Environmental Uncertainty, Market-Orientation Strategy, and Organizational Structure in China's Apparel Retail Stores

The research purpose was to examine relationships among Chinese apparel retail stores’ market-orientation (MO) strategies, organizational structure and environmental uncertainty as perceived by the managers. A total of 227 store managers completed a questionnaire. After factor analysis, we tested three hypotheses using structural equation modeling. We found that two aspects of environmental uncertainty significantly affect most MO strategies and structural specialization and formalization. Results also indicate that Chinese apparel retailers are implementing MO strategies to some extent under organizational structures that are fairly formalized and centralized and even more specialized.

Citation:

Eun Hwang and Marjorie Norton (2011) ,"Environmental Uncertainty, Market-Orientation Strategy, and Organizational Structure in China's Apparel Retail Stores", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Zhihong Yi, Jing Jian Xiao, and June Cotte and Linda Price, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: .