PurposeWhile literature has examined market orientation, it is limited with respect to small businesses. More specifically, previous research has not considered empirically the relationship between small business market orientation and environmental uncertainty. Due to resource constraints, smaller businesses are especially vulnerable to environmental uncertainty. To address this, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between environmental uncertainty and small business market orientation.Design/methodology/approachDrawing from small business literature, the authors developed a research model advancing and testing hypotheses to address the research aim. An empirical study was conducted with 104 small grocery retailers from Brazil. A questionnaire was administered, divided into two sections relating to measurement of market orientation and the market turbulence and technological turbulence as dimensions of environmental uncertainty. ANOVA technique and a multinominal logistic regression model were employed to analyze the results.FindingsThe findings reinforce the view of market orientation as a dynamic construct which can explain the relationship between small businesses and environmental uncertainty. Small businesses with higher levels of market orientation emphasized responsiveness as a critical dimension in orienting to turbulent markets. The findings also show that aspects of technological turbulence, particularly pertaining to the opportunities for competitive advantage and new ideas for product supply related to higher levels of market orientation.Originality/valueThe paper's findings, addressing a knowledge gap in the small business literature, emphasize the importance of small businesses orienting themselves to the market, particularly in environments characterized by higher levels of market and technological turbulence.

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Purpose This study aims to investigate the role of market orientation (MO) in improving learning for innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the facilitation of the organisational structure and links to innovation. Design/methodology/approach The data for this research were collected through a survey that was applied to a sample of 169 SMEs in Ecuador. Existing scales were used to measure all the studied variables, i.e. MO, organisational structure for innovation, linkages and learning for innovation. The last three variables correspond to the characteristics of the innovation management process. Partial least square path modelling was used to analyse the data using the SmartPLS 2.0 software. Findings The results showed that MO enhances the learning for innovation in firms both directly and indirectly through improving organisational structure and linkages towards innovation. The research finding also showed that organisational structure for innovation is more important to enhance learning than linkages. Specifically, the mediation between MO and learning through linkages is smaller than the mediation through the organisational structure. Practical implications The study informs executives of the relevance of developing MO as a way of improving learning for innovation, which in turn, is favoured by an organisational structure that supports creativity and technological changes and by the internal and external linkages for innovation in market-oriented firms. Originality/value The findings of this study provide new insights regarding how MO can work together in an innovative context and highlight the importance of MO as an enabler of innovation characteristics in SMEs. This study also contributes to the existent innovation literature by shedding light on strategic questions regarding the development of innovation process in market-oriented SMEs. Specifically, it provides some evidence regarding the nature of innovation process in SMEs, which can orient future studies focused on the understanding of how successful innovation occurs.

This study aims to examine the relationship between market orientation, sources of innovation and intra‐firm mechanisms to support innovation. A research conducted among 325 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) reveals that market orientation significantly affects sources of innovation, providing a market‐centric focus for SMEs. It also reveals that sources of innovation positively affect intra‐firm mechanisms for innovation. Finally, it reveals that market orientation has an indirect and positive effect on intrafirm mechanisms for innovation via the extent to which the studied SMEs use different sources of innovation. To better understand these relationships we consider market orientation's boundary‐spanning role for SMEs.

This paper examines the relationship of 40 practices of innovation management lifted from Tidd et al. (2013, p. 634) in 477 Ecuadorian companies. The sample is from the period 2013–2014 and are divided into micro, small, medium and large enterprises. The management practices are divided a priori into 5 constructs (strategy, processes, organisation, relationships and learning). We then carry out a descriptive analysis, where the degree of the implementation of practices in the entirety of the businesses are stipulated. Later, we test a model with inferential analysis (multiple regression analysis) where the degrees of significance of the practices are determined within each construct and their relation to the size of the companies. The innovation management potential in the Ecuadorian business environment is also discussed. The results show, that companies are far from displaying constant management practices in innovation, as such, general recommendations for companies in the study are given.