There exists a consensus in the specialized literature on the importance of incorporating innovation into a company, with the aim of ensuring its future viability, as can be seen from the work of Bash (2015) and Damanpour et al. (2019), among others. Similarly, innovation favours the competitiveness and success of small businesses (Molina-Sánchez et al., 2022). In fact, viable companies change over time to constantly adapt to their context, bringing value to their customers, and therefore ceasing to innovate does not have a negative impact in the short term, but rather in the long term, since the effects of ceasing to innovate take time to reach the market (Viardot, 2011).

Investment in innovation can be carried out in many ways: in products, in marketing channels, in technology, in production processes, and even in the business model itself (Bahr, 2019; Corrales-Estrada, 2019; Satell, 2017).

Innovation in products, as well as in processes, i.e., manufacturing, distribution, and marketing, has a direct relationship with organizational performance (Roldan & Bastos, 2019).

At present, given the high existing degree of equality in terms of products, one way to generate real competitive advantage occurs when innovating in a company's business model (Damanpour et al., 2019; Dörnyei, 2002). In fact, neither product nor service innovation are able to generate a sustainable competitive advantage over time, even when innovation occurs in both aspects (Bekmezci, 2013).

Innovation is perhaps the least known component of the business model. However, since the business model is considered so important for the development of the company, innovation in its design and implementation is also fundamental. Thus, companies that introduce repeated innovations in their business models rapidly improve their financial performance, and thus their competitive position (Zott et al., 2011). Likewise, such companies see their revenues and margins increase much faster than competitors who do not implement innovation in their business model (Mitchell & Coles, 2004).

In fact, systems based on rethinking the nature of the business and the organization, which are the hallmarks of business model innovation, are better able to maintain a competitive advantage (Malhotra, 2000).

Therefore, the key aspects of innovation, which include technological innovation as well as internal management and information systems, may positively influence firm performance (Lailah & Soehari, 2020), although this does not guarantee the long-term viability of the firm.

Therefore, this paper proposes the following hypothesis related to the area of innovation:

Hypothesis 1: There is a positive relationship between innovation and business success.

Economic and financial management, from a professional perspective, encompasses a large number of relevant operations and controls that make financial departments increasingly important in the business world. In fact, among the aspects that make up the business model are financial assets, including cash, investments, relationships with finance providers, and capital (Boulton et al., 2000). Therefore, the financial area must be professionalized so that a company may continue its growth and development process (Rucoba Calderón & Olivera Astete, 2019).

Among the most important operations of the financial area are the preparation of budgets, customer risk assessment, cash management (liquidity), financial leverage policy (debt), investment policy, cost accounting (analytical), and margin policy by customer type (Baxter & Chua, 2008; Zoni & Pippo, 2017).

Regarding budgets, it is necessary to mention their importance and how they should form part of the different areas of the organization (Tello Portocarrero, 2018). The preparation of the annual budget is a useful tool for a company’s management (Sumedrea & Costin, 2014).

The budget is closely linked to liquidity, as it allows companies to plan the financial capacity they will need in the following fiscal year. Therefore, one of the most relevant aspects for creating a budget is the estimated sales, for which it is necessary to consult with customers about their purchase forecasts.

Liquidity could be defined as a company's capacity to fulfil its commitments on time. In this sense, one of the aspects helps to optimize liquidity is the ability to collect payment from customers before paying suppliers, which increases company performance by improving cash management (Egwu et al., 2021).

Another relevant aspect from the financial perspective is the classification of customers according to the trade credit obtained from them. If it is necessary to finance sales, it will be necessary to determine the indispensable financial dimension for the estimated level of total sales. In this regard, it is important to note that sales on trade credit are not only important from a financial perspective, but also from the point of view of the guarantee of payment, which is what will guarantee the viability of the company. For this reason, assessing and controlling commercial risk has become an essential aspect for the viability of a company, and is more commonly performed in smaller companies (Sánchez Sánchez et al., 2019). For this reason, viable companies continuously study the characteristics and expectations of their current and potential customers (Viardot, 2011).

By carefully studying the significance of sales on the economic and financial position of a company, it has been observed that an increase in gross margin has a greater impact on improving performance than a reduction of fixed costs (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013). This aspect is consistent, since the reduction of fixed costs has a limit, while the increase in gross margin does not.

Regarding the choice of suppliers, it is relevant not only from the point of view of competitive strategy (cost leadership, differentiation, etc.), but also because of the impact that costs have on daily operations. Controlling these costs, through an analytical accounting system, is key for a correct allocation of these costs to the products that the company manufactures or markets.

