“Thinking” about business markets: A cognitive assessment of market awareness

Current conceptualizations of marketing decision-making center on behavioral and cultural aspects of information flow and inter-functional coordination but neglect the cognitive, sense-making aspects of team decision-making. To fill this gap in existing business market literature, this study provides a cognitive based model of team market awareness. Drawing on theory related to entrepreneurial alertness, the paper develops constructs of management team awareness and symmetry of awareness distribution that are tested empirically. Results reveal that the management team's ability to perceive, comprehend and predict market elements (team market awareness) leads to higher firm performance. Further, the effect of team market awareness on team performance is strengthened when the team has asymmetric distribution of awareness, whereby a team's members have an accurate awareness of different market elements. Finally, team market awareness also has a stronger impact on team performance when the team has a high level of agreement on cross-functional tactics.