Validation of a market orientation adoption scale in rural tourism enterprises. Relationship between the characteristics of the enterprise and extent of market orientation adoption
Market orientation (MO) is considered as a competitive strategy for the rural tourism sector. A MO adoption scale is proposed and validated for the rural tourism sector. Given the importance of MO, it is important to know the relationship between a firm's characteristics and MO adoption. This study makes a hierarchical segmentation to predict the behaviour of these firms when adopting the MO. Activity and category are the two characteristics that most effectively predict a firm's behaviour. The contribution made by this work is of interest given the new field of application achieved and which have implications for the professional sector.
Rural tourism is an increasingly important asset for the European economy (Buhalis and Deimezi, 2004). Its evolution represents a key tool in sustainable economic development and an alternative to the traditional offer of sun, sea and sand, encouraging diversification towards new destinations, and redistributing demand to form sustainable rural tourism destinations (WTO, 2007). In recent years, interaction with the market has been made easier, to a great extent, by a growth in demand for this kind of tourism, triggered by greater interest in conserving the rural environment and in making direct contact with nature (Albacete-Sáez et al., 2007). However, this positive scenario should be viewed with a degree of moderation, given that currently there is increasing competitiveness in the international tourism market (WTO, 2007) which makes it more difficult to develop and retain market share in the different tourist destinations (Camisón, 2000 and WTO, 2007). This situation calls for action, geared towards facilitating the progress of rural tourism enterprises. Achieving competitiveness in the market depends on the proper adjustment of supply to the requirements of demand, the capacity to match or improve on innovations introduced by competitors, and the embedding of innovations arising from technological development (Camisón, 2000). These actions are systematically undertaken by those businesses that take a MO approach (Deshpandé et al., 1993, Kohli and Jaworski, 1990 and Narver and Slater, 1990). There is universal agreement throughout literature on the importance for organizations of adopting MO (Kirca et al., 2005), this being considered as equivalent to the development of a competitive advantage for the organization (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990 and Narver and Slater, 1990). MO has a positive effect on organizational performance (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990 and Narver and Slater, 1990), its effects extending to organizational results, employees, innovation and clients (Kirca et al., 2005). Despite the extensive body of literature that deals with MO, there are only a few recent works that apply MO to smaller service enterprises (Kara et al., 2005), micro service enterprises (Blankson and Omar, 2002), and for ethnic tourism enterprises (Altinay, 2010) and none that deals with the topic in relation to rural tourism businesses. However, there is no previous work that is aimed precisely to study the relationships between the characteristics of rural enterprises and MO adoption. The study of the relationships between the characteristics of the rural tourism enterprises and MO adoption is of interest for literature and the rural tourism sector since it helps to develop awareness of the different patterns of corporate behaviour with respect to MO adoption, behavioural patterns with major implications in relation to the company's competitiveness in the market place and highlight the importance and necessity of developing this work. In light of the above, there is a clear need to achieve greater knowledge regarding the adoption of MO within the rural tourism sector and how the characteristics of enterprises in this sector are related to the extent of MO adoption. In this aspect, no previous works have been carried out, and its study is of particular relevance for the rural tourism sector, given the repercussions MO is known to have for business performance. The aim of this work is to offer empirical evidence that contributes to reducing this knowledge gap in the relevant areas, based on achieving two secondary objectives: (1) To adapt a MO scale for its application to rural tourism enterprises. In order to achieve this objective outlined in this work, an exhaustive review of literature has been undertaken. In addition, two studies have been carried out, one qualitative, the other quantitative. These have made it possible to develop and validate an ‘adoption of MO’ scale in the rural tourism sector. (2) The study of the behaviour of enterprises in rural tourism to MO adoption in relation with the company's characteristics. In developing and analyzing MO adoption in the rural tourism sector and given the implications as a competitive strategy, this paper proposes the development of a hierarchical segment that describes the behaviour of enterprises in rural tourism to MO adoption in relation with the company's characteristics. Although the effect of MO on business results is extensively explored in literature, its study in the context of the rural tourism sector makes a new contribution. Until now, literature has not responded to the question of whether the adoption of MO constitutes an appropriate strategy for the sector or whether the characteristics of rural tourism businesses have any effect on the behaviour of such businesses in relation to MO adoption. These considerations are of interest to the literature on MO, to specialist rural tourism literature, and to professionals in the tourism sector.
