From Marketing – Broadening the Horizons by Stefan Lagrosen & Göran Svensson (eds.

)
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11 Entrepreneurial Marketing
By Gerald E. Hills and Claes M. Hultman

Introduction
During the last two decades a new area of marketing, Entrepreneurial Market-
ing, has increasingly gained attention in research as well as a subject for new
courses and new aspects of marketing.
In society we find a growing need for entrepreneurship, particularly as
economic growth has become a necessity in many countries. When large
corporations downsize and reduce staff, the small- and medium-sized enter-
prise sector (SMEs) becomes more important. It is now a recognised fact that
99.7 percent of all U.S. employers are classified as small, with 90 percent of
these businesses employing fewer than 20 people. SMEs contribute 50 per-
cent of private sector income, 54 percent of the private sector jobs in the U.S.
and most of the net new job growth. (U.S. Small Business Administration,
2004)
Until recently, marketing and entrepreneurship existed as two independ-
ent, scholarly domains. In the past decade, the growing quantity of entre-
preneurship research has led to a number of findings that improve market-
ing knowledge.
In general, marketing has focused on understanding the practices and
processes within large corporations. However, in parallel with a growing
interest in the SME sector and in entrepreneurial behaviour worldwide, the
marketing aspects of SMEs and entrepreneurship have also increased in
importance.
Entrepreneurial behaviour has traditionally been linked to the SME sector,
although entrepreneurial marketing also has a definite bearing on large cor-
porations. Today, many companies operate in a very turbulent environment
of increased risks and a diminishing ability to forecast. Organisational
boundaries have become unclear. More fluid organisational structures and
operations in networks are often characterised as a spider web. Traditional
management, planning and forecasting may become difficult, and some-
times even impossible.
In business environments like this, business leaders have to unlearn tradi-
tional management principles and replace them with new thinking and new
behaviour that not only incorporate change but also create the necessary
changes in the marketplace. Entrepreneurship may well be the vehicle for

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this and entrepreneurial marketing behaviour may be of the utmost impor-

tance for many large firms and SMEs alike.
Entrepreneurial marketing (EM) will be explored in this chapter. After pro-
viding an historic background of the field – the roots – the domain of EM
will be discussed and important aspects highlighted.

The Birth of New Research Stream

It is always difficult to identify the birth of a new research area! When does
it become established and academically legitimate?
One important step is when organised conferences and subsequent publi-
cations take place on a regular basis. The proceedings of Research in the Mar-
keting & Entrepreneurship Interface (Hills, Barnaby, and Duffus, 1983) were
published after a symposium that was jointly sponsored by the American
Marketing Association (AMA) and the International Council for Small Busi-
ness (ICSB) in 1983.
After a gap of a few years, symposia were organised in 1987. Since 1989,
symposia have been held regularly on an annual or twice-yearly basis. Some
of the papers presented at these symposia have been published.
Today, entrepreneurship tracks are held regularly. Examples include the
AMA’s Summer and Winter Educator’s Conference held in the USA, the
Academy of Marketing Conferences in the UK, and the ANZMAC meeting in
Australia and New Zealand. Two international meetings were organised
recently in Germany, which explicitly addressed Innovation, and the market-
ing and entrepreneurship interfaces. Substantial knowledge about entrepre-
neurial marketing is generated as a result of such conferences.
During the last decade, a number of textbooks have been published in the
field, such as:

• Marketing and Entrepreneurship – Research Ideas and Opportunities

(Hills, 1994)
• Marketing and Entrepreneurship in SMEs, An Innovative Approach (Car-
son et al., 1995)
• Entrepreneurial Marketing was launched at a course offered at Wharton
Business School (Lodish et al., 2001)
• Entrepreneurial Marketing: Successfully Challenging Market Convention
(Chaston, 2000)
• Small Business Marketing Management (Chaston and Mangles, 2002)
• Entrepreneurial Marketing – the Growth of Small Firms in the New Eco-
nomic Era (Bjerke and Hultman, 2002)

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An Entrepreneurial Approach to Marketing

