Effects of customer knowledge management and customer orientation on innovation capacity and marketing results in SMEs: the mediating role of innovation orientation

Managing customer knowledge is a key of source for SMEs. The principal aim of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on the direct effects of two specific strategic resources: customer orientation and customer knowledge management (CKM), on innovation capacity and marketing results in SMEs. The study also examines the role of innovation orientation as a mediator between customer orientation and CKM. For this purpose, a structural model was proposed and tested through an empirical investigation with variance-based structural equation modeling (PLS) using a sample made up of 210 Spanish SMEs. The findings highlight the relevance of CKM and customer orientation as important strategic resources for developing innovation capacity and marketing results, and they confirm the mediation effect of innovation orientation. Empirical evidence supports the importance of customer orientation and CKM in boosting innovation and performance. These findings have important implications for performance in SMEs.