Current Marketing Practices and Market Orientation in the Context of an Emerging Economy: The Case of Uruguay

Abstract

This research explores the link between contemporary marketing practices, market orientation (MO), and business performance in ruguay, an emergent country that has recovered from an economic crisis. These approaches seem to be related but there is no existing evidence to confirm this impression. Lessons can be learned from understanding how effective the adoption of marketing practices is under a crisis scenario. Using data from interviews with 143 micro and small firms' managers, we identify three clusters dependant on the combination of marketing practices: a multimarketing cluster, a medium‐level relationship marketing cluster, and a transactional cluster. A model relating MO components and various performance measures is tested for the three clusters, showing that the multimarketing and transactional clusters are more effective in translating efforts and resources into business outcomes.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank support received through two projects of the Spanish Ministries of Education and Science, and Economy and Competitiveness: SEJ2007‐65897 and ECO2011‐27942.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nora Lado

Nora Lado is professor of marketing in the Department of Business Administration, University Carlos III of Madrid.

Lola C. Duque

Lola C. Duque is assistant professor of marketing in the Department of Business Administration, University Carlos III of Madrid.

Daniel Alvarez bassi

Daniel Alvarez Bassi is assistant professor of marketing in the Marketing and Tourism Research Center, Universidad Católica del Uruguay.