ESSAY 5—Writing about Drama The goal of this assignment is to understand the relevance of a play’s overall message (or messages) for today’s society. Many passionate issues are presented in the major plays that are assigned for Comp. II. Hopefully, you can find one or two that might get your juices flowing enough to develop a sound argument based on logical reasoning! I expect you to use the literature as a springboard to the issues themselves. Put on your critical thinking caps and discover the connections that link earlier societies to today’s society, based on the issues identified in the play. For example, you might discuss the cultural stereotypes of Eastern and Western societies and how they are distorted in M. Butterfly. Consider the theme of Women and the Law and how Trifles illustrates stereotypical male/female roles in earlier Americana. Finally, you might analyze the irony in Beauty. The sky’s the limit! Once you decide upon a focus for your paper, you must provide examples or illustrations as evidence that will support your argument. Quotes from the play will enhance your paper, but be careful not to overdo! (Critical questions for reading plays can be found in your textbook on page 722.) For an effective argument, you must include the following information:  Make an overall claim--your thesis about an issue presented in the literature.  Briefly describe the drama being used to illustrate the issue.  Select specific details and quotes from the play as evidence to support your ideas.  Provide support from at least four (4) credible outside sources. Organize your argument in a manner that is easy to follow—introduce the play and playwright in the introductory paragraph and include your thesis statement. The body paragraphs will continue to develop the arguments you are making about the issues presented in the play along with evidence from credible sources supporting or refuting your argument. Support each opinion sufficiently. Avoid over-generalizing in your judgments or claims. Be sure to have an effective introduction, clear thesis, and effective conclusion. **Since this is a major research assignment, you must include at least four (4) properly documented outside reference sources, in addition to quoting from the text, and include a Works Cited page. Sources that are by themselves considered “substantial” are articles in scholarly journals or separate critical books that either focus specifically on the author or the particular text you've selected or provide critical/theoretical background for the subject, period or genre. Select secondary material that can give you historical, sociological, psychological, feminist, theoretical, etc., perspectives on the play you’ve chosen. Do not use encyclopedias, quotation books/websites, student essays posted online, study guides, or other similar sources. You will find a wealth of wonderful sources by accessing the online d ...

1. ESSAY 5—Writing about Drama
The goal of this assignment is to understand the relevance of a
play’s overall message (or messages) for
today’s society. Many passionate issues are presented in the
major plays that are assigned for Comp. II.
Hopefully, you can find one or two that might get your juices
flowing enough to develop a sound argument
based on logical reasoning! I expect you to use the literature as
a springboard to the issues themselves.
Put on your critical thinking caps and discover the connections
that link earlier societies to today’s society,
based on the issues identified in the play. For example, you
might discuss the cultural stereotypes of
Eastern and Western societies and how they are distorted in M.
Butterfly. Consider the theme of Women
and the Law and how Trifles illustrates stereotypical
male/female roles in earlier Americana. Finally, you
might analyze the irony in Beauty. The sky’s the limit!
Once you decide upon a focus for your paper, you must provide
examples or illustrations as evidence that
will support your argument. Quotes from the play will enhance
your paper, but be careful not to overdo!
(Critical questions for reading plays can be found in your
textbook on page 722.)
For an effective argument, you must include the following
information:
--your thesis about an issue presented

2. in the literature.
s evidence
to support your ideas.
sources.
Organize your argument in a manner that is easy to follow—
introduce the play and playwright in the
introductory paragraph and include your thesis statement. The
body paragraphs will continue to develop
the arguments you are making about the issues presented in the
play along with evidence from credible
sources supporting or refuting your argument. Support each
opinion sufficiently. Avoid over-generalizing
in your judgments or claims. Be sure to have an effective
introduction, clear thesis, and effective
conclusion.
**Since this is a major research assignment, you must include at
least four (4) properly documented
outside reference sources, in addition to quoting from the text,
and include a Works Cited page.
Sources that are by themselves considered “substantial” are
articles in scholarly journals or separate
critical books that either focus specifically on the author or the
particular text you've selected or
provide critical/theoretical background for the subject, period or
genre. Select secondary material
that can give you historical, sociological, psychological,
feminist, theoretical, etc., perspectives on the
play you’ve chosen. Do not use encyclopedias, quotation
books/websites, student essays posted
online, study guides, or other similar sources. You will find a
wealth of wonderful sources by

3. accessing the online databases in the Rose State College
Learning Center.
Requirements:
- 6 pages, Times New Roman 12-pt. font, double-spaced,
1” margins.
-style “Works Cited” page (does
not count towards the 4 ½ -page
minimum)
-text citations.
in THIRD PERSON POINT OF
VIEW!
Case Study Rubric
APA Grading
Missing Title Page
Incorrect Margins
Incorrect Header/Footer
Missing Abstract
Missing References Page
Incorrectly Formatted References
Spelling and Grammar
-10 points
-2 points
-2 points
-10 points
-10 points
-2 points

4. -2 points for each occurrence
SUPERIOR SCORE 94 - 100
Content and Subject: Easily identifiable, clear. Meets or
exceeds page or word length requirement.
Structure: Apparent, understandable, and applicable. Excellent
flow and well-structured.
Examples/Sources: Examples were used. Integration of external
sources occurred.
Analysis: Interesting and novel. Provides different Marketing
Principles based perspectives; demonstrates critical thinking
and critical analysis at a high level.
Mechanics: Excellent APA format. Virtually devoid of errors in
grammar, syntax, punctuation, and spelling.
ACHIEVING SCORE 86 - 93
Content and Subject: Overall concrete, but may be slightly
unclear. Meets or exceeds page or word length requirement.
Structure: Generally clear and appropriate.
Examples/Sources: Examples were used to support most points.
Analysis: Evidence relates to the Marketing Principles based
content. Evidence may lack some clarity. Critical analysis and
critical thinking is apparent.
Mechanics: APA format above average. Good sentence structure
(syntax), grammar, punctuation, and spelling, with minor
errors.
AVERAGE SCORE 78 – 85
Content and Subject: Fairly easy to read and understand, but the
paper meanders from the topic or lacks cohesion/content. Meets
page or word length requirement.
Structure: Overall good, with minor shortfalls.
Examples/Sources: Examples used to support most points.
Arguments sometimes lack supporting evidence and

5. some critical analysis. Limited external source use to support
paper.
Analysis: Cited references appear intermittently, with some
Marketing Principles based critical thinking, but with minimal
or no analysis or further discussion by the adult learner.
Mechanics: APA format may contain intermittent problems.
Sentence structure may have some errors relative to syntax,
grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
BELOW AVERAGE Less than 77
Content and Subject: Often unstructured and vague. Content not
totally applicable to the paper's requirements.
Structure: Mostly unclear and difficult to visualize.
Examples/Sources: Very few examples used to support points.
Minimal, if any, citations.
Analysis: External references not used or very limited with
no Marketing Principles based analysis or further discussion by
the adult learner that demonstrates adult learner critical
thinking/analysis.
Mechanics: APA format not followed. Numerous mistakes in
sentences, paragraph formatting, spelling, and grammar that
subtract from the content of the paper. The writing errors
suggest minimal likelihood that this paper was proofread for
errors prior to submission. Writing is not at a graduate level.
European Journal of Marketing
Emerald Article: Exploring the dynamics of market orientation
in turbulent
environments: a case study
Geir Grundvåg Ottesen, Kjell Grønhaug
Article information:
To cite this document: Geir Grundvåg Ottesen, Kjell Grønhaug,

