Market orientation and innovation performance within Australian manufacturing SMEs

![CDATA[A theoretical framework for Market Orientation and a series of propositions have been developed from the literature to explain the link between market orientation and the innovation output of the firm. In particular, it is posited that the level of market orientation will depend primarily upon the innovation strategy of the firm. That is, where a technological innovation strategy is chosen, sometimes called a push strategy, the firm is less likely to have a high level of market orientation. If the firm has market innovation as a dominant strategy, it is more likely to have a high level of market orientation which facilitates the implementation of their innovation strategy. Research reported in this paper considers in detail the relationship between market orientation of a firm and the innovative output of that firm. The analysis conducted in previous studies has suggested a correlation between market orientation and innovative performance, with market orientation here being taken to refer to the organisation-wide generation, dissemination, and responsiveness to market intelligence (Kohli and Jaworski 1990). We report findings from an empirical study of 73 Australian manufacturing SMEs in this study. We test the support for the propositions presented and present a model of the relationship between market orientation and innovation within SME firms. The paper concludes by detailing a future research agenda and stressing the importance of further qualitative research to better understand the interrelationship between the constructs of market orientation and innovativeness within manufacturing firms.]]