Until recently, marketing and entrepreneurship existed as two independent, scholarly distinct disciplines. Marketing has focused on understanding the practices and processes within large corporations. However, with a growing interest in the SME sector, the marketing aspects of SMEs and entrepreneurship have also increased in importance.
This research is focused to examine the factors that will influence the performance of small and medium enterprises.
Keywords:
Entrepreneurial Marketing (EM),
Marketing Entrepreneurship Interface (MEI),
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Introduction:
Until recently, marketing and entrepreneurship existed as two distinct disciplines. “The term entrepreneurial marketing is used to describe the marketing processes of firms pursuing opportunities in uncertain market circumstances, often under constrained resource conditions”. (Becherer et al, 2006)
In general, marketing has focused on understanding the practices and processes within large corporations. However, with a growing interest in the SME sector, the marketing aspects of SMEs and entrepreneurship have also increased in importance.
We arrive at a definition of Entrepreneurial Marketing as the organizational function of marketing by taking into account innovativeness, risk taking, proactiveness and the pursuit of opportunities. This definition must not be restricted to young and small ventures. (Kraus et al, 2009).
This research is focused to explain the relationship between entrepreneurial marketing and the organizational performance using multiple performance indicators: innovativeness, risk taking, value creation and the pursuit of opportunities. These indicators are four out of seven core dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing which was d...
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...pany, and the second one defines entrepreneurial marketing as marketing with an entrepreneurial spirit (marketing by entrepreneurs) by highlighting the qualitative aspect of entrepreneurial marketing, Then it is argued that both attempts of defining entrepreneurial marketing might be two sides of the same coin, as the qualitative characteristics (smallness and newness) seems to be a context which favors marketing activities which are driven by an entrepreneurial, i.e. innovative, risk oriented and proactive spirit
According to Bjerke and Hultman (2002), entrepreneurial marketing is the marketing of small firms growing through entrepreneurship. As SMEs face some limitations such as having few major customers, limited resource in business and marketing; the influence of the entrepreneur, the lack of formal organizational structures or formal systems of communication
Marketing is an essential part of any business strategy and it is common that any business which does not embrace marketing is doomed to failure. Tactical and strategic application of marketing strategy will make firms prosper. The firm sets out to unearth the marketing strategy that is employed by Geoffrey B. Small and its suitability towards attracting customers who are not easy to appeal to the fashion industry. The marketing management philosophies that are employed by firms will be equally dealt with, and suitable one under use for the Geoffrey B. Small Company will be described.
Armstrong, Gary, and Philip Kotler. Marketing: an introduction. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2013. Print.
Ehmke, C., Fulton, J., & Lusk, J. (2005). Marketing's 4 P's: First Steps fo rNew Entrepreneurs. Retrieved from Purdue Extension : https://www.extension.purdue.edu/ec/ec-730
Growth Strategies are strategies that help entrepreneurial ventures to increase turnovers, employment and volume (Abubakar, 2014). Entrepreneurs need growth strategies because they want their businesses to grow in order to survive in the competitive market. However, this is not the only reason why their businesses should grow. Growing ventures satisfy the ego of entrepreneurs as they will capture economic scale which lowers the average cost of production, win larger market shares, gain more power, lead the market and become the brand leader. There are many different types of growth strategies and they can be divided into two groups, organic (internal) growth strategies and inorganic (external) growth strategies. This essay aims to discuss and analyse how these growth strategies work for entrepreneurial ventures.
Marketing is a broad category of business knowledge that covers many facets of a company's products and services, but at its foundation is the identification of markets and their subdivisions. These subdivisions or segments form the basis for which all other areas of marketing are dependent. The following is an introduction to what segmented markets are, and why they are important.
Marketing is a vital component in the success of businesses. Smaller businesses rely on business advertising, expenses, knowing if the business is networking with the right people, or joining the best organisations that lead to success (EStartup business blog, 2010). Marketing concentrates on customers and what the customers want. Customers are the source of sales and profits. Many small businesses are faced with remarkable hardships due to not developing the right marketing plan (EStartup business blog, 2010).
In this paper I will define marketing in my own words and also research what the definition is using two different sources. While supporting my answers with three examples from the business world, I will show the importance of marketing. Marketing applies to many different areas of an organization and after close review I will make it clear on how it relates.