6. (2004),"Exploring the dynamics of market orientation in
turbulent
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Vol. 38 Iss: 8 pp. 956 - 973
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Geir Grundvåg Ottesen, Kjell Grønhaug, (2004),"Exploring the
dynamics of market orientation in turbulent environments: a
case
study", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 38 Iss: 8 pp. 956 -
973
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090560410539113
Geir Grundvåg Ottesen, Kjell Grønhaug, (2004),"Exploring the
dynamics of market orientation in turbulent environments: a
case
study", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 38 Iss: 8 pp. 956 -
973
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090560410539113
Geir Grundvåg Ottesen, Kjell Grønhaug, (2004),"Exploring the
dynamics of market orientation in turbulent environments: a

7. case
study", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 38 Iss: 8 pp. 956 -
973
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090560410539113
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Exploring the dynamics of market
orientation in turbulent

8. environments: a case study
Geir Grundvåg Ottesen
Norwegian Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture Research,
University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway, and
Kjell Grønhaug
Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration,
Bergen, Norway
Keywords Market orientation, Turbulence
Abstract This paper explores whether and how firms and their
management are influenced by
two types of environmental turbulence which have only been
given scant attention in past research
on market orientation, i.e. turbulence due to unpredictable
supply conditions and turbulence
created by frequent and unpredictable interactions with multiple
market actors. The paper reports
a case study of one successful firm exposed to these types of
environmental turbulence. Here, the
focus is on central aspects of the firm’s environmental contact
over time, including who it interacts
with and the informational content and direction of interactions.
In this way the authors are able to
investigate important aspects of how firms keep in touch with,
learn about, and are influenced and
restricted in a turbulent environment. The study reveals several
intriguing findings. For example,
external actors initiated the majority of firm-environment
interactions and the firm focuses more
on other constituencies than customers. Findings are discussed
and implications highlighted.

9. Introduction
In the literature on market orientation it is emphasised that the
usefulness of a market
orientation depends on the degree of market turbulence,
technological turbulence, and
competitive intensity (Greenley, 1995; Kohli and Jaworski,
1990; Narver and Slater,
1990). Market turbulence refers to “changes in the composition
of customers and their
preferences” and technological turbulence refers to rapid
changes in “the entire process
of transforming inputs to outputs and the delivery of those
outputs to the end
customer” (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990, p. 14). Competitive
intensity is another type of
turbulence, which relates to the presence of multiple choices for
customers (Kohli and
Jaworski, 1990). It is argued that with high market turbulence
and high competitive
intensity it is crucial continually to gather and utilise market
information to adapt
adequately. Under these conditions, a market orientation is
assumed to represent a
superior market learning capability, giving a competitive
advantage (Dickson, 1992;
Hunt and Morgan, 1995; Slater and Narver, 1995, 1998).
The focus on market information processing is reflected in the
way market
orientation is understood and defined. For example, a much-
cited definition of market
orientation is that provided by Kohli and Jaworski (1990, p. 3),
i.e.:
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is

10. available at
www.em eraldinsight.com/res earchregister www.em
eraldinsight .com/0309-0566. htm
The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for the European
Journal of Marketing for their
valuable comments and suggestions. They also thank Lene Foss
and other colleagues in the
research programme Enterprise Development 2000 for their
support.
EJM
38,8
956
Received August 2002
Revised January 2003
European Journal of Marketing
Vol. 38 No. 8, 2004
pp. 956-973
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0309-0566
DOI 10.1108/03090560410539113
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0309-0566.htm
. . . a market orientation refers to the organizationwide
generation, dissemination, and
responsiveness to market intelligence.
The same authors describe market-oriented firms as actively

11. collecting and using
market intelligence to select target markets and design and offer
products that satisfy
current and future needs. This way of describing market-
oriented activity is common
in the literature on market orientation (e.g. Narver and Slater,
1990; Day, 1994). It does,
however, leave the impression that with the proper resources
and focus, a firm can
become more market-oriented and thus that market orientation
can be actively
managed (Noble et al., 2002). In this way market orientation
implies rather proactive
firms and also that when firms have the proper competence,
customers and market
segments can rather easily be monitored, understood, selected
and satisfied. Little
consideration is given to other constituents such as suppliers,
shareholders and
regulatory authorities/bodies or other constituents. This means
that firms are
conceived more or less implicitly as autonomous actors which
are “in-control”, whereas
customers and other market actors are conceived as “objects”,
and also that the
necessary input factors can be obtained rather easily.
Two types of turbulence have been given scant attention in past
research on market
orientation, i.e. interactional turbulence due to frequent
interactions between more or
less interdependent market actors, and turbulence due to the
“states of nature”
(Sutcliffe and Zaheer, 1998, p. 6). The first type of turbulence
can be explained as
follows: market actors such as manufacturing firms, various

12. types of suppliers and
customers depend on each other and interact to obtain the
advice, information, status,
material and financial resources they need to operate
effectively. This implies frequent
and unpredictable interactions between heterogeneous market
actors. These
interactions may bring relevant and timely information, but may
also distort
management’s activities. They can also be time-consuming to
deal with and may not
always be relevant for the actors involved because each
individual actor focuses on
their own needs and goals. Different market actors may also
influence each other by
providing information and “worldviews” that they feel are
meaningful and important.
In this way, firms’ activities and focus, including their ability to
behave proactively,
might be influenced and restricted.
Another type of turbulence, which has been partly overlooked in
past research on
market orientation, is turbulence due to the “states of nature”,
for example, as faced by
firms depending on catches of wild fish which often show a
stochastic pattern. This
may cause problems in satisfying the needs and wants of
customers, e.g. by limiting
the product range of the firm, affecting the quality of the
products offered, or
disturbing the ability to deliver on schedule (Ottesen and
Grønhaug, 2002a). However,
firms must try to the best of their abilities to cope with the
situation if they are to
survive and prosper. This is likely to imply the allocation of

13. considerable resources and
attention, which means that firms’ focus and activities can be
influenced by turbulence
due to an uncertain supply situation.
In this article we explore whether and how turbulence caused by
the states of nature
and interactions with external actors influence and restrict
firms’ activities and focus.
To do so we conducted a case study that reveals in detail how a
medium-sized
manufacturing firm in the highly turbulent seafood industry
interacts with its
environment over time. A diary method was applied to capture
several important
dimensions of the interactions between the top management and
significant external
Dynamics of
market
orientation
957
actors such as customers, competitors and suppliers over a
period of five weeks. In this
way it was possible to examine how a firm interacted with its
specific industrial
context over time, including how and to what extent this might
influence its activities
and focus. This approach also allows us to focus on actual
behaviour rather than the
beliefs and intentions of key informants, which typically

14. underlie past research on
market orientation. The remainder of the paper is organised as
follows: in the next
section we explain the theoretical perspective underlying our
empirical study; we then
describe our research method; and finally, we report our
findings, draw conclusions,
and highlight their implications.
Environmental turbulence
Turbulence is often thought of as discrete, salient and
unpredictable events in the
environment such as significant technological changes, dramatic
changes in economic
climate (e.g. the recent economic crisis in Asia), boycotts by
environmentalists, and so
on (see, e.g. Meyer, 1982). As noted above, three forms of
turbulence are emphasised in
the market orientation literature, i.e. market turbulence,
technological turbulence and
competitive intensity. These types of turbulence underlie the
focus on understanding
and adjusting to the marketplace as evident in the market
orientation construct(s).
However, turbulence can also be caused by the ways market
actors relate to each
other, for example, in terms of opportunistic behaviour
(Sutcliffe and Zaheer, 1998).
The various needs of market actors and how these actors
interact and depend on each
other may also cause turbulent conditions, as noted above.
Whereas business firms
typically obtain valuable information and other resources
through interactions with
different types of market actors such as customers, suppliers

