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Espacios. Vol. 37 (Nº 13) Año 2016. Pág. 17

Market orientation and its relation with the socio-environmental responsibility among regional enterprises

Orientação para o mercado e sua relação com a responsabilidade socioambiental das empresas regionais

Alípio Ramos VEIGA NETO 1; Walid Abbas EL-AOUAR 2; Manoel Pereira da ROCHA NETO 3; Maria Valéria Pareja Credídio Freire ALVES 4

Recibido: 27/01/16 • Aprobado: 12/03/2016

Contenido

1. Introduction

2. Market orientation

3. Environmental marketing

4. Socio-enviromental responsibility

5. Methodology

6. Results

7. Conclusion

References

1. Introduction

The search for the best position in the market, with competitive differentials that can fulfill the customers' desires and needs, is the springboard of some enterprises. The conquest and the maintenance of customers, increasingly more aware of their needs and rights, demand a creative strategic planning, using distinguished costs or pricing, or even new ways of reaching the customer. Several factors need to be taken into account in an enterprise's strategic planning, such as the choice of its strategies, its position and adequacy to the social and environmental changes. For the environmental factors, they demand greater adequacy to the legal norms, market tendencies, products utilization and environmental-friendly manufacture processes, besides initiatives towards recycling, reuse of materials and conscious use of natural resources. These adequacies have increased in importance due to environmental crisis which our society is passing through, an outcome of the continuous use of natural resources.

These changes have led the enterprises to find new opportunities, trying to conquer customers through the practice of appropriate prices, good-quality services and by offering "green" products. Another action implemented by the enterprises is about an internal policy aimed to meet the collaborator's needs, thus obtaining an internal environment which is propitious to the development of professional activities. These factors, incorporated into the enterprise's daily routine, constitute the base of the Enterprise Social Responsibility that has been spread by organizations such as the Ethos Institute of Social Responsibility, which has more than 1,400 enterprises under its seal all over Brazil. The Ethos Institute tries to encourage the Enterprise Social Responsibility practice in the country, disseminating the idea that an enterprise which is oriented towards social responsibility offers its customers reliable and safe products or services, supplying them with information along the relationship process, not limiting itself to the act of selling, so that the focus is directed to perform business goals compatible with the sustainable development.

Enterprises have been increasingly more requested to differentiate themselves in the customer service, environmental and natural resources preservation, through an efficient environmental management. These demands have been better satisfied by enterprises that possess a group of practices known as Market Orientation, which emerged as an evolution of Customer Orientation and Marketing Orientation. The Market Orientation model foresees a cycle of actions directed towards intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination and responsiveness. Intelligence generation foresees actions towards data gathering about its consumer market. Intelligence dissemination is focused on the enterprise's internal communication, and responsiveness is focused on the response capacity that this enterprise has with its consumer market. However, this market-oriented cycle of activities no longer seems to be enough to the organizational results and needs to be constructed together with attitudes that reckon Socio-environmental Responsibility.

Based on what has been exposed, we aimed to investigate the relation between market orientation and socio-environmental responsibility in regional enterprises.

2. Market orientation

According to Webster (1988), Market Orientation emerged from practices previously focused on the customer. From marketing concepts, the idea of strategic orientation of enterprises that have not been followed up since its beginning emerged. Only three decades after its concepts were created, in the 1950's, the orientation idea started to be strong with the unfolding of market orientation (DIDONET, 2007). Webster (1988) presented an alternative to the marketing orientation based on a group of guidelines to create an organization focused on the customer and boosted by the market. To this structure, the author highlighted fundamental points to be put into practice, focusing on the customer, involving all the enterprise in the marketing orientation process. These guidelines were corroborated by Sheth, Gardner and Garret (1988) when they stated that the marketing process must be focused on the customer and that the orientation is fundamental to the continuance of the enterprises in the market.

In the 1990's, along with other researchers, such as Narver and Slater (1998) and Day (1994), Kohli and Jaworski (1990) deepened the idea of marketing orientation pointing the product quality as control variables, competitive intensity, buyers power, sellers power, entrance restraints and replacing products. In a factorial analysis, we observed that these are important factors for the construction of a theoretical model that explains this theory. These authors stated that "the market-oriented culture is critical to a superior performance and to long term success, in the highly competitive business environment" (p. 124, loose translation).

