Marketing orientation in construction firms: evidence from Turkish contractors

The major idea behind this paper is that, the role of marketing within the construction industry should be investigated by using an integrated conceptual framework that considers the marketing perception of firms, general marketing practices, expected benefits from marketing and impact of marketing capability to create competitive advantage, so that a complete picture about marketing practices can be drawn. A questionnaire form that has been designed based on this idea is introduced and findings of the questionnaire study about marketing perception of Turkish contractors as well as general marketing practices in the Turkish construction industry have been reported. Results demonstrate that the level of marketing orientation is rather low and marketing functions are generally conducted with superficial knowledge about marketing. There are misconceptions related with the benefits of marketing perspective and majority of the construction companies do not conduct marketing activities integrated with the rest of the value chain. Findings of the current research support previous work on marketing practices in construction companies from different countries.