Definitions of both marketing and entrepreneurship vary considerably and
we cannot expect to find one single definition of entrepreneurial marketing
that covers everything. In the early days, there were almost as many defini-
tions as there were researchers.
A contemporary definition that meets the present scope is that of Morris
et al. (2002, p. 5) in which entrepreneurial marketing is defined as: “the
proactive identification and exploitation of opportunities for acquiring and
retaining profitable customers through innovative approaches to risk man-
agement, resource leveraging and value creation.”
According to Carson (2005), entrepreneurial marketing research can be
categorised along a continuum, as illustrated in figure 11.1.
At one end of the continuum, we find the research regarding EM as an area
where the traditional marketing theories can be applied on small and
medium sized firms. Research at this end of the continuum advocate that
entrepreneurial firms utilise the same marketing thinking, which means
that research is within the same paradigm but applied differently when com-
pared to large firms. It is not a different theory – just a different application!
At the other end of the continuum, research focuses on the unique aspects
of entrepreneurial marketing. Such research has its base in entrepreneurial
behaviour and fast growing companies. Such firms can be clearly distin-
guished from the crowd of more traditionally oriented firms. With this per-
spective, entrepreneurial marketing is completely different from marketing
management in that it is not based on planning, linearity and rationality.
EM-behaviour can be explained by using traditional marketing concepts and
words, but can never be completely understood without including aspects of
entrepreneurship theory.
Today, few advocate the idea of entrepreneurial marketing as an area where
traditional marketing theory can be applied. A number of researchers claim

No Strong
paradigm paradigm

A continuum

Figure 11.1 Research in entrepreneurial marketing can be categorised along a continuum

ranging from research within existing mainstream marketing to research arguing for the
need of a new paradigm. Adapted from Carson 2005.

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that this is something fundamentally different. Hills (1995) writes that “It was
widely assumed in academia, even five years ago [about 1990], that SMEs just
required a simplified version of the more ‘sophisticated’ marketing practices
used by the largest companies. Now it is becoming apparent that marketing
in SMEs is fundamentally different and more successful in SMEs than in large
firms (not just a simplified version of the more “sophisticated” marketing
practices used by larger companies). This is partly because marketing imple-
mentation can be more important to success than planning and strategy”.
In observing entrepreneurial marketing behaviour1 it is clear that many
successful firms act differently from what can be expected by reading tradi-
tional marketing literature, especially American marketing management lit-
erature. Yet many of these firms are very successful.
Hills and Hultman (2005) have summarised several empirical studies of
entrepreneurial marketing behaviour by identifying a number of character-
istics of such behaviour:

• Marketing permeates all levels and functional areas of the firm

• Marketing decisions are linked to personal goals and long-time perform-
ance
• Flexible, customisation approach to market
• Speedy reaction to shifts in customer preference
• Exploit smaller market niches
• Customer knowledge based on market immersion/interaction
• Marketing tactics are often two-way with customers
• Planning, or lack of, occurs in short, incremental steps
• Vision and strategy are driven by tactical successes
• Founder and other personalities are central to marketing
• Marketing decisions based on daily contact and networks
• Formal market research is rare
• Focused on proactively creating and exploiting markets
• Inherent focus on recognition of opportunities
• Calculated risk taking in new ventures
• Reliance on intuition and experience
• Product/venture development is interactive, incremental, informal and
with little research/analysis
• A role for passion, zeal and commitment
• Strives to lead customers
• Value creation through relationships and alliances
• Marketing based on personal reputation, trust and credibility
• Innovation in products/services and strategies
• Heavy focus on selling and promotion

1
The term ‘entrepreneurial behaviour’ is used by Gardner (1994, pp. 38–39) ‘as the
broad term that includes entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, and entrepreneurial
organizations’.

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As we can see from the list, there are many discrepancies with large business
marketing as we know it from standard marketing textbooks. Some of these
findings, however, show strong correlations with other findings, especially
relationship marketing and network theory.
As Carson (1993) identifies, there are both similarities and dissimilarities
between entrepreneurial decision-making and formal marketing planning
and between management competencies and contact networks. Entrepre-
neurial decisions are inherently informal, haphazard, creative, opportunistic
and sometimes either reactive or proactive, whereas marketing decisions
tend to be formal, sequential, systems-oriented, disciplined and structured.
On the other hand, there are similarities in the construction and employ-
ment of personal contact networks between entrepreneurs and marketing
managers. Equally, some of the skills required by entrepreneurs are similar to
those required by competent marketing managers, such as analytical, judg-
mental and positive thinking, innovation and creativity.

Entrepreneurial Marketing Behaviour comes from Entrepreneurial Thinking

The entrepreneurial mind and its characteristics determine the domain of
entrepreneurial marketing. According to Miller & Friesen (1983) and Covin
& Slevin (1994) and in contrast to non-entrepreneurial managers, entrepre-
neurs have been viewed as:

• innovative
• calculated risk takers
• proactive
• opportunity-oriented (Kirzner, 1973).