To Jaworski, Macinnis and Kohli (2002), business environment is one of the influential factors to intelligence creation in organizations, generating the competitive intelligence generation process through the acknowledgement of the environmental systems and market pressures. Within this perspective, a monologic chain is established, having the backgrounds and outcomes of the market orientation as foundations, besides pointing out the moderating factors. According to the model built by these authors, the factors that precede market orientation are based on internal aspects of the organizations, involving the high enterprise management, expanding its operation when taking risks to put new products and services on the market, in accordance with the new tendencies and its target-audience expectations. The interdepartmental dynamic, with the ways of managing conflicts and contacts, and the organizational system are also antecedent factors of this market orientation model.

The organizational commitment and the team spirit are pointed out by Kohli and Jaworski (1990) as consequences of the market orientation, as well as the organizational performance improvement, ranging according to the enterprise area of operation. The authors have also taken into account the environmental factors influence – which are: market turbulence; competitive environment and technological turbulence – in the moderation between market orientation and performance.

Kohli and Jaworski, along with Kumar (1993), developed a market orientation measuring scale called MARKOR. To validate this instrument a research was applied with North-American entrepreneurs. The results pointed out that intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination and responsiveness factors represent the market orientation. Wensley (1998) highlighted that intelligence generation depends on the acknowledgement of every variable that influences the customers' choices, the competitor's knowledge being one of them. This idea is reinforced by Shapiro (1988) when he states that an enterprise is really market oriented when it knows the market in which it is operating and the customers that pay for its products and services.

According to Kohli and Jaworski (1993), intelligence dissemination depends on the viability of the horizontal interdepartmental communication, having the transmission of information about the market needs as its main focus. Narver and Slater (1998) reinforce that idea, stating that intelligence dissemination must rely on the commitment and effective participation of all the enterprise's components. Regarding responsiveness, Kohli and Jaworski (1993) assert it as being the process of market intelligence utilization in the action planning in response to the market, having as parameters the target-audience selection, the design and product offer that fulfill the desires and needs of this audience, both current and future.

3. Environmental marketing

From the market understanding concept and its current environmental concerns, the environmental marketing proposal emerges as a variant created from social marketing and enterprise social responsibility, defined by Polonsky (1994) as an assembling of all activities designed to generate and ease any exchange, aiming to satisfy human desires and needs, as long as the satisfaction of these needs and desires happen with the minimal harmful impact against the environment. Acknowledged by some authors as "Green Marketing", this concept can be analyzed as an enterprise movement towards creation and market placement of environmental-friendly products, seeking for the natural resources preservation all along the production process. According to Cuperschmid and Tavares (2002, p. 06, loose translation), "the green enterprises not only try to contribute to a healthy environment, but also to avoid pollution". The green marketing concept can be complemented as the information supply about the product and the producer to the customer, providing them with advices on how to use the product more efficiently and about its reutilization, repairing, recycling and rejection. To Weldford (1995), the green marketing should constitute a change in the traditional approach centered in some aspects of the product.

Concerning the green marketing strategies implementation, the same marketing concepts are used, with the transformation of the "4 Ps" having the environmental needs as a variant. Dias (2008) reinforces that idea, stating that the green marketing emerges as a support tool to keep track of the elaboration and conception processes, the production, the delivery to the customer and the discard of a product, stimulating at the same time the search by the organizations for an environmentally-responsible profit. In the green market's same line, some authors prefer to work with the environmental market and ecological marketing definitions. In the environmental marketing context, Prakash (2002) states that it is the action redirecting towards the reduction of impacts on the environment, having a relevant role during the satisfaction of the customers' needs and in the accomplishment of the enterprise's goals. Regarding ecological marketing, in Calomarde's analysis (2005), it is a way to conceive and execute the exchange relation, with the purpose to be satisfactory to the parties involved in it, the society and the natural environment, through the development, the evaluation, the distribution and the promotion by one party of the goods, services or ideas that the other party needs, so that, helping in the conservation and improvement of the environment, they may contribute to a sustainable development of the economy and the society.

