This paper examines the moderating effects of market orientation's intelligence generation and dissemination components on the response–performance relationship. We offer valuable insight into the application of, and subsequent returns to, market orientation in the public leisure sector, thereby helping to broaden the appeal, relevance, and usefulness of this important marketing theory to other contexts. The research involved a national survey questionnaire to 1060 public leisure managers of local government leisure facilities in England. Empirical testing through structural equation modelling revealed two important findings. First, intelligence generation efforts of the organisation can in part affect the performance returns to an organisation from its responsiveness to market intelligence. Second, intelligence generation coupled with organisation-wide dissemination of intelligence can have a destructive impact on the response–performance relationship, demonstrated by a negative significant moderating impact on this relationship. This paper provides an alternative explanation to the deployment of market orientation as a means to create value and an explanation that transcends its current linear portrayal in public-service delivery.