Organizational Learning And Market Orientation For Algerian Smes Innovation: The Key For Smes Competitiveness

Confronting a complex, dynamic and extremely changing environment, innovation has been of center interest in recent years as a crucial indicator of organizations’ performance and survival, and as a critical success factor in getting a competitive advantage. This research explores the impact of organizational learning and market orientation on innovation, as well as the influence of innovation as a mediating variable on competitive advantage. Using a hypothesis testing approach, the research examines the effect of the organizational learning process and organization’s market orientation on innovation, which in turn impacts competitive advantage. With a judgment sampling, this research targets managers from small and medium enterprises ‘SME’s, asked to respond to questionnaires. Hypotheses are analyzed using structural equation modeling methodology by using AMOS program. This research is of great originality and importance in that it provides evidence of the extent to which Algerian SME managers are conscious of the prominence of being innovative in order to sustain competitive advantage. Also, findings indicate that fostering organizational learning process, as another crucial indicator of firms’ performance, with a strong market orientation, would help managers in achieving organizations’ innovations, and sustaining competitive advantage but only via innovation which mediates the relationship.