The purchasing ecological factor is an integrating part of the environmental marketing which can be understood as an attribute that turns the consuming act the least possible harmful to the environment. According to Motta and Rossi (2001), this factor is present in products with specific characteristics, like being manufactured by using feedstock with a minimal quantity of renewable and recyclable parts and which care for the preservation of the natural resources. Another important characteristic highlighted by the authors is the fact it is manufactured efficiently with optimal usage of power and water, with minimal effluent and residue deployment, besides being packed using lighter and bulkier packages and preserving natural resources in its use, being recyclable, reusable and biodegradable. These authors point out that the enterprises perceive the new trend and join the green movement, choosing to work with products that meet the needs of the green customer. The enterprises have not limited their actions only to the creation of green products, but, instead, they have begun to contribute with a new thinking about sustainable development. This way of thinking has, in turn, the identification of the customer's needs and desires for ecologically-correct products as the mains focus and of assuming a decision-taking stance towards the satisfaction of these needs.

As a support for all the environmental marketing planning there is the sustainable development. According to Romeiro (2006), the sustainable development has been the focus of debates about the relationship of the economical transactions and the use of natural resources available for mankind. The environmental variable inclusion has a strong influence in the economic scenario from the moment in which the environment becomes the scenario for the development of economic activities.

To Romeiro (2006), it does not matter the denomination given to this marketing variant, but, instead, the fact that it is an answer to all concerns of society, more expressively from the environmentalist groups, with the environment and life quality, pressuring the business organizations to improve their environmental performance and the government agencies to create environmental legislations, policing and punishing the transgressing enterprises. Researches point out the desire, from the customers, to legal punishment of the enterprises that harm the environment. It is also expected, from the government, the use of commercial ads that encourage a change from the current behavior of the standard customer favorable to the environmental questions. According to Romeiro, while having an indefinite positioning, the customer expects a greater offer of environmentally-friendly products from the manufacturers. However, in general terms, the customers do not present a behavior towards assuming additional costs, which would fund new market strategies that aim to the environment preservation, neither do they perceive effectiveness in their individual behavior as an agent of environment preservation.

4. Socio-enviromental responsibility

The concepts evolution and the social enterprise responsibility use, aligned to the environmental marketing conception, reinforce the Socio-environmental Responsibility idea, based on the commitment from all the organizations to decrease or to eliminate the negative results of their activities to the environment, emphasizing the long-term benefits to all community (MOHR, WEBB and HARRIS, 2001). However, the Socio-environmental Responsibility is not seen as an activity that can be executed independently. To Stanwich and Stanwich (1998), there is a strong interconnection between the Socio-environmental Responsibility and the enterprises' financial performance, highlighting three variables: size, financial performance and environmental performance, which refer to the amount of pollution this enterprise produces. To Machado Filho and Zylbersztajn (2004), the Socio-environmental Responsibility has the power to, through the execution of its activities, increase the enterprises' value, with the fortification of their positive image, costs reduction by the reuse of natural resources and recycling, ethics improvement among their collaborators and the conquest of the customers' loyalty.

According to Giacomini Filho et al (2004), for an enterprise to be directed towards socio-environmental responsibility, it is necessary to put environment-oriented actions into practice. On the other hand, Mcguire, Sundgren and Schneeweis (1988) believe that there is a negative correlation between financial performance and socio-environmental performance. To these authors, the SER increases the enterprise's costs,  putting it in economic disadvantage in relation to its competitors that practice the SER in a lesser scale. This negativity happens through the stakeholder's theory, which foresees that the managers' responsibility is restricted to abiding to the law and to generating profit to their shareholders, consequently bringing benefits to the society through the economic development, such as new enterprises, reasonable wage policies and work conditions, besides taxes payment.

Even with the possibility of a negative impact, Martinez (2010) believes that the positive results of the Socio-environmental Responsibility in the enterprise's financial performance are more representative. His thought is based upon researches which point towards a tendency among the investors to search for socially-responsible enterprises to make financial investments, since investors consider that sustainable enterprises generate positive results to their investors by being better prepared to face economic, social and environmental risks. This statement is confirmed by the financial market movement, with the creation of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, in 1999.

