Abstract

This research examines a whether a team-based marketing department impacts the positive performance of an organization. It examines whether organizations are better able understand its customers, competitors and its environment, and have the mechanisms in place to react quickly to changes in its environment. The market-orientation theory was used to examine this theory and was found to be mediate the team-performance relationship. This study was conducted in the Canadian pharmaceutical industry. The results of this study support that product managers who perceive their marketing departments to be team oriented are also more market oriented and have better marketing department performance outcomes than product manager who do not perceive themselves to be team oriented. Our hypotheses predicted and showed team orientation is positive and significant for market orientation and marketing performance. The research confirms that teams contribute to performance in knowledge based industries and in the product management area. It also confirms that teams are an essential component of a company striving to be more market oriented and customer-focused.