ABSTRACT
Managers and researchers have claimed during the past decade the importance of market and customer orientation for sustainable competitive advantage and superior company performance. The empirical research on market orientation is based mainly on the studies of Narver and Slater (1990) and Jaworski and Kohli (1993). Although a great deal of marketing research has investigated market orientation (e.g., Greenley 1995; AppiahAdu 1997; Kumar et al. 1998), and especially customer and competitor orientation (e.g., Pelham and Wilson 1996; Balakrishnan 1996), the role of these aspects for new venture management is still unclear, particularly in the context of dynamic markets such as the software industry.