5. Methodology

To meet the objective of this investigation, we found it appropriate to lead an exploratory and descriptive research. The data collecting was done by using an instrument formulated with questions using the Likert scale, and available to the subjects from the Internet. The questionnaire collected information regarding the variables of market orientation and environmentally-responsible marketing strategies. The scale was structured with straight questions, in which the subject opted for one among five answers, varying from "fully agree" to "fully disagree", based on Gil (2009). Two subject groups were used in order to make comparisons. The first group, considered as a sample reference, representing the national enterprises universe, had its data collected among enterprises indexed in the site of the Ethos Institute of Enterprises and Social Responsibility. The regional enterprises sample was sectioned from the universe of mid and large-sized enterprises indexed in the Rio Grande do Norte Industry Federation (FIERN). We used a non-probabilistic sample for access convenience (MALHOTRA, 2005).

The research evaluated a total of 50 variables related to Market Orientation and Socio-environmental Responsibility. The sample calculation execution was based on Hair et al (2005), which set five times the number of subjects per variable under research as minimal proportion. Thus 142 questionnaires were applied. The reference sample representing the national enterprises universe was composed of 20 enterprises linked to the Ethos Institute of Social Responsibility, and the regional sample was composed of 122 Potiguar enterprises.

In order to gather the national sample data, 1,286 electronic questionnaires were sent, given that 134 enterprises indexed in the Ethos Institute of Enterprises and Social Responsibility's site have not updated their addresses. Out of those contacted, 201 stated that they had no interest in taking part of academic researches. It is important to emphasize that, even though they were clearly informed that the research was about socio-environmental responsibility and with guarantees of anonymity, these Enterprises answered the request informing that they had no interest in contributing to the research, going against the principles and objectives of the Ethos Institute. Finally, since eight enterprises are registered more than once, a sample was formed effectively by enterprises that showed interest in questions regarding Socio-environmental Responsibility and the best use of natural resources in its daily routine. This sample, constituted of 20 enterprises, was considered appropriate for comparison reasons, even though the number of subjects was under that necessary for statistical treatments with representativeness of the whole.

To meet the goals of this research, we chose to analyze the Market Orientation construct based on the model designed by Kohli and Jaworski (1990), composed of three dimensions. They are: intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination and responsiveness, pointing out to indicators for the formation of research variables, as shown in Table 1. 

Table 1 - Market Orientation's dimensions and indicators.

Source: Based on Kohli and Jaworski (1990), adapted by the authors.

Regarding the Socio-environmental Responsibility construct, it is possible to relate the following dimensions and indicators, based on Rohrich and Cunha (2004), according to Table 2. In accordance with the Market Orientation model, the Socio-environmental Responsibility proposal brings the dimensions of proactivity, prevention for the community, prevention for the formalization, prevention for the growth and control, to be analyzed among the researched enterprises, according to the research indicators.

Table 2 - Socio-environmental Responsibility's dimensions and indicators.

Source: Based on Rohrich and Cunha (2004), adapted by the authors.

Based on the two research models and on the variables proposed within the Market Orientation and Socio-environmental Responsibility constructs, we made the adjustment of the research instrument, composed of 50 questions and subdivided into two blocks, the first one focused on questions about Market Orientation, and the second one focused on Socio-environmental Responsibility.

For the definition of the research variables, we considered the verification of the green marketing actions put into practice by the enterprises, since these actions can be viewed as instruments for the sustainable development and for the satisfaction of the collaborators and customers (DIAS, 2008; DALMORO; VENTURINI; PEREIRA, 2008).

