Marketing for survival: a comparative case study of SME software firms

Emerald - Tập 19 Số 4 - Trang 712-728 - 2012
Sara Parry1, Rosalind Jones1, Jennifer Rowley2, Beata Kupiec‐Teahan3
1Bangor Business School, Bangor University, Bangor, UK
2Department of Information and Communications, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
3Scottish Agricultural College, Edinburgh, UK

Tóm tắt

PurposeThis study seeks to explore the success and failure of two similar small software technology firms from a marketing perspective. Using a dyadic approach, the research aims to compare the degree of customer orientation and innovativeness exhibited in both firms and to understand contributing factors for success and failure.Design/methodology/approachA two‐case comparative case study was employed as the primary method of investigation. Participant‐observation in both firms and 22 semi‐structured interviews with owner‐managers, employees and customers provided a holistic approach to how these firms perceived and prioritised marketing and innovation.FindingsThere is a need for small software firms to strike a balance between customer orientation and innovativeness in order to survive. In terms of customer orientation, the findings show that it is not only related to customer contacts and relationships, but is also about delivering on the promise. The small firm's ability to achieve this is highly dependent on managerial style, communication between the firms and their customers, business planning, market research, promotion and firm culture.Practical implicationsThe benefits of this study, which demonstrates the stark contrast between successful and unsuccessful behaviour, can act as a useful guide for small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) managers who often have technical but less managerial competencies.Originality/valueThis is a unique study comparing two software SMEs, particularly one which failed and one which succeeded under similar conditions, thus illustrating good practice by contrasting with bad practice. It also contributes to the literature on how SMEs conduct marketing in the software industry and how to secure small firm sustainability and growth in developing regions.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Acs, Z.J. and Audretsch, D.B. (1990), Innovation and Small Firms, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Akgun, A.E., Lynn, G.S. and Byrne, J.C. (2004), “Taking the guesswork out of new product development: how successful high‐tech companies get that way”, Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 25 No. 4, pp. 41‐6.

Alajoutsijarvi, K., Mannermaa, K. and Tikkanen, H. (2000), “Customer relationships and the small software firm: a framework for understanding challenges faced in marketing”, Information & Management, Vol. 37 No. 3, pp. 153‐9.

Berry, M.M.J. (1996), “Technical entrepreneurship, strategic awareness and corporate transformation in small high‐tech firms”, Technovation, Vol. 16 No. 9, pp. 487‐98.

Bonoma, T.V. (1985), “Case research in marketing: opportunities, problems, and a process”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 199‐208.

Borg, E.A. (2009), “The marketing of innovations in high‐technology companies: a network approach”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 43 Nos 3/4, pp. 365‐70.

Burger‐Helmchen, T. (2009), “Capabilities in small high‐tech firms: a case of plural‐entrepreneurship”, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 391‐405.

Carson, D. and Cromie, S. (1990), “Marketing planning in small enterprises: a model and some empirical evidence”, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 5‐18.

Carson, D., Cromie, S., McGowan, P. and Hill, J. (1995), Marketing and Entrepreneurship in SMEs: An Innovative Approach, FT Prentice Hall, Hemel Hempstead.

Carson, D., Gilmore, A., Perry, C. and Gronhaug, K. (2001), Qualitative Marketing Research, Sage Publications, London.

Chaston, I. (1997), “Small firm performance: assessing the interaction between entrepreneurial style and organizational structure”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 31 Nos 11/12, pp. 814‐31.

Chetty, S. (1996), “The case study method for research in small‐and‐medium‐sized firms”, International Small Business Journal, Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 173‐85.

Easingwood, C., Moxey, S. and Capleton, H. (2006), “Bringing high technology to market: successful strategies employed in the worldwide software industry”, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 23 No. 6, pp. 498‐511.

Eisenhardt, K.M. (1989), “Building theories from case study research”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 532‐50.

Forsman, H. (2008), “Business development success in SMEs: a case study approach”, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 606‐22.

Fuller, P.B. (1994), “Assessing marketing in small and medium‐sized enterprises”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 28 No. 12, pp. 34‐49.

Gilmore, A., Carson, D. and Grant, K. (2001), “SME marketing in practice”, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 6‐11.

Gilmore, A., Carson, D. and Rocks, S. (2006), “Networking in SMEs: evaluating its contribution to marketing activity”, International Business Review, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 278‐93.

Harris, R.I.D. (1988), “Technological change and regional development in the UK: evidence from the SPRU database on innovations”, Regional Studies, Vol. 22, pp. 361‐74.

Hatonen, J. and Ruokonen, M. (2010), “Revising marketing strategies for supplier selection criteria: small firm approach from the information and communications industry”, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 159‐67.

Hausman, A. (2005), “Innovativeness among small businesses: theory and propositions for future research”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 34 No. 8, pp. 773‐82.

Hedaa, L. and Ritter, T. (2005), “Business relationships on different waves: paradigm shift and marketing orientation revisited”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 34 No. 7, pp. 714‐21.

Helander, N. and Ulkuniemi, P. (2006), “Marketing challenges in the software component business”, International Journal of Technology Marketing, Vol. 1 No. 4, pp. 375‐92.