15. and consultants, external
interactions can also be “problematic”. For example, firms and
their management have
limited time and cognitive capacity, which implies that they
only have resources to
interact with a limited number of actors at any point in time.
Thus, firms make choices,
either consciously or unconsciously, to interact with some
partners while excluding
others (Gulati et al., 2000). Owing to lack of information, it
may be difficult to sort out
the actors or environmental sectors that are really significant. In
addition, choosing
whom to interact with may not always be a matter of deliberate
choice, as other market
actors pursue their own needs and goals and may be the ones
who initiate interactions,
not the focal firm. For example, customers and other market
actors frequently express
their diverse needs, demands and opinions. Increasingly,
customers and suppliers play
an active role in designing and modifying products and services,
sometimes to the
extent that they take charge of the process (see e.g. Kristensen,
1992). Such initiatives
may be more or less unexpected and come and go in accordance
with the changing
needs of these actors. This gives rise to turbulence in terms of
frequent,
time-consuming, and more or less unpredictable initiatives from
a range of different
market actors.
Another type of turbulence, which might influence firms’
activities and focus, is
turbulence that “arises from a profound lack of knowledge of

16. the states of nature”
resulting in unpredictable outcomes (Sutcliffe and Zaheer, 1998,
p. 6), e.g. in terms of
unpredictable variations in supply of vital input factors as
discussed above. This
represents a specific type of environmental turbulence that must
be dealt with in an
adequate manner because firms need regular supplies to operate
effectively (see Katz
and Kahn, 1978). This is evident in the large volume of research
focusing on
EJM
38,8
958
purchasing and logistics. However, the crucial role of supply
seems to have been
neglected in the literature on market orientation (Ottesen and
Grønhaug, 2002a).
Firms and their management must try to cope with turbulent
conditions. To do so
adequately requires the ability to adapt to changes. It also
requires firms to
continuously collect and analyse environmental data as
emphasised in the market
orientation construct (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990). At the same
time, however, managers
and their firms are usually exposed to far more data than they
can possibly assimilate
and comprehend. This relates to the fact that managers are busy
people, continuously

17. confronted with a wide range of tasks and demands (see
Mintzberg, 1973) and that they
(like other people) are restricted by the limits of their cognitive
capacity (Simon, 1957).
Thus, although they may try to the best of their abilities
actively to collect, interpret
and make use of environmental data, their limited time and
cognitive capacity make it
impossible to cover all issues of interest. This situation is
amplified in turbulent
environments as described above, which implies that firms’
ability to pursue
market-oriented activities proactively as typically described in
the literature on market
orientation can be restricted.
Why then has this literature seemingly neglected the realities
discussed above?
There may be many answers to this question. Even though the
literature has addressed
the issue of environmental turbulence, these efforts deviate
from what is focused on
here. In past studies environmental turbulence has primarily
been studied in terms of
its potential moderating effect on the market orientation –
performance link (see e.g.
Greenley, 1995; Jaworski and Kohli, 1993; Slater and Narver,
1994). These contributions
conceptualise environmental turbulence in terms of market
turbulence, technological
turbulence and competitive intensity as described above. Here,
in contrast, we focus on
two different types of turbulence created by the states of nature
and turbulence due to
interactions with customers, competitors and other market
actors. In addition, our

18. focus is on whether and how these types of environmental
turbulence influence and
restrict firms’ activities and focus.
Research methodology
In order to meet the stated purposes of this research, i.e. to
capture turbulence created
through interactions between market actors, as well as
turbulence caused by the states
of nature, and whether and how this influences firms’ focus and
activities, we
proceeded as follows.
Three important aspects of firms’ external interactions were
focused on, i.e.
frequency of contact, in order to reveal how time and resources
were spent on different
external sectors over time; the “direction” of external contact,
to reveal the extent to
which firms behave in a proactive manner; and the most
important topics or issues that
emerged during contact with external actors, to investigate to
what extent, and with
which external sectors, information about customers and
competitors were
emphasised. For this purpose, a method of “direct” research was
applied to capture
how firm-environment interactions play out over time (see
Mintzberg, 1979). More
specifically, a self-report diary was constructed in which the
three top managers in one
manufacturing firm, Alfa, reported a range of aspects of their
interactions with
external actors. The reason for restricting our study to one firm
only was that our
approach (as will be outlined below) is very time consuming for

19. the subjects involved.
It also requires close cooperation with managers, which is
usually difficult to obtain.
Dynamics of
market
orientation
959
The firm we selected was medium-sized. In such firms, the top
manager(s) is/are often
the founder(s) and owner(s), as well as the most competent and
thus dominant
person(s) in the firms. Our research therefore focuses on the top
management and their
interactions with external actors.
To capture turbulence due to the states of nature, we chose the
seafood industry as
our setting. In this industry, manufacturing firms face a highly
unpredictable supply
situation, giving rise to turbulence. This is due to factors such
as fish stock variations,
poor weather conditions (preventing boats from fishing), and
government regulations
(Prochaska, 1984; Dreyer and Grønhaug, 2004; Ottesen and
Grønhaug, 2002a, b). The
market situation is also rather turbulent. Firms typically sell
low-to-moderately
differentiated seafood products in global business-to-business
markets. Here, supply
variations frequently cause substantial changes in market prices,

20. which contribute to
turbulent market conditions. In addition, the seafood
industry/market is characterised
by many buyers and sellers, relatively similar products and
easily available market
information, e.g. about prices and supply and demand. This
leads to a highly
competitive environment in which only the most motivated and
competent actors will
survive and prosper, which implies turbulent conditions. In sum,
we believe that the
seafood industry is a turbulent industry, which makes it a
suitable setting for our
study.
Alfa
The selected firm, Alfa, is a medium-sized manufacturing firm
in the Norwegian
seafood industry. In addition to its turbulent context, Alfa was
chosen because it
showed willingness to engage in close and time-consuming
cooperation. Table I reports
the main characteristics of Alfa. Here we emphasise that Alfa
was established in 1939,
which indicates that it is a firm with considerable “experience”
of its industry and
Established 1939
Turnover 1998: NOK 102 million
Profitability (ROI) 1998: 6.9 per cent
1997: 13.7 per cent
1996: 9.9 per cent
Products Alfa produce two main types of frozen seafood

21. products from
whitefish species (cod, haddock and saithe): speciality products
(various types of cuts from fish fillet); and commodities (fish
fillet and
cuts from fish production, which are mixed and frozen into a
standardised fish block). The fish block is used by Alfa’s
customers in
secondary processing, in production of fish fingers and other
value-added frozen seafood products
Customers Speciality products mainly sold through Norwegian
and Danish
wholesalers. Other products (with less value added) are mainly
sold to
large customers in the UK, France and Germany. In 1997, the
five
largest customers bought 79 per cent of Alfa’s total sales
Top management team General manager, second-in-command,
sales and production manager
Other staff and workers Alfa has five administrative staff and
five middle managers
responsible for various aspects of production, and employs
some 130
workers in production
Table I.
Some firm characteristics
EJM
38,8
960