Based on the researches made to define the variables, considering the Market Orientation model designed by Kohli and Jaworski (1990), and the variables pointed out by Rohrich and Cunha (2004) regarding Socio-environmental Responsibility, we formulated the research instrument, composed of 50 questions, in which the subject can choose between five answer options. The answers, in Likert scale, vary numerically between one and five, with answers directly linked to "fully disagree" and "fully agree". This scale was also chosen in order to restrict a social convenience behavior, when the subjects give socially acceptable answers, which is highlighted by Malhotra (2005); hence the choice for this scale, which, by being binary, offers other answer options with defined concordance, even in uncomfortable situations for the subject. For the answers between 1 and 2, the level of Market Orientation and Socio-environmental Responsibility was considered very low; for the answers above 2 and up to 3, the level is low; above 3 and up to 4, the answers present a classification level of above average; and, finally, the answers above 4 up to 5 represent a high level for the two researched constructs.

For the data statistical treatment we used factorial analysis, Spearman's correlation and T-Test for group's comparison (CORRAR; Dias, 2009; ARANHA; ZAMBALDI, 2008). Beyond the factorial analysis itself we performed previous verifications, like the KMO test (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin), in order to verify if the data could satisfactorily be used in the factorial analysis, and Bartlett's Sphericity Test.

For this research, we chose to use the T-Test for two independent samples, having in mind that this kind of test is applied whenever it is intended to compare the average quantitative variable in two different subject groups to know the respective variations.  

6. Results

6.1. Profile of the researched enterprises

The researched enterprises are divided into two groups: the reference group, constituted of 20 national enterprises, all of them large-sized, and the regional enterprises group, subdivided in mid-sized and large-sized enterprises. In order to answer the proposed questions, the questionnaires were forwarded to the ruling group of each enterprise. In the reference group, the questionnaires were answered by the departments responsible for communications; in the local group, this function was distributed among directors, managers and assessors, as shown in Table 3.

Table 3 - Profile of respondent enterprises – regional group

Source: Research data.

6.2. Research variables analysis

We performed an analysis observing the averages obtained by each researched variable. In the Intelligence Generation dimension, the variables with the best averages are "Market Research", "Product Quality" and "Service Quality" for both the reference sample, constituted by the national enterprises, and the regional enterprises sample. Among all the researched variables, the Market Research distinguished itself, obtaining the greatest averages in the two researched groups.

In the Intelligence Dissemination dimension, different positioning between the national group and the regional sample can be noticed. For the national sample, the three variables with the greatest averages are "Dialogue about Competitors' Strategies", with 4.30, "Interdepartmental Gatherings", with 3.95, and "Planning between Marketing Sector and other Departments", with an average of 3.90. On the other hand, the regional enterprises group pointed towards other variables, with emphasis to "Internal Information Nimbleness", with 3.70, "Nimbleness on Information Publication about the Competitor", with 3.65, and "Interdepartmental Communication about the Market", with 3.62.

To Responsiveness, the averages confirmed what was observed in the last analysis for the two researched samples, with the variable "Corrective Measures to Satisfy the Customers" obtaining an average of 4.10 and 4.07 for the reference group and for the regional group, respectively.

Another variable that had high averages for both groups was "Planning for Changes", with 4.05 for the reference group, and 3.82 for the regional one. The third best average among the variables differentiates itself between the samples, with the national one presenting a higher average for the "Support for the Customers' Complaints" variable, with 4.00, and the "Offer Review" variable, with 3.92 for the regional sample.

Concerning Socio-environmental Responsibility, the variables presented very high and close averages, with different highlights for each researched group. In the reference group results, the emphasis falls upon the "Environmental Concern directed towards the Market" variables, with 4.65, followed by the "Environmental Preservation Campaigns" and "Environment Preservation" variables, both with averages of 4.50. The variable with the best average among the regional group was "Harmless to Human Health Products", reaching an average of 4.01.

6.3. Factorial analysis

The KMO test results and the Bartlett's sphericity test, which expresses the trust level, point out that the researched constructs and their dimensions – all above 0.5 – indicate suitability of the factorial analysis for this sample (PEREIRA, 2001). Concerning the commonalities, the indicators present higher values after the removal of the "Shared Information" and "Internal Information Nimbleness" variables from the Intelligence Generation and Intelligence Dissemination dimensions, which regard the Market Orientation construct. The last variable removed was "Garbage Recycling", concerning the Socio-environmental Responsibility construct.

