The effects of market orientation on firm performance and the moderating role of inbound marketing on this relationship: A research on startups in Ankara

Main reason of startups' failure is the lack of product-market fit. No market intelligence or no market research cause startups to be short-lived. Market orientated startups increase the firm performance and start to grow rapidly. Inbound marketing, as the last approach of digital marketing, is a big opportunity for startups that have limited budget in the beginning. Therefore, technology based startups could make an intense use of inbound marketing techniques to determine the right marketing model. In this empirical study, the dimensions of market orientation and firm performance of 141 startups operating in Ankara are investigated. Also the moderating role of inbound marketing on the market orientation-firm performance relationship is analyzed. The dimensions of market orientation are responsive market orientation and proactive market orientation and the dimensions of firm performance are financial performance, market performance and innovative performance. According to the results, there is a positive effect of market orientation on firm performance. Furthermore, responsive market orientation affects to the financial performance, market performance and innovative performance. However proactive market orientation has an effect on innovative performance only. Also no moderating effect of inbound marketing on market orientation-firm performance relationship has been observed. Recently, startups subjected to research are mostly in the United States of America and other developed countries. Yet academic studies on startups are very rare in developing countries like Turkey. In this regard, it is aimed to be the first study focusing on Turkish Startups by measuring the effect of market orientation on firm performance and the moderating role of inbound marketing on this relationship. The priority of the research is to lead the startup ecosystem for further studies and also to be beneficial to the whole shareholders by contributing to the literature.