Understanding Market-Driving Behavior: The Role of Entrepreneurship by Minet Schindehutte, Michael H. Morris, and Akin Kocak In recent years, the marketing literature has placed significant emphasis on market-driving and proactive market-driven behavior within firms in attempts to reconceptualize the meaning of “market orientation.” For their part, market-driving firms such as Starbucks, Amazon.com, Dell, and Southwest Airlines are demonstrat- ing how business model innovation results in sustainable advantage and superior long-term performance in a wide range of industries. In this paper, we contend that market-driving behavior is distinct from a firm’s market orientation, and instead is the essence of entrepreneurial action in the Schumpeterian “creative destruction” sense. It is further argued that the firm’s entrepreneurial orientation interacts with other strategic orientations, in the process determining how they are manifested and, in some cases, whether they are manifested. Furthermore, entrepreneurial orientation plays a critical role in determining transitions among various strategic orientations over time. An integrative model illustrates the dynamics of the interface between marketing and entrepreneurship from both a content and process perspective. Two case studies illustrate how trajectories can be identified in the dominant strategic orientations within companies as they evolve. Introduction At the nexus of the interface between entrepreneurship and marketing are value creation and value appropriation within the market. It is the market that provides signals both to the entrepreneur and marketer regarding what value is needed, when it is needed, and how it should be delivered. The market repre- sents a control system that determines the success or failure of entrepreneurs Minet Schindehutte is associate professor of entrepreneurship at the Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University. Michael H. Morris is Witting Chair of Entrepreneurship at the Whitman School of Manage- ment, Syracuse University. Akin Kocak is assistant professor of marketing at the Faculty of Political Science, Ankara University. Address correspondence to: Minet Schindehutte, Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244-2130. Tel: 315-443-3586. E-mail: mschinde@syr.edu. Journal of Small Business Management 2008 46(1), pp. 4–26 JOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT 4