The next step was performing the Intelligence Generation dimension confirmatory factorial analysis, and we verified, by the anti-image correlation matrix, that the Sample Adequacy Measure (SAM) for the "Shared Information" variable presents a level below the recommended, thus explaining only 34% of the variance for this dimension. A second analysis was performed for the Intelligence Generation dimension, removing the "Shared Information" variable, and it obtained an appropriate level for all the variables in the sample adequacy measures, raising the variance explanation for this dimension to 38%. Since the variables presented correlation in the components matrix for a single factor, the rest of the variables were considered indicators for the Intelligence Generation, being used in later analysis.

In the Intelligence Dissemination dimension confirmatory factorial analysis, the sample adequacy measure in the anti-image matrix of the "Nimbleness in the information diffusion about the competitor" variable presented a lower level compared to the others, the "Nimbleness in internal information" variable presented commonality under the recommended, and the "Dialogue about Competitors' Strategies" variable presented low correlation in relation to the other variables for one factor. Finally, a new Intelligence Dissemination dimension confirmatory factorial analysis was performed, removing the aforementioned variables, thus obtaining an increase in the variance explanation for this dimension, and the components matrix presented correlation between the left variables. Although the "Nimbleness in the information diffusion about the competitor" variable still had an SAM below the recommended, we decided to keep it, since, in the other indicators, this variable presented itself as an indicator of the Intelligence Dissemination dimension.

The Responsiveness dimension confirmatory factorial analysis presented appropriate level in all variables in the SAM matrix, and the commonalities were also appropriate for the analysis. Despite the clustering matrix suggesting 5 factors, with an explanation level of 68%, since the components matrix presented correlation for all variables of this dimension for the first factor, we considered that these variables, in group, explain the Responsiveness dimension.

Finally, the Socio-environmental Responsibility construct confirmatory factorial analysis was performed, obtaining a high level for all dimensions in the anti-image matrix. In the communalities calculation, the "Environment Preservation" and "Investments in Countries with Environmental Responsibility" variables presented levels below the indicated. However, the variance explanation for a factor showed to be high, with 45.7% of the variance explained. As in the components matrix, the "Garbage Recycling" variable presented a level too low to represent this construct along with the other variables, so we chose to remove and carry out a new analysis without this variable. In this second analysis, we obtained a variance explanation of 48.2% to this construct.

6.4. The T-test

With the obtained data, it was possible to observe that the variance between the Market Orientation and the Socio-environmental Responsibility is not equal, proving that the Null Hypothesis must be rejected. The rejection is confirmed by the obtained data, with Market Orientation reaching the rate of 0.901, which demonstrates a high variance. In the Socio-environmental Responsibility construct, the obtained results point to the other way around, with 0.12. Thus, the equal variance hypothesis was rejected, carrying on the work with the different variance between the two constructs covered during the research.

6.5. Importance of the constructs and dimensions

In the following analysis, we observed the average obtained during the research for each researched construct – Market Orientation and Socio-environmental Responsibility – highlighting their dimensions. With the analysis performed, we noticed that, regarding the two samples, the constructs presented very close averages, with Socio-environmental Responsibility a little higher, with an average of  3.65, whereas Market Orientation had an average of 3.57. It can also be observed that in this construct the dimension with the highest average was Intelligence Generation, with 3.45, followed by Responsiveness, with 3.56, and Intelligence Dissemination, with 3.45. For the national sample, the results do not differ from the total average, with the Socio-environmental Responsibility construct having an average higher than that of the Market Orientation construct. However, the difference between these two averages for this sample is higher, with Socio-environmental Responsibility having an average of 3.91 and Market Orientation, 3.58. Thus, we can observe a higher tendency for the national sample to develop activities focused on Socio-environmental Responsibility instead of the total of the enterprises researched. Regarding the local sample analysis, we can observe the same national tendency, with a higher average for the Socio-environmental Responsibility construct, at 3.61, and Market Orientation at 3.61. The averages reached by the dimensions confirm the positioning of the researched enterprises, with a strong Market Orientation bias, as stated by Kohli and Jaworski (1993), placing the three dimensions of the construct as the forming base for Market Orientation oriented activities (Table 4).

Table 4 - Dimensions and constructs average

Source: Research Data.

