This empirical study was aimed at deepening the knowledge of the direct and indirect effects of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on business performance and how industrial organization (IO) influences EO of micro and small firms from a city in a developing country, using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). In this study, the satisfaction of the customers was considered as a mediator variable and the IO as a formative construct. The results show enough evidence that IO positively affects EO; EO positively influences business performance and customer satisfaction (CS); likewise, EO impacts business performance in a positive manner both directly and indirectly through CS. Regarding managerial implications, the study provides knowledge to managers over the processes of shaping strategy and decision making, stressing the importance of both encouraging the development of EO capabilities and focusing efforts on CS to improve business performance.

There is evidence that indicate a positive relationship of learning orientation (LO) with organizational performance in SMEs of emerging economies. However, there are only few studies that investigate how each one of the dimensions of learning orientation (LO) contributes to variables of results such as competitiveness and organizational performance. The purpose of this study is to analyze the direct effects of each dimension of the construct (LO) with organizational performance and competitiveness, from a quantitative cross-sectional study implemented in 400 SMEs of Aguascalientes city, Mexico using SEM technique. The findings reveal that there is a direct and significant relationship between commitment to learning and shared vision with competitiveness; open-mindedness turned out to have a non-significant positive relationship with competitiveness. While the relationship of open-mindedness and commitment to learning have a positive and significant influence on organizational performance, not so shared vision that has a negative and significant influence on organizational performance. The originality of this paper, is that there is limited contributions of the relationship of LO with each dimension of competitiveness, and performance in SMEs worldwide. Among the implications found it is that the existing evidence may result different in other economies and large businesses. Keyword : learning orientation, competitiveness, organizational performance, SMEs, commitment to learning, open-mindedness, shared-vision

Las pequeñas y medianas empresas (pymes) han desarrollado una capacidad de marketing que difiere de la convencional. La mayor parte de la literatura ha descuidado a la innovación en marketing, por considerarse una casualidad o por estar implícita en otro tipo de actividades, y solo recientemente se ha asociado a la competitividad. La presente investigación tuvo como objetivo verificar la relación de la innovación en marketing con el desempeño integral de las pymes y sus posibles implicaciones. Mediante la modelización de ecuaciones estructurales, se estimaron los efectos de esta innovación sobre el rendimiento empresarial. Los hallazgos revelaron su influencia significativa para orientar el desempeño, al implementar nuevos conceptos y medios de promoción, nuevos métodos de comercialización y modificación de sus envases, lo que impactó en mayor medida la parte comercial, además del ámbito administrativo, financiero y de recursos humanos.

This chapter examines the links between information and communication technologies (ICT), supply chain management (SCM), innovation, and performance. Such relationships provide managerial implications for contemporary SMEs managers who adopt ICT tools, dynamic process, and organizational strategies to get better information to make decisions that enhance operational outcomes. The results obtained from structural equation modeling indicate that ICT are decisive for operational alignment of actors in the supply chain, also vital to support the innovation process as a key element in the construction of set capabilities to establish improvements at the products and services. Furthermore, SCM mediates the relationship between ICT and Innovation, substantially relevant to business performance. This study digs deeper into the importance of the machinery used in the SMEs as an operational capability.