This study aims to evaluate the influence of employee’s commitment to change on innovation strategy and performance of SMEs. Data were collected from 229 SMEs owner/managers in Nigeria. The study validates the constructs through confirmatory factor analysis as a prelude to the analyses of the relationships hypothesized. The study established that employee commitment to change positively relate to SMEs performance. Equally, employee commitment to change significantly influences all the component of innovation strategy. The findings also demonstrate that process and administrative innovation strategies positively affect SMEs performance. While product innovation strategy significantly and negatively relates to SMEs performance. However, the study confirmed that only process and administrative innovation strategies mediate the relationship between employee commitment to change and the performance of SMEs. Thus SMEs managers can develop and implement effective innovation strategy to enhance performance with adequate and efficient employee commitment to change. The study contributes to the body of existing literature on innovation by examining the mediating of innovation strategy on the relationship between employee commitment to change and the performance of SMEs in Nigeria. The study confirmed that employee commitment to change plays a fundamental role in innovation strategy which enables SMEs to achieve sustainable superior performance.