The correlation between the constructs was also analyzed through the Spearman non-parametric test, with significance verification between the Market Orientation and the Socio-environmental Responsibility constructs and their dimensions (Table 5). The test indicated that there is a correlation between the dimensions of the same construct. The results ratify the Market Orientation model proposed by Kohli and Jaworski (1993), being used both by the reference and the Potiguar enterprises. It is possible to highlight, however, the Intelligence Dissemination dimension, with the highest correlation rate (,863) with its original construct. Between the two constructs we also verified that there is significance in the correlation between them, with rates of ,570, which points towards the enterprises' organization for meeting the customers' needs, as highlighted by Motta (2008).

Table 5 - Correlation between the constructs – reference group and local enterprises

** Significance correlation - at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Source: Research data

However, this same analysis performed separately with each sample shows results that are different from the ones obtained with the data general analysis. For the national sample (Table 6), the Market Orientation and Socio-environmental Responsibility constructs do not present significant correlation, with rates of 0,295. According to Motta (2008), the data point towards the low bias of developing activities directed to meeting the demand originated by society itself.

Table 6 - Correlation between constructs – reference group

** Significance correlation - at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Source: Research data

The same procedure, when applied to the regional sample, shows different results, demonstrating significant correction between the two researched constructs, reaching 0,613.

Table 7 - Correlation between constructs – local enterprises

** Significance correlation - at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Source: Research data

Like in the general analysis of the groups, the local enterprises present a significant correlation between the two researched constructs, which is higher than that of the national group. To Dias (2009), the Socio-environmental Responsibility is a fruit of the pressure from a society where the press actuates, primarily based on the increase of environmental problems and consequent lack of future natural resources.

7. Conclusion

After all the theoretical and methodological processes, we concluded that this paper achieved its objective, confirming the relation between the two researched constructs. The researched samples showed that there is a more significant correlation among the regional enterprises than among the national enterprises. It must be highlighted, however, that these results could have been influenced by the fact that the national group is formed by a small number of enterprises, although these enterprises were the ones that demonstrated concern in contributing with the academic research about socio-environmental responsibility, in consonance with the Ethos Institute's ideological proposals.
  This investigation also allowed to detect the level of market orientation and socio-environmental responsibility among the investigated subjects, concluding that both groups have an orientation level above average, reaching a rate between 3 and 4, both in the constructs and in the dimensions that form them. When comparing the regional enterprises with the national sample, we observed that the regional enterprises have market orientation and socio-environmental responsibility levels slightly lower than that of the national sample
It is believed that the approximated level between the two samples is a consequence of the customer's demands, since a market-oriented enterprise has as its main focus meeting the customers' needs and desires, turning towards keeping its target audience and conquering new markets. Thus, the socio-environmental responsibility actions become part of the managers' attention in the enterprises' performance.
In the research process, the major limitation was forming the national sample, due to the small interest by the enterprises in participating in academic researches about socio-environmental responsibility, even with all of them indexed in the Ethos Institute of Enterprises and Social Responsibility.
During the research, interests about the enterprises' behavior before the market transformations and the customer attendance were awakened, especially about socio-environmental responsibility. For subsequent researches we recommend investigating the market orientation and the socio-environmental responsibility by using a larger national sample, either through random sample or by forming enterprises clusters.

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1. Potiguar University (UnP), Postgraduate Program in Management, Eng. Roberto Freire Ave., 2184 - Ponta Negra 59082-902, Natal/RN, Brazil – alipio@veiga.net

2. Potiguar University (UnP), Postgraduate Program in Management, Eng. Roberto Freire Ave., 2184 - Ponta Negra 59082-902, Natal/RN, Brazil - walidbranco@gmail.com - Corresponding author

3. Potiguar University (UnP), Postgraduate Program in Management, Eng. Roberto Freire Ave., 2184 - Ponta Negra 59082-902, Natal/RN, Brazil - manupereira@unp.br

4. Potiguar University (UnP), Graduate Program in Management, Eng. Roberto Freire Ave., 2184 - Ponta Negra 59082-902, Natal/RN, Brazil – valeriacredidio@unp.br