Purpose: The article analyzes the market-orientation level and its impact on high-tech manufacturing companies’ competitiveness at two points in time.

Design/methodology/approach: The analysis is based on data from two surveys from 2011 and 2019, conducted with the same questionnaire, in Poland, a state that has experienced many changes after 1989 and after joining the European Union in 2004.

Findings: The results indicated that during the eight years between the surveys, the importance of high-tech companies’ market orientation grew considerably. Moreover, in 2011 the level of market orientation explained over 11% of the variance in the competitiveness of high-tech manufacturing companies, while in the 2019 survey, it explained over 22% of the variance. Moreover, nearly all highly competitive high-tech manufacturing companies analyzed in the study also revealed high levels of market orientation.

Research limitations: The main limitation of the study is the fact that the findings refer to Polish manufacturing high-tech companies, so any generalizations to other regions or industries should be treated with caution.

Research implications: Managers of high-tech companies should develop and maintain the highest possible level of market orientation. However, a high level of market orientation does not automatically guarantee high competitiveness.

Originality: This study is the first to empirically test the influence of market orientation on high-tech companies’ competitiveness level in the “new EU countries” at two points in time.