SMEs' market orientation toward public sector customers in public procurement

Purpose This paper investigates how the market orientation of SMEs toward public sector customers enables firms to participate and succeed in public procurement. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a survey-based methodology. First, the authors reconfigured an empirical construct of market orientation for private sector markets to measure the market orientation toward public sector customers. Then they conducted a survey of Finnish firms to test the construct and how it predicted firm performance in public procurement. Findings The authors find empirical support for firms to adopt a market orientation toward public sector customers. Their results suggest that customer and competitor orientations are positive predictors of participating and winning supply contracts in public sector tenders. Research limitations/implications Self-reported survey data from a single country may limit the generalizability of results. Originality/value This paper is the first to report a market orientation toward public sector customers and describe how it is related to supplier performance in public procurement.