Therefore, analytical control systems make it possible to work with more demanding suppliers and to reduce costs to a minimum. Thus, cost accounting positively influences the management of a company and improves performance (Estrella Pacheco & Góngora Biachi, 2013; Laitinen, 2014). However, there does not seem to be a direct relationship between business performance and the choice of suppliers that focuses on quality or price, perhaps because this is conditioned by the chosen competitive model (Porter, 1997).

The use of quantitative decision-making tools, such as the Pareto principle, contribute to the development of strategic thinking, capabilities, and competitive advantage (Hidalgo Ávila et al., 2015). However, there is no clear correspondence between compliance with the Pareto principle in sales and performance improvement.

In general terms, for the financial function to positively influence the management of a company, it is necessary for there to be consistency in the company's assets and capabilities with the key factors of the industry in which the company is located (Thornhill & Amit, 2003). Sometimes, and in order to strengthen the business model, it will be necessary to adapt these assets by making investments.

When these investments are carried out as a form of diversification, they do not generate operating synergies, although they do produce greater stability in cash flow. In other words, the sources of income increase and become heterogeneous. However, lower profitability is detected, as the risks and therefore the returns are divided (Amit & Livnat, 1988). This view of investment policy leads one to think that there are greater guarantees for the company's subsistence, albeit with lower profitability, which is logical given that profitability and risk have a direct and positive relationship. In this case, it will be necessary to see whether this profitability is below the requirements of capital, i.e., of ownership, something that is key in today's business world (Rojo-Ramírez, 2021).

Thus, based on the above, the following hypothesis is proposed in this area:

Hypothesis 2: There is a relationship between financial economic management and business success.

Human resources is a key element in the viability of a company, as it provides knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience, and contributes to the development of innovative strategies for achieving sustained long-term growth for a company (Yañez-Sarmiento et al., 2018).

The talent and capabilities of employees are of great importance, which is why they must be assessed using an appropriate evaluation system, whose implementation in the company is key as it determines whether each employee fits the definition of the position.

Patents and utility models can sometimes generate competitive advantage for the companies that own them. However, it is the people who develop such patents who generate real sustainable competitive advantage (Barney & Wright, 1998; Berisha & Kutllovci, 2015; Widyanty et al., 2020). Therefore, attracting and retaining effective talent has become one of the main challenges faced by any company that wishes to achieve sustainable competitive advantage and ensure its future viability (Sparrow & Makram, 2015).

Delving deeper into talent, and linking it with internal promotion, it is observed that this per se does not generate business performance in general terms. It is only when a position is filled by suitable talent that internal promotion becomes a plus for a company in terms of knowledge transfer, which is also a key aspect of company performance. Knowledge transfer and internal management enrich a company's long-term know-how.

One of the factors that most limits the competitive capacity of companies is human resources with few skills and low levels of education and training (Narváez Castro & Fernández, 2015). Therefore, organizations that invest in intellectual capital by developing their employees’ knowledge through training promoted by the company itself are more likely to achieve competitive success (Cuevas-Vargas et al., 2015). Therefore, employee training differentiates some companies from others, and has an impact on improving their performance.

With respect to outsourcing, a company may choose to recruit highly educated employees, thus increasing its capabilities and chances of survival in an increasingly competitive environment (Ortiz de Abreu, 2016).

Another key aspect in the human resources function is above-average employee compensation, which, although it is an aspect related to improving company performance, is not as powerful as autonomy and purpose when it comes to keeping talent in the organization (Spangher, 2015). In many cases, it is thought that the retention of talent or the motivation of employees depends on their remuneration. However, remuneration is only one part of the set of aspects that interest workers.

In this line, the organizational climate has been shown to be a key element for keeping employees motivated in the workplace and involving them more in the company. A good organizational climate helps to increase the performance of companies and positively influences the performance of workers, as they feel more identified and integrated into the structure of the organization (Alva & Zegarra, 2016), something that should not be confused with social benefits or leisure activities, which do not in themselves generate higher performance.

Another aspect that has an impact on performance has to do with employees' research activity, as well as with entrepreneurship, which are qualities or even attitudes which should not be confined to the realm of ownership of a company's capital, but rather the ability to create new things from scratch. Firms with a strong entrepreneurial culture or orientation achieve higher performance (Vij & Bedi, 2012).

Based on the above, the following hypothesis concerning human resource management is proposed:

Hypothesis 3: There is a positive relationship between human resource policies and entrepreneurial success.

The importance of the different functional areas in business viability varies depending on the company, sector, size, etc., as well as the competitive situation of each company at the time considered (Zapata et al., 2013). However, in the vast majority of cases, it is observed that the commercial area is of special importance. In fact, it is common to find managers who come from the commercial department, which explains the importance of this area in the business organization chart. Therefore, the commercial or sales department plays one of the main roles in the business world (Teau & Protopopescu, 2015).

