Market orientation in service 1003 European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 36 No. 9/10, 2002, pp. 1003-1021. # MCB UP Limited, 0309-0566 DOI 10.1108/03090560210437307 Received March 2001 Revised November 2001 Market orientation in service A review and analysis A Â gueda Esteban, A Â ngel Milla Ân, Arturo Molina and David Martõ Ân-Consuegra University of Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo/Ciudad Real, Spain Keywords Market orientation, Service industries, Organizational performance, Marketing concept Abstract Theassociationbetweeneconomicdevelopmentandgrowthoftheservicesectorseems indisputable.Althoughitisnecessarytohighlightthatservicesareofadifferentnaturefromthat ofproducts,nowadaysthelatteraremoreandmorepenetratedbycomplementaryservices,given the circumstance that services themselves also include, occasionally, the use and consumption of products. Market orientation had been developed mainly in association with tangible products; therefore it is necessary to carry out a study where the evolution of the market orientation is reflected in the service sector independently from industrial sectors. That is why a historical summary of the evolution of market orientation on the service sector has been performed. Introduction In recent years, the service sector in developed countries has gained a greater economic importance and a more significant presence in the enterprise landscape. The number of activities has widened: financial, travelling, personal, professional and health-care activities have all become part of this group. This diversity has favoured a growth in the consumption of these services which, in its turn, has been modified according to environmental elementsandconsumers'preferences. During the last 50 years interest in marketing theory and practice has been steadily increasing. This interest has deepened because of the popularisation of the term ``marketing'' and greater expansion and sophistication in its practical use. Consumers' choices have become a major concern for business organisations and meeting consumers' needs is now considered the main objective of enterprises. The realisation of the importance of consumers' dictates has eased the path towards the marketing concept and market orientation. Most studies in this field have centred on the definition and delimitation of themarketingconceptandmarketorientation.Duringthelastthreedecades,the definition of market orientation has changed often but has nevertheless kept a central position inside the theory and practice of marketing strategies. Only recently has a theory comprising antecedents, limits and consequences of marketingorientationbeenworkedout,togetherwithasetofmeasurementsfor this construct which allow testing its effects on the enterprise profitability: for instance,MARKORKohli etal.,1993)andMKTORNarverandSlater,1990). A further distinction has recently been introduced between two complementary approaches to market orientation: to be market driven and The research register for this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregisters The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0309-0566.htm