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 res…