Title: Entrepreneurial marketing and the role of information – evidence from young service ventures

Authors: Reinhard Schulte, Fabian Eggers

Addresses: Leuphana University of Lueneburg, Department of Entrepreneurship and Start-up Management, Scharnhorststrasse 1, D-21335 Lueneburg, Germany. ' San Jose State University, Department of Marketing and Decision Sciences, One Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95112, USA

Abstract: Efficient information management is of high relevance for the success of young and entrepreneurial service companies. These ventures face a high level of uncertainty due to their lack of knowledge about market development, customer acceptance and customer behaviour. In consequence, one of the main marketing challenges is to deal with and thus lower uncertainties perceived by service entrepreneurs and their customers. Following the information economics approach, we argue that efficient information management can be theoretically framed as an essential ingredient to entrepreneurial marketing. A qualitative empirical study is used to verify the findings and to gain deeper insights into the marketing information management of young and entrepreneurial service ventures.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; growth companies; young service ventures; service industry; customer acceptance; customer behaviour; customer relationship management; CRM; market development; uncertainty; information management; information economics; agency theory; entrepreneurial marketing; innovation management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEIM.2010.029768

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 2010 Vol.11 No.1, pp.56 - 74

Published online: 02 Dec 2009 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article