eThesis - Kauppakorkeakoulun sähköiset gradut

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Purpose of study:

The concept of market orientation has been studied since 1970's. The dimensions of this concept have been described slightly differently by different researchers. Though this concept has been studied also among SMEs, even in Finland, there has not been a single-industry study focusing on Finnish pharmacies. The main objective of this study was to gain research information of market orientation within Finnish pharmacies, and whether this strategic paradigm can be related to Finnish pharmacists' strategy work.

Methodology:

Online survey was conducted in fall 2013 to collect the research data of this study. Invitation to this survey was sent to 584 pharmacists throughout Finland. 118 effective responses with response rate 20.2 per cent were received. Data analysis was conducted in two phases. In the first phase Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the importance of market orientation to Finnish pharmacy owners. In the second phase t test and One-way Anova were used to test differences between demography variables sub groups among respondents.

Findings:

One of the key findings of this study was that Finnish pharmacists did recognize dimensions of market orientation important to their strategy work. This study shows that these entrepreneurs were most active in responsiveness, while in information generation and dissemination they were slightly less active. This outcome is in line with the findings of previous research done among Finnish SMEs. Another key finding was that those pharmacists who possess PD education were less market oriented compared to those who do not have this further education. This would be somewhat unexpected result. The results of this study suggest that market orientation is relevant concept in the context of Finnish pharmacies. Such concept and related frameworks, e.g. MARKOR, could offer a guideline for entrepreneurs in this field of business as it confronts the competitive challenges of 21st century.