The purpose of this paper is to analyze the concept of market orientation as an outer source of innovation for organizations in the context of Albania. We investigate the market orientation relation with innovation and firm performance by analyzing a sample of 99 companies operating in Albania. The relationships and the impact of market orientation on innovation and performance is tested empirically through structural equation modeling techniques (SEM). The analysis confirms prior theoretical and empirical findings in developed economies, however, it gives way to some contextual interpretations. The implications of this study are considerable in academia and in managerial purposes. In academia, considering that there is no research in Albania on the topic of us being aware of, nevertheless, we identify the need for deeper and wider research, especially with bigger sample sizes, industryspecific, and across industries to grasp more about market reality. On managerial account, its relevance relies in the distinction of market orientation construct and the right division of components within the company, and the adequate approach toward intelligence generation, dissemination, and reaction on it by responding to market needs and competition with innovative products and services.

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Organizational innovation theories mostly utilize a dichotomous division between types of innovation and stages of innovation. For instance, the dual core theory dissects innovation in administrative and technical dimensions, hereby emphasizing the dissimilarities between technical and social systems of an organization (Daft 1978;Damanpour & Evan 1984). Moreover, the theory of innovation radicalness uses a different phrasing of organizational innovativeness, whereas the ambidextrous theory of innovation examines how an organization adopts certain innovations by identifying two separate stages. This paper's purpose is to investigate how organizational innovation affects two other aspects of innovation -technical and administrative innovation -which comprise the general innovation construct. The study was conducted employing a sample of 100 Albanian firms, where the organizational innovation model has been enquired to test the effect it exercises on general organizational innovativeness (simply referred to as innovation). This structure is further controlled by the influence of several independent variables, including company size, employee education level, production vs. service-based orientation, and whether the firm sources its research and development (R&D) activities internally or externally. Despite some inconclusive evidence, the empirical findings presented in this study demonstrate an overall positive relationship between organizational innovation and firm innovative activity, as related to technical and administrative innovation. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the only Albanian study that measures organizational innovation and firm innovativeness.

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