Title: Linking external communities with performances through market orientation

Authors: Juan Gabriel Cegarra Navarro

Addresses: Facultad de Ciencias de la Empresa, Universidad Politecnica de Cartagena, Paseo Alfonso XIII, 50, 30203 Cartagena, Murcia, Spain

Abstract: External Communities of Practice (EcoPs) are groups formed by company clients and company workers, whose members regularly share knowledge and learning. These communities are based on common interests, commitment, mutual trust and collaborative relations with the organisation. Through EcoPs, organisations will secure purchase repetition and recover the investment that has been made to gain and maintain customers. This paper examines the explanatory power of EcoPs on market orientation, and their effects on the creation of business performance through an empirical investigation of 139 small- to medium-sized enterprises of the Spanish Optometrists sector using repeated ANOVA measures validated by factor analysis.

Keywords: external communities; organisational learning; market orientation; business performance; SMEs; small and medium sized enterprises; communities of practice; Spain; optometry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCP.2006.009646

International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, 2006 Vol.2 No.1, pp.49 - 65

Published online: 03 May 2006 *

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