The Relationship between Market Orientation and Innovation in Mexican Manufacturing SME’s

The literature presents an extensive analysis and discussion about the relationship between market orientation and business performance, but the relationship between market orientation and innovation has not been deeply studied in the literature by academics in terms of management, strategy and marketing. Similarly, majority of empirical studies have been focused on the analysis and discussion of market orientation and innovation but in large companies in highly developed countries, but ignored those small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in countries under development. Therefore, this investigation has the objective of analyze the effects from market orientation onto SMEs’ innovation level in a under development country, such as México. In this sense, the present empirical study used a sample size of 286 manufacturing SMEs, having 5-250 employers, from the state of Aguascalientes, México. The obtained results indicate that clients’ orientation, competence orientation and inter-functional coordination have a positive effect on the innovation level of manufacturing SMEs, in Aguascalientes, México.