American Marketing Association Board of Directors approved the definition of marketing in July 2013 as ‘Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.’, Ama.org (2015). With the growth in economy, competition and market fragmentation, the marketing became more sophisticated. The large heterogeneous markets were divided into smaller segments with similar needs, wants and buying behaviour, Kotler,P., Armstrong,G. (2014).
Choosing a career in marketing can lead a person in many different directions within the defined roles of marketing. Composed of many facets and activities marketing careers offer a variety of avenues for the career minded to explore while offering growth and opportunities for advancement. A common denominator for many who choose a career in this field is the sense of ownership, or entrepreneurial spirit with regards to the products or services that they are working to market. Marketing requires that an understanding of customers’ needs and desires be acquired and then translated into both product development as well as communications as part of the marketing strategy. This paper will explore what is entailed in a career in marketing, as well as what the future holds for the profession. Because marketing professionals are needed by every company and in every industry, the career potential and chances for finding ones niche within the career field are virtually unlimited.
Corporate entrepreneurship (CE) is widely considered as a vital means to stimulate and sustain the overall competitiveness of an organization. Both practitioners and researchers have recognized the challenges of pursuing entrepreneurship within a corporation. CE is the result of the joint activities of an organization’s members, activities that pursue strategic objectives and constitute strategic roles. Thus, to face the challenges that CE poses for both theory and practice we need to advance our understanding of the activities and strategic roles involved in the CE process and their implications for performance. While strategic roles have been extensively studied, most studies analyze the strategic role of top managers and ignore the contribution of middle managers. Moreover, while there is a growing body of empirical evidence of a positive relationship between CE initiatives and performance, little research emphasizes the contribution of middle managers’ strategic roles to superior performance.
Within every major economy, a great factor in providing the energy of the core of the nations economy is the small and medium enterprises. These cluster of firms are what provide new economic activity, new innovative products and services, along with growing employment and in general a crucial system in ensuring the economy is at a stable growth level. With a majority of this activity stemming from family controlled or managed businesses, the focus on developing a global and long term perspective for these firms are ever growing in importance because of the global perspective entrepreneurship has started to take.
Entrepreneurship incorporates unconstrained imagination and a readiness to settle on choices without strong information. The entrepreneur may be driven by a need to make something new or assemble something unmistakable. As new ventures have low achievement rates, the business person should have impressive tirelessness. Because of this, the entrepreneur may have the best risk of achievement by concentrating on a business sector corner either too little or too new to have been commanded by built up organizations.
Nowadays, entrepreneurship becomes most popular career, where our government encourages our graduated student to involve in business so that unemployment will not happen in our country. Policymakers, academics, and researcher agree that entrepreneurship is a vital route to economic advancement for both developed and developing economics (Zelealem et al., 2004). Entrepreneurship has many types for example small business and others. Today small business, particularly the new ones, is the main vehicle for entrepreneurship, contributing not just to employment, social and political stability, but also to innovation and competitive power (Thurik & Wennekers, 2004).
Throughout Europe, great attention has been paid to the small business area and to the contribution that entrepreneurial small businesses can bring beneficial to transforming the economy (EiM, 1994).The concept of entrepreneurship is often considered with new venture creation and small enterprise management, and the terms of owner-manager and self-employment (Gibb, 1996). While Kirby (2003) has argued that entrepreneurship is far broader than these concepts mentioned above. Not all owner-managers can be considered as entrepreneurs, nor are all small business entrepreneurial (Carland et al., 1984). Carland also has argued that entrepreneurial small business is aiming at profitability and growth, and the business is regarded to be innovative.
Entrepreneurship is an important aspect of social, economic and community life. It can be viewed as a critical factor to economic growth as well as a way of addressing unemployment (Nolan, 2003).Entrepreneurs are people who are persistently focused on identifying opportunities, they seek to create something worthwhile while taking into account foreseeable risk and rewards associated with the efforts (Nolan, 2003). Furthermore, entrepreneurs are frequently understood to be individuals who discover market needs and establish new business to meet those identified opportunities. The following assignment will firstly discuss the types of entrepreneurship, secondly it will discuss the reasons people become entrepreneurs, and thirdly it will discuss the importance of entrepreneurship.