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The impact of customer orientation on factors such as return on investment (ROI), sales volume, market share and sales growth was quickly identified. Studies based on different methodologies have validated the link between customer orientation and performance, including:

 – a meta-analysis of 114 empirical studies (Kirka et al. 2005): the results of 114 empirical studies on the effects of market and customer orientation on performance were analyzed. The results show that market and customer orientation have an impact of 20% on a company’s ability to innovate, 10% on its market share and 7% on its profits and sales;

 – a longitudinal study over three periods (Kumar et al. 2011): the observation of the same sample of companies, in 1997, 2001 and 2005, showed that the first companies to have adopted a market orientation benefited from an impact that was twice as strong on their sales and profits, compared to companies that adopted this orientation later;

 – an analysis based on a sample of 7,500 French companies (Pekovic and Rolland 2012): the relationship between customer orientation and EBITDA per employee was highlighted. The relationship appears to be stronger the more the company operates in a competitive, growing and uncertain market.

If we consider the strategic dimension of company performance, it is widely accepted that market and customer orientation have an important impact on building a sustainable⁴ competitive advantage. It is by keeping abreast of what customers expect, how their preferences evolve and change, and by disseminating this information widely internally, that the company and its members can identify the resources needed to build the value expected by the markets, and thus maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. By going beyond the simple observation of current customer expectations, and by asking questions about the evolution of these expectations, the company puts itself in a position to capture latent market expectations more quickly than its competitors and thus to strengthen its competitive position over time (Narver et al. 2004).