The study of the effects of strategic orientations and marketing capabilities on marketing unit performance (Case study: Petrochemical Industry)

The present investigation, titled as “A Study of the Effects of Strategic Orientations and Marketing Capabilities on the Performance of the Marketing Division”tries to examine a model which links the strategic orientations with the organization’s marketing performance through the mediating role of the marketing capabilities. This is a field survey-descriptive study which has used the library resources to collect the required theoretical data. The population includes all the managers and senior employees of the marketing, production, research and development (R&D), sales, and finance divisions of Esfahan Petrochemical, Persian Gulf petrochemical Industries, Petrochemical Commercial , International Petrochemical Commercial, and Bistoon Petrochemical companies (110 individuals). Since the population is small, there was no need for sampling and the entire population was surveyed through census methods. The data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire containing 46 items the validity of which was confirmed through advising and consulting professors as well as management experts comments and the reliability of which was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha (?=95%). The collected data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software programs. Descriptive statistics was used to examine the demographic features of the population; and Kolmogorov- Smirnov test was applied to verify the normality of the population’s distribution. The variance analysis of the constructs was performed based on demographic variables.The study model had a good fit, as shown by the values of the fit indices. One main hypothesis (speculating the significant effect of strategic orientations and marketing capabilities on the performance of the marketing division) and 17 sub-hypotheses (speculating the significant effect of market turbulence, intensity of competition and decentralization, each separately, based on strategic orientations, speculating the significant effect of strategic orientations on marketing capabilities and the significant effect of marketing capabilities on performance of the marketing division) were mentioned in the present paper all of which were supported by the findings. The results also indicated that the fifth sub-hypothesis (intensity of competition has a significant effect on customer orientation), with a path coefficient of 0.88, had the highest significance; and the 13th sub-hypothesis(customer orientation has a significant effect on marketing capabilities), with a path coefficient of 0.21, had the lowest significance among others.