22. markets – and also that it is well known among other significant
market actors such as
suppliers and customers. Alfa’s profitability has put it among
the top 25 per cent of
firms in the filleting branch of the industry for the last three
years.
Three top managers form a top management team, i.e. the
general manager, the
second-in command, and the sales and production manager.
Details of their roles and
backgrounds are shown in Table II.
It can be seen from Table II that the three managers all have
extensive experience of
the seafood industry. The team members had worked closely
together for the last three
years. It should be noted that the general manager and the sales
and production
manager are father and son, implying that they know each other
rather well. It can also
be seen from Table II that the tasks and responsibilities of the
three managers are quite
different, indicating complementary roles.
Data collection
Contact with Alfa had been established before this research
started. At the outset of the
research, we visited the firm and explained the purpose to the
managers, emphasising
the practical usefulness of this research. It was promised that
the results and their
practical implications would be presented to the firm both in
oral presentations and in
confidential written reports. The managers at Alfa were

23. enthusiastic and seemed
highly motivated to participate[1]. The research based on the
diary served to meet a
request from the managers, who wanted to know “How do we
spend our time?” and
“Can we be more efficient in what we do?” The fact that the
research was requested by
the firm, and that several issues were covered, probably
explains the managers’ high
level of motivation to participate in the project. Their high level
of motivation was
important because the filling in of a diary is a demanding task
which requires highly
motivated subjects, and because motivated subjects are assumed
to be more accurate
in their reports (Peterson and Kerin, 1981).
The diary
The aim of the diary was to capture the managers’ varied
contacts with external actors.
These contacts included face-to-face encounters (e.g. customer
visits), phone calls, and
fax messages. Because managers usually interact with a large
number of different
external actors, a classification of external actors into a
manageable number was
needed to make the diary. To do so we first conducted lengthy
semi-structured
interviews with the managers. We asked them open-ended
questions like: “With whom
do you have contact?”; “Who did you have contact with in the
last week?”; “Who have
contacted you during the last week?” The interviews were tape-
recorded and
transcribed. We then developed a draft classification, which was
presented to the

24. managers and modified in accordance with their inputs. It
should be noted that we
were careful not to impose any classification scheme on the
managers, to ensure that
the resulting categories reflected the realities of the firm as
perceived by the managers
themselves (Grønhaug and Lines, 1995; Starbuck and Mezias,
1996). In all, 11
environmental categories or sectors were constructed (e.g.
customers, suppliers and
other manufacturing firms). A range of sub-categories were also
constructed to make it
easier for the managers to find a category for every actor. These
categories and
subcategories are shown in Table III.
Dynamics of
market
orientation
961
P
o
si
ti
o
n
A
g
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25. E
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28. p
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30. ta
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31. in
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32. ti
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34. er
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35. l
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36. fo
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37. co
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.
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38. o
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s
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in
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p
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je
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s
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it
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ca
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fi
rm
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o
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m
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b
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tw
o

39. lo
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40. C
)
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41. m
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42. ct
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sa
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fo
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43. f
th
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44. a
’s
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it
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p
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ct
s
(f
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fi
sh
b
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).
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45. p
ro
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46. s
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47. s
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:
a
A
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p
la
n

48. Table II.
Managerial
characteristics and tasks
EJM
38,8
962
To examine what kind of information was emphasised during
interactions with
external actors, a classification of relevant topics into a
manageable number was
needed. This was necessary because managers and their external
counterparts are
likely to have diverse interests, which means that a range of
relevant topics can come
up during such interactions. In all, ten categories (topics) were
carefully developed with
the managers to ensure that the different categories were
relevant:
(1) Raw materials.
(2) Production.
(3) Customers.
(4) Suppliers.
(5) The marketplace.
(6) Industry conditions.

49. (7) Laws and regulations.
Categories Subcategories
Manufacturing firms
Interest groups Five professional and industrial bodies listed
Suppliers Accountants
Insurance companies
Financial services providers
Haulage companies
Computer services
Providers of additives
Providers of production equipment/parts
Providers of packaging materials
Raw materials suppliers
Customers Norwegian customers
Norwegian export companies
Foreign customers
Consultants
Politicians
Governmental bodies Social security office
Employment office
Tax office
Directorate of Immigration
Ministry of Fisheries
Quality inspection authorities
County administration Development programme

50. Municipal administration Harbour authorities
City manager
Immigration officer
Local community Schools
Local associations
Table III.
Categories listed in the
diary
Dynamics of
market
orientation
963
(8) Alfa’s strategy and organisation.
(9) Competitors.
(10) New technology.
The topics were carefully explained to the managers, both orally
and in a written
manual given to them before they started filling in the diary. To
simplify the filling in
of the diary, managers were asked to tick only the first two
topics that came up during
the contact (if any). It was assumed that, in general, the most
important topics would be
the first the managers would think of when reporting contacts in

51. their diary. To
capture the direction of the contact, the managers were asked to
indicate who initiated
the contact – themselves or the external actor.
The diary was presented as a ring-leaf file in which each
external contact and its
details were to be entered on a separate sheet. The managers
were instructed to register
each encounter immediately or as soon as possible after it had
occurred. The log period
lasted 24 consecutive working days, covering five weeks. A
one-day test run of the
diary was conducted to sort out any remaining
misunderstandings. The firm was
visited several times to carefully instruct the managers. The
actual log period
represents a typical time period for Alfa, i.e. a prototypical
period for a firm embedded
in a turbulent environment, or as emphasised by one of the
managers: “There are no
general periods. Every week is special”. Altogether, the three
managers reported 409
contacts with external actors during the log period[2]. Phone
calls accounted for 71 per
cent of these interactions, whereas face-to-face encounters
accounted for 15 per cent
and letters, fax messages and e-mails accounted for 14 per cent.
Findings
In this section, we present our findings. We first report the
frequency and direction of
each of the three managers’ interactions with different external
sectors. We then report
the pattern of external interactions over time. Finally, we
present findings regarding

52. issues that were emphasised during contact with external actors.
The frequency and direction of Alfa’s external interactions
Table IV shows the frequency and direction of the three
managers’ external contacts in
the five-week log period. To simplify the presentation, only the
three sectors with
which the managers had the most frequent contact are shown.
General manager
Second-in-
command
Sales/
production
manager Total contact
Direction of contact Out In n Out In n Out In n Out In n
Manufacturers 8 24 32 10 15 25 1 1 2 19 40 59
Suppliers 17 39 56 11 25 36 25 26 51 53 90 143
Customers 0 17 17 0 2 2 11 46 57 11 65 76
Other eight sectors 7 29 36 45 45 90 1 4 5 53 78 131
Total contact 32 109 141 66 87 153 38 77 115 136 273 409
Table IV.
Frequency and direction
of the managers’
interactions with selected
external sectors during
the five-week log period
EJM
38,8
964

