THE IMPACT OF STAKEHOLDER ORIENTATION ON INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF MARKET ORIENTATION: A CASE OF CORPORATE COMPANIES OF PAKISTAN

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of stakeholder orientation on integrated marketing communications (IMC) with specific emphasis on the mediating role of market orientation within corporate companies of Pakistan. In the contemporary business environment, corporate entities face intense competitive pressures, rapid market changes, and heightened stakeholder expectations, necessitating strategic frameworks that not only align internal processes with external demands but also enhance communication effectiveness across diverse stakeholder groups. Stakeholder orientation reflects an organization’s strategic commitment to identifying, understanding, and responding to the needs of its key stakeholder groups—including customers, employees, suppliers, and regulators—thereby fostering stronger relationships and organizational legitimacy. This orientation is posited to influence organizational capabilities and strategic outcomes directly and indirectly through its effect on market orientation, which denotes the firm-wide generation, dissemination, and responsiveness to market intelligence encompassing customer preferences and competitor dynamics. Market orientation, grounded in established marketing theory, is widely recognized as a critical antecedent to superior firm performance, as it drives superior value creation and adaptive decision-making across business functions. In this research, IMC serves as a strategic capability that integrates promotional tools, messaging consistency, and stakeholder communications to build holistic brand narratives and reinforce competitive positioning, a necessity in Pakistan’s dynamic corporate sector. Consistent implementation of IMC is expected to enhance brand equity, leading to improved customer-related performance and overall market performance. The model further incorporates moderating variables—company size, economy type, and competitive intensity—to capture contextual contingencies that influence these relationships. Methodologically, the study adopts a quantitative approach employing survey data from managers and executives within Pakistan’s corporate firms and analyzes the hypothesized relationships using structural equation modeling. The findings are anticipated to contribute theoretically by elucidating how stakeholder and market orientations synergistically drive IMC effectiveness, and practically by offering corporate leaders actionable insights for strategic alignment of orientation strategies with communication objectives to achieve enhanced performance outcomes in a complex and evolving marketplace.