The main contribution of the present study is in establishing the adoption of MO as a competitive strategy for rural tourism enterprises. This contribution is of interest given the importance assigned by the literature to MO, and the growing interest in its application in areas such as those addressed by the present work, such as service enterprises and smaller enterprises (Altinay, 2010 and Blankson and Omar, 2002). Rural tourism enterprises, given their background origins, have differentiating characteristics that set them apart from other businesses in which MO has been applied. The present work shows that MO constitutes a strategy adopted by the rural tourism sector, and develops and validates an ‘adoption of MO’ scale for rural tourism businesses. No previous works make an in-depth study of the characteristics of the rural tourism sector in relation to MO adoption, nor do they quantify the extent of MO adoption. In order for the present work to achieve these contributions, it was necessary to undertake both a qualitative and a quantitative study. The qualitative study enabled a series of norms in relation to MO adoption by rural tourism enterprises to be identified, together with the items that comprise the proposed ‘adoption of MO’ scale. In such a way, findings that coincide with those of other earlier works have been achieved (Blankson et al., 2006, Blankson and Omar, 2002 and McCartan-Quinn and Carson, 2003), such as the fact that although managers consider marketing management to be very important for the progress of their businesses, they are conscious of not devoting the necessary effort to this area. Furthermore it was identified that activities associated with the marketing sphere are very simple in nature, reflecting the overall level of knowledge of the manager. It was identified that they do undertake activities relating to each of the dimensions of MO: capturing market information, disseminating the information within the business, and responding to the market. Amongst such activities, certain norms are identified that are in common with those outlined in earlier works (Blankson et al., 2006 and Blankson and Omar, 2002) such as the use of informal mechanisms for capturing and disseminating market information within the business, and the high level of involvement with, and commitment to, the business on the part of the manager. In addition, other findings have been achieved that are specific to the rural tourism sector, such as: (1) The use of services delivered by professional associations, professional trade fairs and public bodies from the sector as a channels for accessing market information, which enables them to adapt swiftly to changes arising in the sector (2) The nature of the sector – labor-intensive in terms of services delivered and hours worked – contributes to the fact that mechanisms for disseminating information throughout the business become formalized and in turn become coordination mechanisms within the established routine for holding informal meetings for staff when they change shifts. (3) The tremendous importance of client orientation is clearly shown, in particular in terms of the lengths these businesses are prepared to go to and the speed of response they endeavor to offer clients. As regards the quantitative study, the validation achieved in this work is based on adapting Kohli and Jaworski's model (1990) and their MARKOR scale (Kohli et al., 1993). This validation is based on adapting the scale in light of the insights provided by the qualitative study that was undertaken amongst entrepreneurs and experts from the sector. This validation affirms that Kohli and Jaworski's model (1990) and their MARKOR scale (Kohli et al., 1993) constitute an appropriate framework for micro service enterprises, a conclusion that concurs with the earlier work of Blankson and Omar (2002). It should also be noted that the simplicity of the ‘adoption of MO’ scale obtained contributes to facilitating its applicability in micro service enterprises. As regards the study of the relationship between business characteristics and MO adoption in the rural tourism sector, no empirical studies have been performed on this subject. Such a study would be of interest given the implications of MO adoption for business performance, and furthermore given that MO adoption constitutes a strategy that is well within the reach of the sector as it is based on the capacity and resources of these enterprises. In light of the literature review, the characteristics that have an effect on the competitive activity of tourism businesses (measured in terms of ICT use) have been identified. These are: activity, category, location and size of the business. Given that the aim is to understand the relationship between the characteristics of rural establishments and MO adoption: the study has identified business characteristics related to MO adoption, the characteristics with most influence on business behaviour, and prediction of enterprise behaviour regarding MO adoption. A hierarchical segmentation was obtained that predict behaviour of rural tourism businesses regarding MO adoption. The results obtained show that: (1) The category is related to the MO adoption, and is the most important characteristic for prediction of behaviour when adopting MO. (2) The activity of establishment also has an important effect on the business's behaviour on MO adoption. (3) Location and size are not included in the segmentation predicting behaviour for MO adoption. The results obtained agree with previous studies. Although the empirical evidence mainly establishes a positive relationship between business size and competitive behaviour, this relation is not decisive for the rural tourism sector, as was also the case for Sunil and Islam (2005) and Polo and Frías (2010). Activity and category type variables have most importance for the prediction of rural tourism businesses behaviour regarding MO adoption. It also find that the MO adoption is minimal for very small businesses, as also found by Collins et al. (2003), who mention that although small size businesses do adopt ICT, they must be above a minimum size, beneath which they are reluctant to do so. This is also acknowledged in MO literature, which indicates that there is a minimum enterprise size above which a business may consider MO adoption.