53. Table IV reveals several interesting results. If we first inspect
the total frequency of
contacts summated in the column to the far right, it can be seen
that suppliers are the
sector with which the top management team has had most
contact by far (143 out of
409, i.e. 35 per cent). It can also be seen that contact with
customers accounts for only
76 out of 409 interactions (19 per cent).
If we now look at the direction of the total number of contacts,
some surprising
observations are revealed. Table IV shows that as many as 273
out of 409 interactions
(67 per cent) were initiated by external actors. Further, it can be
seen that Alfa’s
management initiated only 11 out of 76 interactions (14 per
cent) with customers, and
that of the total number of contacts initiated by Alfa (136), only
11 (8 per cent) were
directed at customers.
When looking at the results for the individual managers, further
intriguing
observations are revealed. It can be seen from Table IV that,
even for the general
manager, suppliers are the sector with which he had the most
frequent contact, as 56
out of his 141 interactions are with suppliers (40 per cent). In
addition, customers
represent only 17 out of his 141 contacts (12 per cent). The
direction of the general
manager’s external contacts also reveals some very interesting

54. patterns. External
actors initiated as many as 109 out of his 141 external
interactions (77 per cent).
Moreover, it can be seen that the general manager did not
initiate any of the 17
interactions he had with customers during the five-week log
period.
If we now turn to the second-in-command, it can be seen from
Table IV that the
majority of his contacts were with sectors other than
manufacturers, suppliers and
customers. This probably reflects his responsibility for
organisation development and
projects in the local community (see Table II for description of
tasks and
responsibilities). For example, he had 32 (21 per cent) external
contacts with
consultants and research institutions, 29 (19 per cent) of his
contacts with various
actors in the local community (e.g. schools and a local trade
organisation) and 21 (14
per cent) with governmental agencies. It can also be seen that
the second-in-command
hardly had any contact with customers. Also for the second-in-
command, external
actors initiated the majority of external interactions (i.e. 57 per
cent).
Inspection of Table IV shows that the sales and production
manager had the
majority of Alfa’s customer contacts, as he had 57 (75 per cent)
of Alfa’s 76 interactions
with customers in the log period. It can also be seen that
customer interactions make up
50 per cent of his total environmental contact in the log period

55. (57 out of 115). This
strong focus on customers can be explained by his responsibility
as a link between
customers and Alfa’s production and logistics, typically
involving adjustments in
product specifications and delivery schedules (see also Table II
for managerial tasks).
The observation that customers initiated 46 (81 per cent) out of
57 interactions
indicates that customers are the active parties in initiating such
adjustments. The sales
and production manager was also in frequent contact with
suppliers during the log
period (51 out of 115, i.e. 44 per cent).
External interaction pattern over time
In order to examine how Alfa’s external contact plays out over
time, we calculated the
frequency and direction of interactions per week. This is shown
in Table V. Here we
have totalled the frequencies for the individual managers and
calculated the percentage
of incoming contacts.
Dynamics of
market
orientation
965
Inspection of Table V reveals that Alfa is under strong and
continuous external
pressure, in particular from customers. If we look at the total

56. frequency of contacts
during each of the five weeks, it can be seen that it varies
between 53 (week 5) and 134
(week 4). This variation can be explained by two factors. First,
the managers were
away for several days during the log period, which naturally
leads to lower
frequencies. And second, the variance can be explained by
variations in the firm’s
and/or external actors’ focus and activities.
Issues emphasised during external interactions
In the market orientation literature, it is claimed that firms
should emphasise
information about the preferences and behaviour of customers
and competitors. What
kind of information was emphasised in Alfa’s external contact?
During the five-week
log period the three managers reported 409 external
interactions. They were asked to
assign the two most important topics – if any – that emerged
during each contact –
522 topics were reported. Interestingly, the topic of “customers”
was emphasised in
only 40 out of 409 interactions (10 per cent); and Alfa initiated
only 20 per cent of these
interactions. Moreover, the topic of “competitors” was
emphasised in only 5 per cent of
external interactions – Alfa initiated only 35 per cent of these
interactions. These
observations show that information about customers and
competitors represents only
a very small fraction of the issues emphasised in external
interactions. What then were
the most important issues? Our results show that all ten topics
were emphasised, albeit

57. to very variable degrees. In terms of frequency, the topic
“Alfa’s strategy and
organisation” was the most important one by far. It was
emphasised in as many as 214
out of the 409 interactions (52 per cent). Interestingly, external
actors initiated 61 per
cent of these interactions.
In the market orientation literature, customers and learning
about customers is a
central topic. Two questions are pursued in the following, i.e.
“What issues were
emphasised during contact with customers?” and “From which
actors/sectors did the
managers acquire information about customers?” In Table VI
some observations are
presented relating to the first question. Here we have totalled
the number of times that
different topics were emphasised during contact with customers.
We also show who
initiated these contacts.
Inspection of Table VI reveals several interesting observations.
First, it can be seen
that Alfa’s management emphasised a range of different issues
during their contact
with customers. It can also be seen that “production” was the
most frequently
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5
Total
contact
Direction of contact % in n % in n % in n % in n % in n % in n
Manufacturers 60 5 100 6 50 10 50 16 73 11 63 48

58. Suppliers 79 24 43 35 68 19 67 43 60 15 63 136
Customers 100 1 82 11 90 21 79 29 92 12 85 74
Other eight sectors 46 28 60 21 68 19 54 61 40 15 53 144
Total contact 62 58 58 73 72 69 69 134 64 53 66 387
a
Note:
a The lower number of observations compared with Table IV is
due to missing dates on some of
the diary sheets
Table V.
Percentage of incoming
contacts between the top
team and selected
environmental sectors
over time
EJM
38,8
966
emphasised topic during these interactions. Interestingly,
customers initiated 25 out of
34 contacts (74 per cent) in which “production” was
emphasised. This probably has to
do with ongoing adjustments related to products and logistics.
From which actors/sectors did Alfa’s managers acquire
customer information? In
Table VII we present findings regarding the frequency and

59. direction of interactions in
which the topic of “customers” was emphasised.
Inspection of Table VII shows that external actors initiated 80
per cent of all
interactions related to customer issues. We also see that other
actors than customers
address customer issues.
Discussion
To sum up, our findings revealed that external actors initiated
more interactions than
the focal firm and that only a relatively small fraction of the
total number of
interactions were with customers. In fact, more interactions by
far were with suppliers.
It was also observed that the intensity of interactions varied
over time. Moreover, we
observed that information about customers and competitors was
only emphasised in a
small proportion of external interactions. Also, a variety of
topics other than
customers’ needs and wants were focused on in interactions
with customers, e.g.
supplies of raw materials and aspects of production. In addition,
it was observed that
customers were discussed in interactions with actors such as
manufacturers and
suppliers and that external actors mainly initiated these
contacts. In the following we
elaborate on and try to explain these observations. After that we
discuss implications
Out In Sum
Raw materials 0 9 9

60. Production 9 25 34
Customers 2 16 18
Suppliers 0 4 4
The marketplace 1 8 9
Industry conditions 0 0 0
Laws and regulations 0 4 4
Alfa’s strategy and organisation 0 7 7
Competitors 0 2 2
New technology 0 2 2
Sum (n) 12 77 89
a
Note:
a The higher number of observations (89) compared with the
total frequency of contact with
customers (76) displayed in Table IV is due to the fact that the
managers were allowed to assign two
topics to each contact
Table VI.
Contact with customers,
topics and direction of
contact
Outgoing Incoming Sum
n Percent n Percent n Percent
Manufacturers 2 3 5 13
Suppliers 3 10 13 32
Customers 2 16 18 45
Other sectors 1 3 4 10
Total 8 20 32 80 40 100

