Department of Business Studies, College of Business and Social Sciences, Covenant University, Ota, Ota, Ogun state, Nigeria
Asikhia, O., Department of Business Studies, College of Business and Social Sciences, Covenant University, Ota, Ota, Ogun state, Nigeria
The purpose of this paper is to examine the strategic marketing orientation - performance relationship among Nigerian banks and the synergistic effects of probable merger is also included. The paper presents primary data collected by self-administered questionnaires involving a sample of 835 corporate customers from the two commercial cities in Nigeria to classify the banks based on performance, out of which 500 were usable resulting in 59.9% response rate and a total of 375 questionnaire were also distributed to top and middle level management of the banks, 257 were returned, out of which 213 were usable (valid and complete), thus producing a response rate of 56.8 percent, The data set was subjected to regression analysis and structural equation modeling to measure the various effects of variables. It was discovered that strategic marketing orientation positively relates with banks 'performance with the major banks having the lowest SMO-Performance, the combination of the banks in merger scenario revealed different implicating results. It was also revealed that marketing competence and all environmental factors moderate the SMO-Performance relationship except demand uncertainty. For successful mergers between banks in this era of bank failures to occur, consideration should be given to the strategic marketing orientation - performance relationships for synergy. The paper reports findings from the first nationwide study carried out in the area of strategic marketing orientation-performance relationship as a basis for synergic merger in Nigerian banks. © 2010 EuroJournals Publishing, Inc.