Hill, J. (2001), “A multidimensional study of the key determinants of effective SME marketing activity: Part 1 and 2”, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, Vol. 7 No. 5/6, pp. 171‐235.

Hogarth Scott, S., Watson, K. and Wilson, N. (1996), “Do small businesses have to practise marketing to survive and grow?”, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 6‐18.

Hurley, R.F. and Hult, G.T.M. (1998), “Innovation, market orientation, and organizational learning: an integration and empirical examination”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 62 No. 3, pp. 42‐54.

Jones, R. and Rowley, J. (2009), “Marketing activities of companies in the educational software sector”, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 337‐54.

Keaveney, S.M. (2008), “The blame game: an attribution theory approach to marketer‐engineer conflict in high‐technology companies”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 37 No. 6, pp. 653‐63.

Keeble, D. (1997), “Small firms, innovation and regional development in Britain in the 1990s”, Regional Studies, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 281‐93.

Ko, K. (2005), “The trade‐off between R&D and marketing spending for high‐technology companies”, The Journal of American Academy of Business, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 59‐66.

Kulmala, H.I. and Uusi‐Rauva, E. (2005), “Network as a business environment: experiences from the software industry”, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Vol. 10 No. 3, pp. 169‐78.

Laforet, S. and Tann, J. (2006), “Innovative characteristics of small manufacturing firms”, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 363‐80.

Massey, G.R. and Kyriazis, E. (2007), “Interpersonal trust between marketing and R&D during new product development projects”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 41 Nos 9/10, pp. 146‐72.

Miles, M.A. and Huberman, A.M. (1994), Qualitative Data Analysis, 2nd ed., Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.

Mohr, J., Sengupta, S. and Slater, S. (2005), Marketing of High‐technology Products and Innovations, 2nd ed., Pearson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

O'Donnell, A. (2004), “The nature of networking in small firms”, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 206‐17.

O'Dwyer, M., Gilmore, A. and Carson, D. (2009), “Innovative marketing in SMEs”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 43 Nos 1/2, pp. 46‐61.

Ojasalo, J., Natti, S. and Olkkonen, R. (2008), “Brand building in software SMEs: an empirical study”, Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 17 No. 2, pp. 92‐107.

Owens, J.D. (2007), “Why do some UK SMEs still find the implementation of a new product development process problematical?”, Management Decision, Vol. 45 No. 2, pp. 235‐51.

Partanen, J., Moller, K., Westerlund, M., Rajala, R. and Rajala, A. (2008), “Social capital in the growth of science‐and‐technology‐based SMEs”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 37 No. 5, pp. 513‐22.

Rao, P.M. and Klein, J.A. (1994), “Growing importance of marketing strategies for the software industry”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 23 No. 1, pp. 29‐37.

Reijonen, H. (2010), “Do all SMEs practise same kind of marketing?”, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 17 No. 2, pp. 279‐93.

Romano, C.A. (1989), “Research strategies for small business: a case study approach”, International Small Business Journal, Vol. 7 No. 4, pp. 35‐43.

Ruokolainen, J. (2008), “Constructing the first customer reference to support the growth of a start‐up software technology company”, European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 283‐305.

Ruokolainen, J. and Makela, M.M. (2007), “Constructing a market domain model for start‐up software technology companies: a case study”, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 186‐202.

Ruokonen, M. and Saarenketo, S. (2009), “The strategic orientations of rapidly internationalizing software companies”, European Business Review, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 17‐41.

Salavou, H. (2004), “The concept of innovativeness: should we need to focus?”, European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 33‐44.

Scozzi, B., Garavelli, C. and Crowston, K. (2005), “Methods for modeling and supporting innovation processes in SMEs”, European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 120‐37.

Simpson, M. and Taylor, N. (2002), “The role and relevance of marketing in SMEs: towards a new model”, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 370‐82.

Simpson, M., Padmore, J., Taylor, N. and Frecknall‐Hughes, J. (2006), “Marketing in small and medium sized enterprises”, International Journal of Behaviour & Research, Vol. 12 No. 6, pp. 361‐87.

Stokes, D. (2000), “Putting entrepreneurship into marketing”, Journal of Research in Marketing & Entrepreneurship, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 361‐87.

Storey, D.J. (2000), Understanding the Small Business Sector, Thomson Learning, London.

Tersvioski, M. (2003), “The relationship between networking practices and business excellence: a study of small to medium enterprises (SMEs)”, Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 78‐92.

Thomke, S. and Von Hippel, E. (2002), “Customers as innovators”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 80 No. 4, pp. 74‐81.

Walker, O.C., Boyd, H.W. and Larreche, J.C. (1992), Marketing Strategy: Planning and Implementation, Irwin, Toronto.

Walsh, M.F. and Lipinski, J. (2009), “The role of the marketing function in small and medium sized enterprises”, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 569‐85.

Westerlund, M. and Svahn, S. (2008), “A relationship value perspective of social capital in networks of software SMEs”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 37 No. 5, pp. 492‐501.

Willig, C. (2008), Introducing Qualitative Research in Psychology, 2nd ed., Open University Press, Milton Keynes.

Yin, R.K. (1994), Case Study Research: Design and Methods, 2nd ed., Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Emerald

Tập 19 Số 4

712-728

Thông tin tác giả