Customer orientation or employee orientation: which matters more? The moderating role of firm size

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to examine several antecedents of employee satisfaction (ES) and turnover intention (TI), including customer orientation (CO) and employee orientation (EO). The purposes are to investigate the effect of EO and CO and their interaction on employee performance, and to verify the moderating effect of firm size. Design/methodology/approach A mixed model with firm size as a potential moderator was constructed through a hierarchical linear modeling approach with data collected from 1,006 employees at 127 firms. Findings The results indicate that customer and EO and their interaction affected ES, CO and its interaction with EO significantly affected TI and the effects differed according to firm size. These results suggest that the influence of customer and EO depends on firm size. Originality/value This study contributes to verifying the effect of EO and CO and the interaction effects on employee performance, an area that has remained unexamined in the literature. It also investigates the moderating effect of firm size on EO and CO, which affects employee performance. It is suggested that companies determine whether EO or CO matters more according to the size of company.