RAISING THE PERFORMANCE OF AUTOMOTIVE LUBRICANT COMPANIES THROUGH MARKET ORIENTATION AND BUSINESS STRATEGY – CASE OF INDONESIA

Abstract

The needs of automotive lubricant companies in Indonesia to continually improve their performance along with rocketing number of the motor vehicles, either motorcycles or vehicles with four wheel or more, are urgent.  However, the market share of automotive lubricants in Indonesia is still controlled by PT Pertamina Lubricant with market share ranging from 49-51%, while its followers are only able to control market share far below 20%.  This condition indicates that the performance of automotive lubricant company in Indonesia has not reached optimal level.  It was allegedly related to the weaknesses in the implementation of business strategy and in the development of market orientation.  The research was conducted by using explanatory survey method.  The Primary data were obtained from the results of the census to 32 national automotive lubricant companies.  The hypothesis was examined by using Partial Least Square (PLS).  The results show that business strategy has a greater influence than market orientation in improving company performance.  The result of this study has indicated that national automotive lubricant companies have to improve the company's performance; therefore, business strategy needs to be formulated in more precise way.