This study developed a model to empirically investigate the effects of animal clinic's market orientation and relationship marketing orientation on business performance and examine the moderating effects of entrepreneur's characteristic(working tenure...
This study developed a model to empirically investigate the effects of animal clinic's market orientation and relationship marketing orientation on business performance and examine the moderating effects of entrepreneur's characteristic(working tenure) and clinic's location. Furthermore, interactive relation between animal clinic's internal marketing orientation, market orientation and relationship marketing orientation was also investigated.
The data was collected from 200 animal clinics which belong to Korean Animal Hospital Association(KAHA) during their national conference and other local seminars in Spring, 2007. Descriptive statistic, factor analysis, reliability analysis, and regression analysis were conducted to analyze the data using SPSS/PC+ 12.0. Furthermore, to investigate interactive relation between internal marketing orientation, market orientation and relationship marketing orientation, AMOS 5.0 was used.
The findings are as follows.
First, animal clinic's market orientation influences significantly both financial and non-financial performance. When the moderating effect of entrepreneur's working tenure is considered, market orientation has significant effect on animal clinic's financial and non-financial performance. However, when the moderating effect of animal clinic's location is considered, market orientation has no significant effect on animal clinic's financial and non-financial performance.
Second, animal clinic's relationship marketing orientation with suppliers mostly affects the financial and non-financial performance significantly. When entrepreneur's working tenure in the clinic is longer(above 4 years group), relationship marketing orientation with suppliers significantly affects both financial and non-financial performance. Meanwhile, when the entrepreneur's working tenure in the clinic is shorter(less than 3 years group), relationship marketing orientation with suppliers doesn't affect clinic's financial performance but affect non-financial performance partially. In other words, when entrepreneur's working tenure is shorter(less than 3 years group), market orientation more influences on clinic's financial and non-financial performance while relationship marketing orientation with suppliers does less.
Third, when animal clinic is located in non-metropolitan area, relationship marketing orientation with suppliers significantly affects financial and non-financial performance. However, when animal clinic is located in metropolitan area, it doesn't affect financial and non-financial performance either.
Fourth, while the effect of the market orientation significantly influences animal clinic's business performance continuously, the effect of the relationship marketing orientation differently influences business performance as it is moderated by entrepreneur's working tenure and animal clinic's location. So, relationship orientation with suppliers can be selectively applied to improve animal clinic's financial and non-financial performance.
Lastly, animal clinic's three service marketing orientations(internal marketing orientation, market orientation, and relationship marketing orientation) significantly influence on business performance. However, while animal clinic's internal marketing orientation partially influences on business performance directly, it also directly influences on market orientation and relationship marketing orientation. After all, both of marketing orientation and relationship marketing orientation improve its business performance significantly.
In summary, both of animal clinic's marketing orientation and animal clinic's relationship marketing orientation positively influence their business performance. However, entrepreneur's working tenure and animal clinic location moderate the relation between market orientation, relationship marketing orientation and their business performance. Furthermore, to improve animal clinic's business performance, three service marketing orientations(internal marketing orientation, market orientation, relationship marketing orientation) are imperative as marketing triad.