Orientamento al mercato e flessibilità di marketing

This study examines the relationship between market orientation and output flexibility within an organizational network on the ground that product variety might help in understanding such a link. Product variety refers to the output mix and is an ex-post direct and objective measure of flexibility. This study hypothesizes that a firm within a network reaches the fit among its offerings and customer needs through changing the degree of product variety. Thereby product variety is assumed as a key synthetic indicator for output flexibility. The study is organized into four parts, besides the introduction. The second section describes the market orientation concept and its measurement issues. The third section proposes a conceptual framework of both demand variety and product variety classifying them according to different typologies. The fourth section presents the empirical findings from a case study of a corporate network in the fashion business. The last section presents some final considerations.