EFFECT OF MARKET ORIENTATION ON COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE, MEDIATING ROLE OF ENTERPRISE SUPPORT ORGANIZATION

Abstract

Market orientation and its consequences on performance have been broadly examined with researchers coming into consensus of the positive result. Issues SMEs confront are in a type of limited information of customer needs and wants, ignorance of possibilities of executing market orientation and short-term focus minimize the capacity of SMEs in the operationalization of market orientation strategies. This study therefore seeks to assess the effect of market orientation on SMEs competitive advantage within Kumasi metropolis, the mediating role of enterprise support organization. About 250 SMEs who were members of NBSSI within the Kumasi metropolis were randomly selected for this study. This work employed the use of questionnaire as the main data collection instrument to obtain data for the study. The information obtained from the questionnaire was analyzed using descriptive statistics to describe the data and inferential statistics such as PLS-SEM and regression for their statistical relationships and significance. The findings of the study indicated significant influence of market orientation on competitive advantage of SMEs. Competitors and customer orientation among SMEs are positively influenced by enterprise support organization, there is positive and significant relationship between enterprise support organisation and competitive advantage and enterprise support organization plays a full mediation role between competitor orientation among SMEs and competitive advantage. It is recommended that, SMEs in Ghana must seek the assistance of enterprise support organization as it plays an important role in directing marketing strategies for competitive advantage and Enterprise support organization should focus more on competitor and customer orientation since they have significant influence on competitive advantage of SMEs.