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The aim of this study is to investigate the mediating effect of learning orientation on the market orientation and business performance of industrial Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the metal-mechanic and wine sectors in southern Brazil, an emerging economy country.

Survey data were collected from 309 Brazilian managers of SMEs in the metal-mechanic and wine sectors. The study analyzed overall model fit and causal relationships by confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

The survey results show that there is a positive and significant relationship between the variables market orientation, learning orientation and business performance in the investigated sectors. Learning orientation mediates the relationship between market orientation and business performance.

This article provides insight to guide industrial managers of Brazilian SMEs in the metal-mechanic and wine sectors in a prosperous region with a thriving economy. The mediating effect of learning orientation can help managers in their commitment to learning, market vision and open-mindedness in teams that work with multiple orientations.

Few studies focus on analyzing the mediating effect of learning orientation in industrial SMEs in the metal-mechanic and wine sectors. This article differs from others due to the relationships between the constructs, LO mediation over MO and BP, relevance of the investigated sectors for the region and multiple guidelines for managers of the investigated SMEs. Previous studies are scarce on the indirect effect of LO on MO and BP in developing countries.

The main goal of this paper is to study the influence of some corporate governance, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and corporate-specific characteristics on the performance of Iberian-listed companies.

To achieve the paper's aim, the authors have used data from 33 Portuguese-listed companies, and 60 Spanish-listed companies, for the period 2011 to 2018. To test the hypotheses, the authors employed the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation method, developed by Arellano and Bover (1995) and Blundell and Bond (1998).

The results point out that the performance determinants vary depending on the country under analysis and the variable used to measure performance. Despite being neighbors and historically commercially close, these countries have differences in their governmental, social and economic structure that lead to different stakeholder perceptions on the determinants of corporate performance. Specifically, when the authors use Tobin's Q as a market performance variable, board independence and the existence of a CSR committee have different signs in the two countries. The same happens when return on assets (ROA) is used as an accounting variable for internal management, implying that both, managers and potential investors of the two countries have different understandings about the variables that influence their performance.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to comparatively analyze the two countries of the Iberian Peninsula, analyzing the effect of corporate governance and social responsibility characteristics on the performance. The authors' results show that managers and potential investors have different points of view regarding the importance of corporate governance and social responsibility characteristics in corporate performance.