The Impact of Learning Orientation on Innovation and Performance in SMÉS in México

IntroductionIn several studies, innovation is considered as having a positive effect over the performance of the firms (Nybakk, 2012; Lin et al., 2013; Chang et al., 2014; Deniz and Neczan 2012; Filser and Eggers, 2014) or over the success of these (Kuster and Vila, 2011; Rapp et al., 2008). There are different definitions of innovation in literature, according Nybakk (2012:4), innovation is "the propensity of the firms to create and/or adopt new products, manufacturing processes and business models" it is noted that the emphasis is made over products, processes and managements systems that are new to the firm but not necessary new for the market. Innovation is considered also as a crucial factor in the firmsperformance, as result of the evolution of the competitive environment.Currently it is recognized in the literature the impure of the innovation in the companies to obtain good results, in addition, it has been reported as a key and essential concept in the competitive advantage competitive (Alegre and Chiva, 2013), for being precursor to posses a strong position in the market (Akman and Yilmaz, 2008). Innovation is an important component for the economic development and the growth of the productivity, and therefore for the competitiveness in the regions and nations. Mexican states are increasing their regional innovation systems but such efforts should be refocus. Their accomplishments tend to highlight infrastructure and regulatory matters, putting less attention to the economy of knowledge factors (OECD, 2015). Investment in Mexico supporting innovation is also very slow. At the light of the current economic and financial crisis, since the innovation investment is pro-cyclic, efforts to ensure the continuity and growth in investment in the long term are still necessary. Research and development in Mexico as a percentage of Grow domestic Product (GCP) is equal to 0.5% (where the research and development of the business plays a small paper) compared to the OECD's average that is above 2% and where the following ranges are observed: Brazil (0.9%), the Russian Federation (1.1%) and China (1.3%), all significantly higher. Additionally, in Mexico are observed strong innovation barriers over the industrial organizational forms that allow learning and innovation processes (OECD, 2009). It is important to develop more proactive efforts to integrate science, technology and innovations. Small and medium companies are an important resource for employment and the income generation, its political and economic importance is obvious (Filser and Eggers, 2014). ". small business and specially the new created business, can be of very high performance". New and small business can do important contributions to the creation of jobs and to the economic growth. Regardless of the fact that most of the small business alone have a more modest impact in the economy, together they make an important economic and social contribution (OECD, 2014). Therefore, it is necessary to support the small and medium company in Mexico, in its strategic decisions making processes, it is important to research the internal capacities as the organizational learning in order to promote the development in the companies and their increase in the performance levels.There is also another study performed to business strategic units in various industries in Taiwan, in which the results indicate that the innovation is important in an emerging economy, its authors speculate whether if the same findings should be expected in the western countries (Lin et al., 2013). Several of the studies show the question of the possibility of generalization of the results in other industries and countries (Hanvanich et al., 2006), since it would offer valuable perspectives regarding the understanding of the relation of these relevant constructs. Calantone et al. (2002) appoint that it is urgent the study of the learning and innovation constructs in other cultures, since it is essential for the continued advance of the knowledge body over learning and innovation orientation. …