Influence of Firm Age on Customer Orientation of Courier Service Firms in Mombasa County, Kenya

The objective of this study was to determine the influence of firm age on the customer orientation of courier service firms in Mombasa County, Kenya. The study was founded on the Knowledge-Based View and the target population was 46 courier firms operating in Mombasa which were licensed by the Communications Authority of Kenya. A census of the target population was done because it was relatively small. A cross-sectional research design was adopted and data was collected from marketing managers who were the key informants using a semi-structured questionnaire. 37 firms responded and this led to an 80% response rate. Data analysis was done using simple regression analysis and the regression results indicated that firm age explained 12.2 % of the variation in the customer orientation of the courier service firms. The regression coefficients also indicated that firm age had a positive and significant effect on customer orientation (β = 0.138, t = 2.204. p = 0.034). These results led to the rejection of the study’s null hypothesis which stated that firm age has no significant influence on the customer orientation of courier service firms. Based on the results of the regression analysis, the study concluded that firm age has a positive and significant influence on the customer orientation of the courier service firms operating in Mombasa County. The study recommended that marketing managers or officers in both old and young firms should ensure that they are customer-led and data-driven by improving their capability to perform customer analytics. Another recommendation was that future studies should consider exploring the influence of technological innovation on the market orientation practices of firms using mixed methods