Considering the importance of the commercial department, it makes sense to measure the performance of this area within a company's overall performance and, therefore, to identify whether the expectations necessary to achieve the business objectives are being met. It is therefore necessary to establish Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, as these are vital tools for improving the commercial management of a company, facilitating responsible decision-making and the analysis of the performance of the sales force (Teau & Protopopescu, 2015).

The establishment of commercial objectives is undoubtedly a common element in a large number of companies today. However, such objectives need to be achievable if they are to maximize motivation among the sales force (Kuhfahl et al., 2018).

Another key aspect within the commercial area is the relationship that the company maintains with its customers, known as customer experience (Luigi et al., 2012). In order for this relationship to be extrapolated to a large number of customers, and to obtain metrics on it, a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool must be employed. The implementation of a CRM is key when it comes to monitoring customers, which is essential for generating a sustainable competitive advantage over time (Stuchlý et al., 2020).

On the other hand, in the modern approach to the commercial function, much importance is given to customer orientation and meeting customer expectations (Hernández Rodríguez & Rizo Martí, 2020). It is therefore essential to know the customer, which is why companies conduct satisfaction surveys on a recurring basis. For this reason, companies that take the time to identify specific market segments and take the necessary steps to gather information through market research are more likely to successfully ensure that everything they do will be aligned with the needs of their potential customers (Grensing-Pophal, 2005). The advantage of conducting such surveys and research is that the necessary data is extracted for the elements that create value for customers, so that companies can focus on the processes that create this value and that are most important and satisfactory to the customers.

Through CRM programs, satisfaction surveys, and market research, a very deep understanding of customer needs is obtained, which is important when developing new products or improving existing ones. Individuals and consumers do not act rationally, but rather emotionally. Therefore, what companies really need to understand is how their products interact with their customers' experience (Gobble, 2014).

This knowledge is more reliable than that provided by the salespeople themselves, whose participation in the development of new products does not seem to have a direct effect on improving firm performance. The information obtained through such tools makes it possible to review and improve the value proposition and adapt it to the customers' needs, and to design the strategic actions necessary to ensure such value creation on a recurring basis (Achtenhagen et al., 2013).

Regarding the customer dimension, it is observed that comprehensive customer concentration standards generate business performance (Nobeoka et al., 2002).

As for the way of reaching the end customer, two models of companies have been identified. Firstly, those that work B2C (Business to Customer), which deliver the product to the final customer through their own sales network. This requires greater investment and risk, although the profit margin is usually higher. Secondly, there are companies that work B2B (Business to Business), which use an intermediary or distributor to reach the end customer. This modality makes it possible to reach more customers and assume less risk, although it also involves a lower profit margin as the intermediary must be paid. Distribution, from a marketing and logistics point of view, integrates certain elements that make it possible to add more value and guarantee both customer satisfaction and the profits of the production organization (Ruiz-Quesada et al., 2020). However, the choice of one policy or the other is not directly related to firm performance, as there have been success stories with both forms of commercial integration in the value chain.

In view of the above, the following hypothesis is proposed in the commercial area:

Hypothesis 4: There is a positive relationship between commercial policies and business success.

The sample is made up of seventy companies from the Region of Murcia, Spain, from different sectors of activity. 57.1% belong to the industrial sector, 8.6% to commerce, and 34.3% to services. The study included companies of all sizes i.e., Micro-SMEs (11), SMEs (17), Medium-sized (20), and Large (22). In addition, data on the age of the companies that make up the sample was collected, with values ranging from 5 to 164 years (mean = 34.16; Typ. dev. = 27.14).

Both a direct personal survey and an online survey were used for data collection. A very important aspect of the sample collection has to do with the interlocutor or respondent, which, in the case under study, was always the president or CEO of the company. This form of data collection is much more reliable, since the chief executive has the most accurate information on all the company's departments, as well as on the most relevant aspects.

For validation purposes, a review of the relevant literature was carried out. In addition, the personal business experience of one of the authors served to include certain issues not addressed in the literature, which allows us to contrast the results with the business reality that he observed throughout his extensive experience both as a businessman and as a representative of entrepreneurs in the Region of Murcia. Finally, expert evaluators, who are university professors in the areas of strategic management and marketing, reviewed the questions posed and then suggested adding some more questions and correcting the wording of some of the items, and verified the final version of the questionnaire.

In addition, five companies were tested to ensure that the questions were appropriate and correctly understood.

Table 1 below shows the descriptions of the independent variables of the study:

The correlations between the independent variables were also calculated. As can be seen in Table 2, the correlation between the areas of Innovation and HR is high (0.703, p<0.01), as is the correlation between the areas of Innovation and Sales (0.753, p<0.01).