61. Table VII.
Frequency and direction
of contact with sectors
with which the topic of
“customers” was
emphasised
Dynamics of
market
orientation
967
for market orientation in turbulent environments as described
here. Finally, we discuss
limitations and make suggestions for future research.
A particularly interesting observation was the high proportion
of
externally-initiated interactions. To some extent this was
expected due to
interdependence between goal-directed market actors interacting
with others in
order to obtain the information and resources they need to
compete effectively. Here,
however, this tendency is probably amplified by the favourable
position Alfa seems to
have achieved in its industry, making it attractive to a range of
market actors. Our
arguments are as follows: Alfa has survived for 60 years in a
highly turbulent industry
and is still performing well. In addition, Alfa’s leaders have

62. been – and still are –
active in public debates, trying to influence policy makers to
develop and improve
industry conditions. This implies that Alfa is a well-known and
respected company in
its industry. Based on its longevity and good performance it can
be asserted that Alfa
holds unique and valuable knowledge and an influential position
in its industry,
making it attractive to multiple market actors seeking its
products, advice, assistance
and opinions, or offering goods or services. Due to Alfa’s
central position in its
industry, market actors may also try to influence Alfa’s
management in order to
improve their own status and position in the industry (Rindova
and Fombrun, 1999).
Alfa may also have developed such close relationships with
external actors that both
parties initiate communications. These factors probably
contribute to the high
proportion of externally-initiated interactions.
But how can the frequent interactions with a wide range of other
actors than
customers be explained? In fact, our findings show that Alfa’s
contact with customers
accounts for less than 19 per cent of all external contact in the
log period. Several
factors may explain the relatively low proportion of contact
with customers. First, to
serve customers – and at the same time survive and prosper –
the firm must take
many other constituents and factors into account. Ongoing
interactions with a wide
range of actors are a central means of continuously gathering

63. adequate and up-to-date
information and other resources, which is required in order to
adapt. For example, the
frequent and unpredictable variations in supplies of raw
materials represent a specific
type of environmental uncertainty that must be dealt with in an
adequate manner
because the firm needs adequate supplies to operate effectively
and to create value for
customers. Past research focusing on the seafood industry has
revealed that a range of
different strategies are applied to cope with the uncertain supply
situation. For
example, Ottesen and Grønhaug (2002b) found that firms try to
understand conditions
influencing the supply situation and anticipate what is
happening. And further, that
firms compete in the raw material market by trying to build
commitment through
social relationships and by offering inducements in addition to
price to make it more
attractive to land fish at their particular plant. Such activities
depend to a large extent
on interactions with suppliers, which explains the high
interaction frequency with this
sector.
Second, Alfa’s management exchange information about
customers and their needs
and preferences also with others than customers. In fact, 55 per
cent of the external
contacts where customer issues were emphasised were with
suppliers, manufacturers
and actors other than customers (calculated from Table VII).
This indicates that Alfa
may improve its understanding of customers and how to satisfy

64. their needs through
interactions with other actors than customers. Because external
actors initiated the
EJM
38,8
968
majority of these contacts, this indicates that the other actors
also need to understand
Alfa’s customers, which implies interdependencies between
actors and their activities.
A final factor contributing to a high proportion of interactions
with other actors than
customers is that in a turbulent environment, opportunities and
threats come and go
(Abell, 1978), which implies that the intensity of Alfa’s and
other actors’ activities and
initiatives vary. This leads to interactions with a wide range of
actors and variable
intensity of interactions over time (see Table V).
A surprising observation was that interactions with customers
focus on many other
issues than customers’ needs and wants (see Table VI). This
finding can be interpreted
in several ways. First, customers may not fully understand their
own needs and wants.
Thus, focusing on other aspects may help clarify their needs.
Second, serving
customers adequately probably depends on a variety of factors,
which may explain the
emphasis on, for example, production and supplies. Third,

65. interactions are not only
conducted to obtain information and other resources needed to
act. Interactions and
information exchanges are a central aspect of social life that
allow for mutual
understanding and trust creation (March and Savon, 1984).
Implications for market orientation
Recently, Slater and Narver (1998) noted that the understanding
of what it means to be
market-oriented and how firms may benefit from it continues to
evolve. The present
study is based on a unique research design, capturing central
aspects of how the
management of one successful manufacturing firm actually
interacts with its turbulent
industrial context over time. Based on this we offer insights
into dynamic aspects of
how firms keep in touch with, learn about and are influenced
and restricted by
customers and other market actors in a turbulent environment.
Our findings show that Alfa focus on and interact with a range
of market actors –
not only customers and competitors as emphasised in the
literature on market
orientation. Here, in an industry based on an unstable natural
resource, a particularly
strong focus is on the supply sector. This makes sense because
in industries where
critical supplies are difficult to obtain, an important aspect of
market orientation is to
secure the necessary supplies in order to meet customer
expectations and to operate
effectively (Ottesen and Grønhaug, 2002a). This also indicates
that firms will try to

66. adjust their activities and focus as appropriate, depending on
the context in which they
are embedded and operate. As shown here, this might include
emphasis on other issues
and environmental sectors than what is emphasised in the
market orientation
literature.
The observation that information about customers was
emphasised during contact
with various actors such as suppliers, manufacturers and
customers is interesting
because it shows that the preferences and behaviour of
downstream customers can be
relevant to a range of actors in the value system – not only the
focal firm. This implies
interdependencies between actors and thus that the creation of
value to downstream
customers can – to some extent – be seen as a joint effort
including multiple actors in
the value system (see Grunert et al., 2002).
The high interaction frequency and high proportion of
externally-initiated
interactions by different types of market actors focusing on a
range of different
issues is intriguing because it indicates that firms’ focus and
informational activity are
influenced and restricted. It seems reasonable to assume that the
frequency, timing,
Dynamics of
market
orientation

67. 969
and identity of external initiatives are difficult to predict, which
implies that such
initiatives disrupt management in their doings (see Mintzberg,
1973). Such
“disruptions” may be small or large and of different types. First,
because external
initiatives can be time-consuming to deal with they imply a
break or postponement in
other tasks the manager is involved in. In addition to disturbing
his or her current
focus, time pressure is likely to increase. Second, external
actors may bring surprising
news that requires immediate action, e.g. a complaint from a
valuable customer who, in
trying to comply with demands from its main customers,
requests a large order
immediately. Depending on the perceived relevance and
significance of new
information, this may lead to a series of new contacts with both
internal and
external actors in order to try to verify the content of the
information and to obtain
more detail about how to handle the situation. Thus, the
disturbance can be much
larger than the contact itself.
The above findings and discussion show that conceiving firms
as autonomous and
proactive actors constantly monitoring a rather “passive”
marketplace might not be
adequate, in particular in turbulent environments as studied
here. It seems more

68. realistic to think of firms as embedded in a dynamic network of
more or less
interdependent market actors which may easily distort each
other’s focus and
activities. However, although external interactions and
initiatives may disturb
managers and their firms’ focus and activities, this represents a
crucial way in which
firms learn about and adapt to a turbulent environment.
As noted above, actors may actively try to influence each other
by providing
information and interpretations which are of a persuasive and
self-serving nature in
order to place their own firm or organisation in a favourable
light in the industry
(Rindova and Fombrun, 1999). This indicates that firms can be
exposed to biased
information. However, reliable and up-to-date market
information is central to firms
operating in ambiguous and information-rich environments.
Thus, they may benefit
from carefully inspecting and scrutinising incoming
information. An important
strategy for doing this is triangulation, which can be achieved
by collecting
information about the same issues, events, threats and
opportunities from different
market actors or other sources (Jick, 1979). A management team
where the team
members play different roles will probably support this.
Because such practices might
lead to more accurate market information they seem relevant to
the market-oriented
firm or organisation. From the above it also follows that an
important aspect of market

