The Relationship between Market Orientation, Entrepreneurial Orientation, and Innovation: Evidence from Mexican SMEs

Ricardo Garcia Ramirez, Gonzalo Maldonado Guzman, Maria del Carmen Martinez Serna
(Autonomous University of Aguascalientes, Mexico)

Abstract: The constant changes established in the new business environment, the high globalization of markets and the prominent level of competitiveness are forcing enterprises, especially the small and medium-size ones, to transform or modify their business strategies to adequate them to the market requirements. Within this new perspective, market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and innovation are the three most important topics that are being considered nowadays by an increasing number of important companies for the development of strategies. Therefore, the aim of this research is to analyze the relationship between market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and innovation by using a sample of 318 SMEs from Aguascalientes State (Mexico). The results obtained show that, on one hand, both market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation have significant positive effect in the innovation of SMEs. On the other hand, market orientation has a significant positive effect in entrepreneurial orientation.

Key words: market orientation; entrepreneurial orientation; innovation; small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

JEL code: M21