Title: Marketing in new business ventures: examining the myth of informality

Authors: Sabrina Phua, Oswald Jones

Addresses: Centre for Enterprise, Department of Strategy, Entrepreneurship and International Business, Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, Aytoun Building, Aytoun Street, Manchester, M1 3GH, UK. ' Centre for Enterprise and Entrepreneurial Leadership, University of Liverpool Management School, Chatham Street, Liverpool, L69 7ZH, UK

Abstract: This paper examines an under-researched area in the field of entrepreneurship that relates |marketing| to |new ventures|. Marketing is critical to the success of new entrepreneurial ventures, but this is a topic which has received very little attention from scholars of either marketing or entrepreneurship. An effective strategy allows new businesses to gain sales by providing products and or services that offer benefits to customers superior to those of their competitors. Therefore, we need to understand how entrepreneurial marketing works in practice; this knowledge will improve the overall success rates of new entrepreneurial ventures. Findings from this study confirm that the entrepreneurs do utilise marketing tools in the day-to-day management of their businesses. However, marketing strategy is not formalised with the level of sophistication associated with large organisations. Rather, our data suggest that new entrepreneurs have an intuitive grasp of the key elements associated with a structured marketing strategy.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; entrepreneurial marketing; business start-ups; new business ventures; informality; customer relationship management; CRM; innovation management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEIM.2010.029767

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 2010 Vol.11 No.1, pp.35 - 55

Published online: 02 Dec 2009 *

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