence is stronger as risk‐taking, innovativeness, and opportunity focus increase. Interestingly, customer orientation does not positively influence small firm performance under low levels of risk‐taking, innovativeness, and opportunity focus.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Beverly K. Brockman

Beverly K. Brockman is the George Lester Nation Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She holds BBA and MBA degrees from the University of Kentucky and a Ph.D. from the University of Alabama. Her areas of specialization include marketing strategy, entrepreneurship, product development, and organizational learning. Her research has been published in Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal, Decision Sciences, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Product Innovation Management, and others.

Michael A. Jones

Michael A. Jones is the Alan S. Lorberbaum professor of marketing at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Alabama. His research has appeared in the Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Consumer Affairs, and others.

Richard C. Becherer

Richard C. Becherer holds the Clarence E. Harris chair of Excellence in Business and Entrepreneurship at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He has had extensive experience both as an academic and as an entrepreneur. He cofounded one of the first for‐profit Health Maintenance Organizations in the United States, which became a public company. He has been published in numerous journals, including Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Marketing, and Decision Sciences. He holds a doctorate degree from the University of Kentucky and was a Fulbright Scholar in the Czech Republic in 2008.