ADVANCE BUSINESS RESEARCH

Assignment # 2

Student Name: Tehniat Zafar

Major:

M.Phil (Business Administration - Marketing)

Semester: 1

Date: Sep 29th, 2017

Question: Select 3 concepts/constructs of your choice preferable different from your colleagues.
Answer:
1. Market Orientation
Formal Definition:
“The organizational culture that most effectively and efficiently creates the necessary behaviors
for the creation of superior value for buyers and thus continuous superior performance for the
business” (Narver & Slater, 1990)
Alternative definitions:
Market orientation places the customer’s needs at the heart of business strategy and is based around
a view of marketing as being “the ability to create and keep profitable customers” (Brown, 1987)
Market Orientation is a set of behaviors and activities in an organization. (Kohli & Jaworski, 1990)
Market orientation is concerned with the processes and activities associated with creating and
satisfying customers by continually assessing their needs and wants (Uncles, 2000)
Conceptualization:
Some authors focus primarily upon the need for customer and competitor intelligence (e.g. Kohli
& Jaworski, 1990), for instance, whilst others focus more on the organization of the business unit
itself (e.g. Narver & Slater, 1990).
Customer Focus: All models place the importance of identifying and satisfying customer needs at
the heart of the business, together with the need to strive to provide added value to the customer
in the face of intense competition and the continual erosion in product/service differentiation
Information Dissemination: The second common feature is the emphasis on a need for
comprehensive information about the organization’s customers, competitors and operating
environment.
Interfunctional Coordination: Following on from the above, it is not sufficient to merely
disseminate intelligence if the organizational mechanisms are not in place to ensure inclusive
planning.
Taking Action: Finally, all models agree that organizations need to be continually amending
strategy in light of current and anticipated market developments.
Comment:
Market orientation is mandatory for an organization’s success and emphasizes on identifying and
discovering the hidden and stated needs or wants of customers through its product mix. Market
orientation allows the company to view its customers as individuals with subtle differences in what
they need or want and when customer satisfaction levels will be high they will come back again
and again.
2. CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility
Formal Definition:
Corporate social responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and
contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their
families as well as the local community and society at large.
(World Business Council of Sustainable Development, 2000)
Alternative definitions:
Corporate social responsibility is concerned with treating the stakeholders of the firm ethically or
in a socially responsible manner. Stakeholders exist both within a firm and outside. Consequently,
behaving socially responsibly will increase the human development of stakeholders both within
and outside the corporation. (Hopkins, 1998)
Corporate social responsibility involves the conduct of a business so that it is economically
profitable, law abiding, ethical and socially supportive. (Carrol, 1979)
Conceptualization:
Based on Carroll (1979)’s definition of corporate social responsibility – there are four components
(economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary) and these companies satisfies the definition of
becoming more socially responsible.
Economic Responsibilities: A company's first responsibility is its economic responsibility -- that
is to say, a company needs to be primarily concerned with turning a profit. This is for the simple
fact that if a company does not make money, it won't last, employees will lose jobs and the
company won't even be able to think about taking care of its social responsibilities.
Legal Responsibilities: A company's legal responsibilities are the requirements that are placed on
it by the law. Next to ensuring that company is profitable, ensuring that it obeys all laws is the
most important responsibility, according to the theory of corporate social responsibility.
Ethical Responsibilities: Economic and legal responsibilities are the two big obligations of a
company. After a company has met these basic requirements, a company can concern itself with
ethical responsibilities.
Philanthropic Responsibilities: If a company is able to meet all of its other responsibilities, it can
begin meeting philanthropic responsibilities. Philanthropic responsibilities are responsibilities that
go above and beyond what is simply required or what the company believes is right.
Comment:
It is compulsory for all the companies to conduct CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives
and activities and the administrators should be certain that every business must CSR actions as
these will not only benefit to recover company’s repute but also contribute a value added donation
to the humanity.
3. Organizational Performance

Formal Definition:

Organizational performance is defined as the extent to which organizations, viewed as a social

system fulfilled their objectives. (Georgopoulos & Tannenbaum, 1957)

Alternative definitions:

“Organizational Performance is the attainment of organizational goals by using resources in

an efficient and effective manner." (Richard Daft)

“Organizational performance is the way in which an organization tries to be effective it is an

analysis of a company's performance as compared to goals and objectives.” (Ricky W. Griffin)

Conceptualization:

The concept of organizational performance is based upon the idea that an organization is the
voluntary association of productive assets, including human, physical, and capital resources,
for the purpose of achieving a shared purpose. (Alchian & Demsetz, 1972; Barney, 2001;
Jensen & Meckling, 1976; Simon, 1976). Those providing the assets will only commit them to
the organization so long as they are satisfied with the value they receive in exchange, relative
to alternative uses of the assets. The concept of organizational performance is the comparison
of an organization's goals and objectives with its actual performance in three distinct areas—
financial performance, market performance, and shareholder value. Financial performance
refers to an organization's results with regard to return on investment and return on assets. The
market performance refers to a company's ability to make and distribute their outputs in the
most cost effective way and to set a price that returns a reasonable amount and the shareholder
value is the ultimate measure of a company's success in the extent to which it enriches
shareholders.

Comment:

Organizational performance is crucial for a company’s standing and success in marketplace.

No matter what size your business is, no matter how many employees you employ,
organizational performance is a concern - even if you are the only person in the business. High
performance organizations leave their competitors in their dust and are highly profitable.