Purpose: This study seeks to investigate the impact of marketing leaders in (in terms of marketing education, experience and knowledge/skills) generating firm capabilities (market orientation) necessary to compete in a small emerging economy.

Design/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted with top marketing executives in Macau. Questionnaires were disturbed to and completed online by 125 top marketing executives from various industrial sectors in Macau. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypotheses.

Findings: Results suggest that top marketing executives with marketing-specific education and functional marketing skills allow them to foster an overall market orientation of the firm. Marketing experience as well as other types of skills, however, are found to be unrelated to market orientation. Results also show a positive relationship between market orientation and firm performance.

Originality/value: This study seeks to address the void in the current literature which focus mainly on the mere presence of top marketing executive in generating favorable outcome with insufficient attention given to how this persona can play a key role in firms. While there is empirical evidence in the developed markets, this study aims to explicate the important role of marketing leaders in a small economy which is understudied. By showing that marketing leaders can actualize their benefits through the cultivation of market orientation of firms, this study also strive to address the call for more research in investigating the antecedents of market orientation.