In recent years, massive firm failures have occurred, triggering economic shock and a global financial crisis. Major regulatory problems associated with large financial services firms in the US such as Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, have resulted in billions of dollars in fines. More recently, a number of European corporations and banks e HSBC, UBS, Deutsche Bank, Barclay’s, and the Volkswagen Group e have either paid or face potential fines e in Volkswagen’s case 70 billion euros or more (CNN, 2015). Such cases commonly involve widespread corporate culture failure as well as more serious malfeasance (Financial Times, 2015; Reuters, 2015). The failures, both ethical and strategic, have been at least in part a consequence of undue short term focus on shareholder monetary returns versus the interests of other stakeholders (Demirguc-Kunt & Serven, 2010; Parloff, 2009; Sachs & Ruhli, 2005; Yeoh, 2010). Failures such as this indicate a need for strategic frameworks with a broader focus, such as that implied by stakeholder theory (Ferrell, Gonzalez-Padron, Hult, & Maignan, 2010; Freeman, 1984; Sachs & Ruhli, 2005). Moreover, demands for corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and increasing regulatory requirements dictate that firms consider the needs of multiple stakeholders (Crittenden, Crittenden, Ferrell, Ferrell, & Pinney, 2011; Kumar, Jones, Venkatesan, & Leone, 2011).

Market orientation and stakeholder theory have both proven to be robust conceptual frameworks (Kirca, Jayachandran, & Bearden, 2005; Laplume, Sonpar, & Litz, 2008). Market orientation (MO) is operationalized as intelligence gathering and dissemination related to customers and competitors. MO is a composite organizational culture focused on understanding and serving customer needs in the context of potential and actual competitor actions (Day, 1994; Ferrell et al., 2010; Jaworski & Kohli, 1993; Narver, Slater, & McLachlan, 2004), and is central to building sustainable competitive advantage and delivering superior long-term financial performance (Grinstein, 2008; Kirca et al., 2005; Kumar et al., 2011).

Stakeholder theory posits that organizations are at the nexus of stakeholders who can mutually affect one another (Freeman, 1984). Primary stakeholders are those who have immediate and interdependent ongoing mutual impact on the firm (Freeman, Harrison, Wicks, Parmar, & de Colle, 2010). These primary stakeholders may include customers, competitors, employees, shareholders, suppliers, and regulators (Freeman et al., 2010). Greenley and Foxall (1997) and Greenley, Graham, and John (2005) proposed that the four ‘essential’ or core stakeholders are customers, competitors, employees, and shareholders. These core stakeholders are considered focal since operationally they are of immediate concern for managers relative to other relationships. For example, competitive price changes may force an immediate and necessary reaction leading to possible mutually debilitating price wars. Yau et al. (2007) integrated the original Narver and Slater (1990) operationalization of MO while also adding employees and shareholders. Their findings revealed a positive relationship between stakeholder orientation and financial performance.