Family Business and Market Orientation: Construct Validation and Comparative Analysis

Market orientation refers to the collection, dissemination, and utilization of market information that promotes a sustainable competitive advantage. Despite the contribution of the market orientation construct to both the strategic management and marketing literatures, little attention has been devoted to exploring how market orientation relates to family businesses and how these relationships might differ from nonfamily businesses. To address this gap and stimulate further research in this area of inquiry, this study develops and validates a market orientation measure using content analysis of CEO letters from the S&P 500 and tests for differences between family businesses and nonfamily businesses.