The role of market orientation and innovation capability in export performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises: a Latin American perspective

This study aims to extend the existing base of knowledge of proactive and reactive market orientation and innovation capability by testing their impact on the export performance of emerging-market small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a Latin American context.

This paper is a replication study, and its data were collected through a survey answered by general, marketing, sales or export managers at 155 Mexican SMEs. The research model was tested using partial least squares.

The study results indicate that innovation capability and reactive market orientation are drivers of export performance in Latin American SMEs. Moreover, proactive market orientation has been found to have an indirect effect on export results.

This study highlights to managers of Latin American SMEs the importance of capability development and deployment to improve export performance.

SMEs enabled by strategic and technological innovation based on current and latent customer needs can advantageously perform in foreign markets and can drive economic growth and social and human development in Latin America.

Recent studies have focused on emerging-market enterprises and the necessity of developing dynamic capabilities to achieve internationalisation. This study extends previous research by assessing the robustness and generalizability of drivers in export performance for manufacturing SMEs in Latin America. In particular, it provides empirical insights on the capabilities to develop by Latin American SMEs to achieve better export performance.