To identify successful companies, versus those that are not, and considering that most companies do not wish to share real financial information, we followed the line of several authors, such as Rocca Espinoza et al. (2016) and Estrada Bárcenas et al. (2009). These authors proposed measuring business success by comparing different factors of the participating companies with the other companies in their sector. Thus, a question was posed consisting of six items on a 7-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 (not very important) to 7 (very important). According to the aforementioned authors, a company is defined by comparing it to its competitors. For this purpose, they asked whether, when compared to its competitors, the company has higher quality products (Cannatelli et al., 2017), cheaper products (Narazaki et al., 2018), or higher growth (Rocca Espinoza et al., 2016), and whether it is more profitable (Rocca Espinoza et al., 2016), has more modern facilities (Kavulya et al., 2018), or has more educated employees (Panagiotakopoulos, 2020).

For the validation of the proposed measurement scale, we first tested the reliability of the scale in terms of internal consistency, using Cronbach's alpha coefficient, as well as the concept validity using principal component factor analysis. From here, if the parameters obtained were sufficient, a dummy variable was constructed with two categories: high-performance and low-performance companies.

This section describes the measurement of the study's independent variables: innovation, economic-financial management, human resource management, and commercial management.

The internal consistency of the scale yields a value of 0.762, which is acceptable according to Nunnally (1967). To check the concept validity, a factor analysis by principal components was carried out, which yielded good results (the determinant of the correlation matrix was low; Bartlett's test of sphericity sig. < 0.05; KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Index) ≥ 0.50; and the diagonal of the anti-image correlation matrix returned values greater than 0.5). A summary of the scale properties of the performance variable is shown below in Table 3 (Abascal & Grande, 2001; Luque, 2000, 2003; Mateos-Aparicio Morales & Martín Dávila, 2002; Montoya, 2007).

Following the same procedure as for the validation of the scale for the performance variable, the other proposed scales were validated, namely innovation, economic-financial management, human resources management, and commercial management.

All the scales meet the requirements, with alphas greater than 0.7, except for the economic-financial area, which yields an alpha value of 0.68, which is acceptable according to the literature for exploratory studies (Nunnally, 1967).

As regards the concept validity, a factor analysis by principal components was carried out, which yielded good results, highlighting the unidimensionality of all the scales (the determinant of the correlation matrix was low; Bartlett's test of sphericity sig. < 0.05; KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Index) ≥ 0.50; the diagonal of the anti-image correlation matrix returned values greater than 0.5). A summary of the properties of the scales of the independent variables is shown below in Table 5 (Abascal & Grande, 2001; Luque, 2000, 2003; Mateos-Aparicio Morales & Martín Dávila, 2002; Montoya, 2007).

To determine which are the most important factors for greater performance or competitive success, the differences in behaviour between the two groups of "high performance" and "low performance" companies was analysed. For this study, a univariate analysis was performed using the Student's t-test for the continuous variables, and the Mann-Whitney U test when the requirements of normality and homogeneity of variances were not met for the average variables (Likert-type scale). For the categorical variables, a contingency analysis was performed, based on Fisher's exact test, for 2x2 tables when the data set was small or the tables were not balanced, as is the case here.

Finally, a multivariate analysis was carried out, seeking relationships between the independent variables studied, creating factors to group all the relevant aspects that form part of each of the functions studied into a single variable, given the unidimensionality of each of these constructs. In our case, we followed the process proposed by Molina-Sánchez et al. (2022) and Rocca Espinoza et al. (2016), where they first proposed analysing whether there exist differences in the means between the variables analysed in order to subsequently confirm their results with a multivariate analysis.

To carry out the logistic regression, the forward stepwise (Wald) method was used, which contrasts the elimination of variables based on the results of a likelihood-ratio test. Both independent and control variables were included in the model. This method is of special interest in the case of high correlations between variables, which can distort the signs of the coefficients in certain cases.

In order to corroborate the legitimacy of the model, a similarity test was carried out, and the Hosmer-Lemeshow measures, the overall percentage of correctness, and the goodness of fit were analysed using the Cox-Snell and Nagelkerke R-squared statistics.

Table 11 shows the results of the logistic regression performed. As can be seen, two of the variables have a greater influence on business success. Thus, companies that give more importance to economic-financial management and innovation are more likely to obtain higher performance, and therefore greater viability, than those that do not give importance to these aspects. Nevertheless, all the variables were introduced into the model. However, no statistically significant results were obtained for the Human Resources area or for the commercial area. This is due to the existence of multicollinearity between innovation and human resources, and between innovation and sales (see the correlation table shown above).