Abstract:
Despite the significant contribution to socio-economic development by SMEs (small and medium enterprises), their failure rate is very high in South Africa. Adoption and implementation of market orientation has been identified by various scholars as a means to mitigate SME failure in the highly competitive environments they operate in. This study investigated the factors influencing market orientation in SME computer retailers in King Williams Town and East London, South Africa. The objectives of the study were to investigate whether owner/manager involvement of had an influence on market orientation in SME computer retailers, to establish whether organisational systems and interdepartmental dynamics had an impact on the customer focused culture as well as investigate whether competitive intensity influenced the SME computer retailers to be market focused. Both primary and secondary data sources were used in this study. A quantitative research design was used in conducting this research. Simple random sampling, a probability sampling technique was used to select a sample of 104 from the sample frame of 141 registered SME computer retailers. The survey method, by way of a self-administered questionnaire was used to collect primary data. The statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) as statistical software was used to analyse data. The Chi-square test, Pearson correlation, the t-test, and descriptive statistics were used to analyse data. The findings of this research found that there are factors influencing market orientation in SME computer retailers, such as owner/manager involvement. Competitive intensity was found to influence SME computer retailers to be market focused. It was also found that organisational systems and interdepartmental dynamics did not impact on the customer focused culture. The findings of this research showed that SME owner/managers hold the key to shaping an organisation‟s values and culture orientation therefore in order to be market orientated, they need pass on a clear message to the lower levels of the organisation. The careful implementation of organisational systems and interdepartmental dynamics that encourage market orientation as well as constant matching and monitoring of competitors was recommended to enable SMEs to be market orientated and in turn improve their business performance and success.
