Business performance of surveying firms: A data-driven path model

Abstract

Business performance is an important concern for all profit organizations including surveying firms. Based on the data from 179 UK surveying firms, a data-driven path analysis is conducted to examine the direct and indirect effects of eight independent variables on business performance (the dependent variable). These are organization structure, environmental uncertainty, interconnectedness, size of firm, marketing performance, market orientation, management and strategy. The results suggest that only the marketing performance variable has a strong and significant direct effect on business performance. In turn, marketing performance is largely dependent on the firm's degree of market orientation. The finding in this study reinforces the postulation in existing literature that a market orientation is essential for sustaining competitive advantage in business firms. As such, the implication for surveying firms is that the stronger the market orientation of the firm, the better would be the business performance.