Abstract:
It is argued within political marketing literature that implementing a market-orientation reduces the capability of political actors to lead with ideology and innovation, beyond the market's preferences. This research seeks to address this assertion, exploring how political leadership can balance the ideals of ideological leading demanded by the literature, with the necessity for responsive market interaction. Through analysis of current political marketing theory, this research conceptualises a prescriptive model of leadership behaviour, which balances leading and following decision-making. The relationship- orientated leadership (ROL) model bridges the gap currently within the political marketing field, going beyond theoretical identification of an ideal market-orientated behaviour, and conceptualising how political leaders can achieve this ideal. The model is assessed empirically to validate its claims, and furthermore, measure its applicability to the realities of government. The findings of the assessment demonstrate that the ROL model successfully conceptualises the potential for both leading and following behaviour, the freedom for leaders to adjust that behaviour, all the while preserving ideology and long-term thinking within leadership decision-making. Thus, the result of the empirical analysis, following the model's refinement, is the presentation of a conceptual model, contributing advancement to how market- orientated political leadership is understood within the field of political marketing.