69. orientation is sorting out the market actors that are really
significant and developing
and maintaining trust-based relationships with these actors. For
example, Alfa seem to
have established such close relationships with their customers
and other significant
market actors that both parties will initiate communication
flows. In this way, firms
should be in a good position to accurately capture significant
changes in the
marketplace and the wider environment, and may thus gain an
edge on their
competitors.
From our findings and discussion it follows that other market
actors can rather
easily influence and distract each other. It also follows that
firms with a central
position in their industry attract the attention of other actors.
An interesting advantage
that can be gained from a strong industry position is better
access to private
information and other valuable resources than less attractive
firms (e.g. newly founded
or poorly performing firms). Attractive firms are also in a
position where they have
EJM
38,8
970
more options in terms of who they want to interact with, for
example, other firms

70. holding valuable knowledge and having access to other
resources needed to create
superior customer value. Further, because attractive firms
probably are perceived as
more credible and trustworthy they have more influence in the
industry than less
attractive firms. This puts them in a position where they can
influence industry
standards and measures of success, which in turn improves their
access to valuable
information and resources (Rindova and Fombrun, 1999).
Through interactions with
market actors the firm may also influence the market in ways
benefiting the firm itself
(Jaworski et al., 2000). We therefore believe that
interpretational aspects of firms’
external interactions are important aspects of market
orientation.
Limitations and future research
How trustworthy are findings and discussions based on a study
of one firm only?
Clearly, conclusions drawn from a “one-shot” case study may be
questioned. However,
the present study focuses on firm-environment interactions and
uses a sample of 409
interactions. Hence, our discussions regarding firm-environment
interactions are based
on a substantial number of observations. However, admittedly,
the external validity of
our findings depends on the extent to which relevant
characteristics of Alfa and its
environment are sufficiently similar to those of other firms and
industries. We believe
that the findings are influenced by the actual context in which
the firm is embedded;

71. for example, the external actors involved and the relative
emphasis on the various
actors may intuitively vary across firms and industries.
However, it should be noted
that parts of our discussion relate primarily to attractive firms.
But there are no
reasons not to believe that other attractive firms will be
influenced by the market
actors with whom they interact, and also that firms operating in
nature-based
industries will be influenced in their focus and activities. In
sum, we believe that our
findings relate to some rather general aspects of firm-
environment interactions.
Future research might benefit from the insights provided here
by appreciating how
firms’ focus and activities can be influenced by turbulence
caused by the states of
nature and the dynamic nature of firm-environment interactions,
as described and
discussed here. However, more research is required. For
example, similar studies
should be conducted in other industries, but also with other
organisation members and
organisational structures. Here we have mainly focused on
aspects related to how firms
relate to a wide range of external actors, including how they
exchange information
about the marketplace and the wider environment. Future
research might focus on
other issues central to firms’ market orientation such as the
interpretation and use of
market information, as well as firms’ internal dissemination
efforts.

72. Notes
1. Note that the diary was developed as part of a large research
programme focusing on
organisation development, aimed at researching several other
issues in addition to those
reported here.
2. It should be noted that the managers were in their offices
most of the time, but that they did
some travelling during the log period. Also, in busy periods,
they found it difficult to register
all external contacts. They might also have had contact with
external actors after working
hours. All these factors might have led to under-reporting of the
frequency of actual external
interactions. However, there is no reason to believe that the
reported data do not give a
reasonably accurate “picture” of the managers’ external contact
patterns.
Dynamics of
market
orientation
971
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77. Dynamics of
market
orientation
973
An Approach to Case Analysis
Preparing A Case Study
It helps to have a system when sitting down to prepare a case
study as the amount of information and issues to be resolved
can initially seem quite overwhelming. The following is a good
way to start.
Step 1: The Short Cycle Process
1. Quickly read the case. If it is a long case, at this stage you
may want to read only the first few and last paragraphs. You
should then be able to
2. Answer the following questions:
1. Who is the decision maker in this case, and what is their
position and responsibilities?
2. What appears to be the issue (of concern, problem, challenge,
or opportunity) and its significance for the organization?
3. Why has the issue arisen and why is the decision maker
involved now?
4. When does the decision maker have to decide, resolve, act or
dispose of the issue? What is the urgency to the situation?
3. Take a look at the Exhibits to see what numbers have been

78. provided.
4. Review the case subtitles to see what areas are covered in
more depth.
5. Review the case questions if they have been provided. This
may give you some clues are what the main issues are to be
resolved.
You should now be familiar with what the case study is about,
and are ready to begin the process of analyzing it. You are not
done yet! Many students mistakenly believe that this is all the
preparation needed for a class discussion of a case study. If this
was the extent of your preparation, your ability to contribute to
the discussion would likely be limited to the first one quarter of
the class time allotted. You need to go further to prepare the
case, using the next step. One of the primary reasons for doing
the short cycle process is to give you an indication of how much
work will need to be done to prepare the case study properly.
Step 2: The Long Cycle Process
At this point, the task consists of two parts:
1. A detailed reading of the case, and then
2. Analyzing the case.
When you are doing the detailed reading of the case study, look
for the following sections:
1. Opening paragraph: introduces the situation.
2. Background information: industry, organization, products,
history, competition, financial information, and anything else of
significance.

79. 3. Specific (functional) area of interest: marketing, finance,
operations, human resources, or integrated.
4. The specific problem or decision(s) to be made.
5. Alternatives open to the decision maker, which may or may
not be stated in the case.
6. Conclusion: sets up the task, any constraints or limitations,
and the urgency of the situation.
Most, but not all case studies will follow this format. The
purpose here is to thoroughly understand the situation and the
decisions that will need to be made. Take your time, make
notes, and keep focussed on your objectives.
Analyzing the case should take the following steps:
1. Defining the issue(s)
2. Analyzing the case data
3. Generating alternatives
4. Selecting decision criteria
5. Analyzing and evaluating alternatives
6. Selecting the preferred alternative
7. Developing an action/implementation plan
Defining the issue(s)/Problem Statement
The problem statement should be a clear, concise statement of
exactly what needs to be addressed. This is not easy to write!
The work that you did in the short cycle process answered the
basic questions. Now it is time to decide what the main issues to
be addressed are going to be in much more detail. Asking
yourself the following questions may help:
1. What appears to be the problem(s) here?

80. 2. How do I know that this is a problem? Note that by asking
this question, you will be helping to differentiate the symptoms
of the problem from the problem itself. Example: while
declining sales or unhappy employees are a problem to most
companies, they are in fact, symptoms of underlying problems
which need to addressed.
3. What are the immediate issues that need to be addressed?
This helps to differentiate between issues that can be resolved
within the context of the case, and those that are bigger issues
that needed to addressed at a another time (preferably by
someone else!).
4. Differentiate between importance and urgency for the issues
identified. Some issues may appear to be urgent, but upon
closer examination are relatively unimportant, while others may
be far more important (relative to solving our problem) than
urgent. You want to deal with important issues in order of
urgency to keep focussed on your objective. Important issues
are those that have a significant effect on:
1. profitability,
2. strategic direction of the company,
3. source of competitive advantage,
4. morale of the company's employees, and/or
5. customer satisfaction.
The problem statement may be framed as a question, eg: What
should Joe do? or How can Mr Smith improve market share?
Usually the problem statement has to be re-written several times
during the analysis of a case, as you peel back the layers of
symptoms or causation.

