**6. Market share: the kernel of organizational growth**

Market share which determines the take of organization from its efforts exerted in selling products in given market is a key to organizational profitability. It not only depicts the size of the company, but stand as a metric in demonstrating competitiveness and dominance of the organization in a given field. The reports of the literature indicate that market share constitute the percentage or portions of total purchases of product or service by customers that goes to a given organization. In other word,

market share can be considered as portion of sales of a product of an organization from the sales of this and all similar products of other organizations brought into the market. The reports of Chaudhuri and Holbrook [46] and Varadarajan [47] showed that it is an indicator of the success of a firm's efforts to compete in a product-marketplace. It is thus connected with sales of products and all benefits associated with organizational sales such as increased profit, revenue, returns on investment, research and development and other mix of activities targeted at improving organizational productivity and hence, growth. Hence, it is boosted by organizational marketing effort, which Farris et al. [8] mentioned to includes efforts toward advertising and promotion, the quality and price of food product being offered to the consumers, channel and customer relationships, and selling activities. Marketing strategies deployed by organizations to improve competitiveness and sales for organizational growth, are incidentally purveyors of market share. The report of Akinseye et al. [48] x-rayed virtues of marketing strategy and linked it with every effort designed to boost sales, organizational competitiveness, return on investment, revenues and consequential organizational growth and development. The consideration of market share by the literature as a measure of the consumers' preference for a food product over other similar products proves its link with organizational sales, the major source or kernel of organizational growth. And gaining the attentions of consumers or achieving their preference for organizational products is by provision and maintenance of quality products at affordable price, adding values to the product through a package designs and other distinguishing characteristics that give an edge of organizational product over other similar products from competing organizations. This assures increasing market share that is associated with improved profitability. Pursuing market share through productivity improvement effort, which minimizes wastes encourage steady improved profitability and other parameters of organizational growth and development.
