Achieving Growth and Responsiveness: Process Management and Market Orientation in Small Firms*
研究小制造企业如何通过内部流程管理来提升市场导向中的响应能力，并分析其利弊，为应对增长挑战提供管理启示。
Achieving a consistent market orientation is a challenge for entrepreneurial manufacturers. This research seeks improved understanding of how internal process management assists and hinders small growing manufacturers in achieving the responsiveness component of a market orientation. Under process management, firms implement internal systems, procedures, and performance measures to improve performance and responsiveness to changing markets. Benefits include improved market sensing, two-way communication, and coordinated responses to market demands. Despite the potential benefits, researchers question whether the internal structure and control of process management will improve responsiveness in entrepreneurial firms. Process management may conflict with the organizational cultures, agility, and responsiveness of entrepreneurial companies. Research results identify how process management assists and hinders the responsiveness component of market orientation in small manufacturers. Management implications and strategies for coping with growth challenges are presented.