STRATEGIC ORIENTATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE: A STUDY OF THE AFRICAN TEXTILE INDUSTRY

Abstract

This study examines the impact of strategic orientation on organizational performance in the African textile industry in Nigeria. However, there are cautions that being too customer focused can lead to lack of focus and anecdotal evidence suggests that it may be better to "ignore your customer" when developing new products. Building on the market orientation research stream, the authors examine the impact of three alternative strategic orientations customer orientation, competitor orientation, and product orientation on a variety of subjective and objective measures of performance in an organization, which is marked by high rates of innovation and largely unpredictable customer preferences. The results indicate that the association between strategic orientation and performance varies depending on the type of performance measure used. However, the most unambiguous result is that a customer orientation exhibits a negative association with sales.