Abstract

Despite the importance of customer orientation in implementing the marketing concept, few studies have examined its antecedents in the context of banks in a least developed country (LDC). This study replicates the research of Conduit and Mavondo (2001) by examining if it is possible to achieve internal and external customer orientations through employee training in the Ethiopian banking context. It also examines how internal customer orientation affects the relationship between training and external customer orientation. Based on a field survey of 104 employees working at a government owned bank in Ethiopia, this study found that organizations could benefit from training their employees due to its direct and positive effect on both internal and external customer orientations. In addition, the multiple hierarchical regression analyses showed that the relationship between training and external customer orientation is mediated by internal customer orientation. This study fills a void in the literature by showing that unlike in a developed country, where training has no direct effect on internal customer orientation, in an LDC, the effect of training on internal customer orientation is stronger and positive. The implications for marketing scholars and practitioners are delineated in this study.

Citation

Gebreselassie, A (2023), "The effect of training on internal and external customer orientation: The case of Ethiopia", Journal of Empirical Generalisations in Marketing Science, Vol. 23, No. 2