SAGE Open (Jun 2019)
University Markor: A Context-Specific Scale to Measure Market-Orientation in Universities
Abstract
Market-orientation (MO) is not a very untouched research area, yet its application in universities is quite a recent phenomenon to execute marketing concept for a better value proposition. Various popular instruments including MARKOR and MKTOR have been used to assess MO in a variety of enterprise setups, but those measures turned out to be invalid in higher education context due to different goals and objectives of universities. Hence, the aim of this article is to validate a relatively more context-specific scale “UNIVERSITY MARKOR” in the developing countries like Pakistan that was initially developed and tested as relatively a better measure of university MO in some developed countries. Survey method was used in this study through the target population constituted by the university teachers and administrators. The proportionate systematic random sampling method was used to form a total sample of 476 respondents. For data analysis, the partial least squares (PLS) path modeling was utilized. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for this study established three dimensions of “UNIVERSITY-MARKOR” construct. The examination of internal consistency reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity confirmed adequate psychometric properties for the UNIVERSITY-MARKOR construct. The results of this study are also consistent to the previous studies conducted in different contexts. Additional value may be complemented to this study if the pertinent future research may replicate it either in the private-sector universities. This study is therefore a source of support in developing countries to assist researchers and higher education authorities for better decision making.