Market orientation and product strategies in small internationalising software companies

This study examines how market orientation is manifested in the context of small, rapidly internationalising software companies. It is concluded from the four company cases that any internationalising software company should focus its market orientation more on the individual-customer level than on the overall-market level. For providers of standardised software products, cooperating with global leading customers plays a key role in terms of obtaining the most accurate market intelligence and staying ahead in the competition. In contrast, providers of tailor-made software projects should emphasise interfunctional coordination: the quality of the response to customer needs should be well managed regardless of the geographical location. Further, the concepts of reactive and proactive market orientation are intertwined: neither contributes to better customer satisfaction in isolation. However, depending on the time needed for responding to customer needs, either may require more attention.