Exploring the Moderating Effects of Value Offerings Between Market Orientation and Performance in Tourism Industry

Market orientation as a business strategy has recently been adopted in the travel and tourism industry, as well as other industries, to enhance performance. Value offerings have also emerged as a new research interest within the strategic marketing domain. Based on the theory of strategy-environment fit, this study investigates the relationship between market orientation (i.e. customer and competitor orientations) and performance, and the moderating role of value offerings (i.e. service emphasis and price emphasis), using a sample of 132 Taiwanese travel agencies. The research results obtained from hierarchical regression analyses indicate that only both customer and competitor orientations, but not value offerings, have positive and direct effects on performance. However, the results show that one dimension of value offerings, i.e. service emphasis, has a moderating role in the market orientation-performance relationship. The managerial implications of these results are also discussed. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.