81. Analyzing Case Data
In analyzing the case data, you are trying to answer the
following:
1. Why or how did these issues arise? You are trying to
determine cause and effect for the problems identified. You
cannot solve a problem that you cannot determine the cause of!
It may be helpful to think of the organization in question as
consisting of the following components:
1. resources, such as materials, equipment, or supplies, and
2. people who transform these resources using
3. processes, which creates something of greater value.
Now, where are the problems being caused within this
framework, and why?
2. Who is affected most by this issues? You are trying to
identify who are the relevant stakeholders to the situation, and
who will be affected by the decisions to be made.
3. What are the constraints and opportunities implicit to this
situation? It is very rare that resources are not a constraint, and
allocations must be made on the assumption that not enough
will be available to please everyone.
4. What do the numbers tell you? You need to take a look at the
numbers given in the case study and make a judgement as to
their relevance to the problem identified. Not all numbers will
be immediately useful or relevant, but you need to be careful
not to overlook anything. When deciding to analyze numbers,
keep in mind why you are doing it, and what you intend to do

82. with the result. Use common sense and comparisons to industry
standards when making judgements as to the meaning of your
answers to avoid jumping to conclusions.
Generating Alternatives
This section deals with different ways in which the problem can
be resolved. Typically, there are many (the joke is at least
three), and being creative at this stage helps. Things to
remember at this stage are:
1. Be realistic! While you might be able to find a dozen
alternatives, keep in mind that they should be realistic and fit
within the constraints of the situation.
2. The alternatives should be mutually exclusive, that is, they
cannot happen at the same time.
3. Not making a decision pending further investigation is not an
acceptable decision for any case study that you will analyze. A
manager can always delay making a decision to gather more
information, which is not managing at all! The whole point to
this exercise is to learn how to make good decisions, and having
imperfect information is normal for most business decisions, not
the exception.
4. Doing nothing as in not changing your strategy can be a
viable alternative, provided it is being recommended for the
correct reasons, as will be discussed below.
5. Avoid the meat sandwich method of providing only two other
clearly undesirable alternatives to make one reasonable
alternative look better by comparison. This will be painfully
obvious to the reader, and just shows laziness on your part in
not being able to come up with more than one decent
alternative.

83. 6. Keep in mind that any alternative chosen will need to be
implemented at some point, and if serious obstacles exist to
successfully doing this, then you are the one who will look bad
for suggesting it.
Once the alternatives have been identified, a method of
evaluating them and selecting the most appropriate one needs to
be used to arrive at a decision.
Top of pageKey Decision Criteria
A very important concept to understand, they answer the
question of how you are going to decide which alternative is the
best one to choose. Other than choosing randomly, we will
always employ some criteria in making any decision. Think
about the last time that you make a purchase decision for an
article of clothing. Why did you choose the article that you did?
The criteria that you may have used could have been:
1. fit
2. price
3. fashion
4. colour
5. approval of friend/family
6. availability
Note that any one of these criteria could appropriately finish the
sentence, the brand/style that I choose to purchase must....
These criteria are also how you will define or determine that a
successful purchase decision has been made. For a business

84. situation, the key decision criteria are those things that are
important to the organization making the decision, and they will
be used to evaluate the suitability of each alternative
recommended.
Key decision criteria should be:
1. Brief, preferably in point form, such as
1. improve (or at least maintain) profitability,
2. increase sales, market share, or return on investment,
3. maintain customer satisfaction, corporate image,
4. be consistent with the corporate mission or strategy,
5. within our present (or future) resources and capabilities,
6. within acceptable risk parameters,
7. ease or speed of implementation,
8. employee morale, safety, or turnover,
9. retain flexibility, and/or
10. minimize environmental impact.
2. Measurable, at least to the point of comparison, such as
alternative A will improve profitability more that alternative B.
3. Be related to your problem statement, and alternatives. If you
find that you are talking about something else, that is a sign of a
missing alternative or key decision criteria, or a poorly formed
problem statement.
Students tend to find the concept of key decision criteria very
confusing, so you will probably find that you re-write them
several times as you analyze the case. They are similar to
constraints or limitations, but are used to evaluate alternatives.
Evaluation of Alternatives

85. If you have done the above properly, this should be
straightforward. You measure the alternatives against each key
decision criteria. Often you can set up a simple table with key
decision criteria as columns and alternatives as rows, and write
this section based on the table. Each alternative must be
compared to each criteria and its suitability ranked in some
way, such as met/not met, or in relation to the other
alternatives, such as better than, or highest. This will be
important to selecting an alternative. Another method that can
be used is to list the advantages and disadvantages (pros/cons)
of each alternative, and then discussing the short and long term
implications of choosing each. Note that this implies that you
have already predicted the most likely outcome of each of the
alternatives. Some students find it helpful to consider three
different levels of outcome, such as best, worst, and most
likely, as another way of evaluating alternatives.
Recommendation
You must have one! Business people are decision-makers; this
is your opportunity to practice making decisions. Give a
justification for your decision (use the KDC's). Check to make
sure that it is one (and only one) of your Alternatives and that it
does resolve what you defined as the Problem.
Structure of the Written Report
Different Instructors will require different formats for case
reports, but they should all have roughly the same general
content. For this course, the report should have the following
sections in this order:
1. Title page
2. Table of contents

86. 3. Executive summary
4. Problem (Issue) statement
5. Data analysis
6. Key Decision Criteria
7. Alternatives analysis
8. Recommendations
9. Action and Implementation Plan
10. Exhibits
Notes on Written Reports:
Always remember that you will be judged by the quality of your
work, which includes your written work such as case study
reports. Sloppy, dis-organized, poor quality work will say more
about you than you probably want said! To ensure the quality of
your written work, keep the following in mind when writing
your report:
1. Proof-read your work! Not just on the screen while you write
it, but the hard copy after it is printed. Fix the errors before
submitting.
2. Use spell checker to eliminate spelling errors
3. Use grammar checking to avoid common grammatical errors
such as run on sentences.
4. Note that restating of case facts is not included in the format
of the case report, nor is it considered part of analysis. Anyone

87. reading your report will be familiar with the case, and you need
only to mention facts that are relevant to (and support) your
analysis or recommendation as you need them.
5. If you are going to include exhibits (particularly numbers) in
your report, you will need to refer to them within the body of
your report, not just tack them on at the end! This reference
should be in the form of supporting conclusions that you are
making in your analysis. The reader should not have to guess
why particular exhibits have been included, nor what they mean.
If you do not plan to refer to them, then leave them out.
6. Write in a formal manner suitable for scholarly work, rather
than a letter to a friend.
7. Common sense and logical thinking can do wonders for your
evaluation!
8. You should expect that the computer lab's printer will not be
functioning in the twelve hours prior to your deadline for
submission. Plan for it!
9. Proof-read your work! Have someone else read it too!
(particularly if english is not your first language) This second
pair of eyes will give you an objective opinion of how well your
report holds together.
Top of page