These characteristics are underlying dimensions determining why entrepre-

neurial marketing is different from traditional marketing – as decided by
managers! Managers act differently and make decisions that are different to
those of entrepreneurs.
The rationale is that important aspects of the observed entrepreneurial
marketing behaviour are not in accordance with what is prescribed by man-
agerial marketing. Yet firms may be highly successful. Entrepreneurial mar-
keting theories contribute valuable and additional knowledge that enriches
the existing view of how marketing is to be performed. To put it very simplis-
tically, it is not the concept of the 4 – 7Ps that is different in entrepreneurial mar-
keting, but the content and the combination of the Ps applied to the market by
entrepreneurs as compared to managers, as illustrated in figure 11.2. Here it is
advocated that in some business environments, such as highly competitive
and turbulent markets, entrepreneurial marketing behaviour might be more
appropriate than in markets where the logic of economy of scale rules mar-
ket behaviour.

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Entrepreneurial Entrepreneurial
thinking marketing
• Proactive behaviour
• Risk-taking • Product
• Innovative • Place
• Opportunity • Promotion
oriented • Price
• Personnel
• Politics

Figure 11.2 Entrepreneurial marketing behaviour is determined by entrepreneurial think-

ing and decision-making.

SMEs Marketing and Entrepreneurial Marketing

Some authors see entrepreneurial marketing as being synonymous with
small business marketing. Kotler (2003, p. 4–5) identifies entrepreneurial
marketing based upon how marketing practices becomes more formalised.
Three stages of marketing practice are identified as organisations grow.
The first stage is entrepreneurial marketing. “Most companies are started by
individuals who live by their wits. They visualize an opportunity and knock
on every door to gain attention. Kotler presents a good example of how an
entrepreneur becomes successful without a large communication budget:
Jim Koch, founder of Boston Beer Company, whose Samuel Adams beer has
become a top-selling “craft” beer, starting out in 1984 carrying bottles of
Samuel Adams from bar to bar to persuade bartenders to carry it. For 10 years
he couldn’t afford an advertising budget; he sold his beer through direct
sales and grassroots public relations. Today his business pulls in $210 mil-
lion, making it the leader in the craft beer market.”
Later and in a more mature stage, marketing practices become formulated
marketing. Kotler continues: “As small companies achieve success, they inev-
itably move toward more formulated marketing. Boston Beer now spends
considerable sums on TV advertising, employs dozens of salespeople, and
carries on sophisticated marketing research. It has discovered that continued
success requires setting up and managing a capable marketing department.”
Finally, organisations get just too much of the formulated marketing prac-
tices. “These companies lack the creativity and passion of the guerrilla mar-
keters in the entrepreneurial stage. Their brand and product managers need
to get out of the office. Start living with their customers, and visualize new
ways to add value to their customers’ lives.” Such firms need intrepreneurial
marketing!

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In Kotler’s text, entrepreneurial marketing is related to the first develop-

ment phase where the level of entrepreneurship is high and the degree of
formalisation of marketing practices is low (because such practices have not
yet been developed). With a definition of entrepreneurial marketing as pre-
sented in this chapter, it is regarded as something broader. As firms grow, the
degree of formalisation normally gets higher, because as more and more peo-
ple become involved, standardised routines become increasingly necessary.
However, entrepreneurship may be independent of growth and may either
decrease or remain at a high level for a considerable length of time.
In order to understand the differences, a parallel can be drawn to the dis-
cipline of entrepreneurship. Within entrepreneurship, it is often claimed
that there is a fundamental difference between entrepreneurial firms and
SMEs in general. In essence, the difference is related to entrepreneurial
behaviour. Many firms start small and stay that way as the owner/manager is
neither motivated nor oriented towards growth. Such firms are sometimes
called lifestyle firms, because their business behaviour is related to the man-
ager’s personal motivation in terms of money and lifestyle. When personal
goals are fulfilled, the motivation for further expansion is lost, and the firm
maintains its level of operation.
Other firms do indeed grow and a striving for growth permeates all their
thinking and actions. Such firms continue to grow. A good example is IKEA.
The founder, Ingvar Kamprad, continues to strive for growth as a lifetime
entrepreneur.
The latter category of firms is regarded as entrepreneurial. The mere fact
that such firms grow more than others in the same industry make them different
and they do act differently in comparison to their less successful competi-
tors! Entrepreneurial firms grow and expand and need to introduce formal-
ised routines, although they may still be entrepreneurial and practice entre-
preneurial marketing as defined later in this chapter.
The same distinction can be made about SME-marketing as compared to
entrepreneurial marketing. The latter is related to growth and entrepreneur-
ial behaviour, while small business marketing is related to marketing behav-
iour in SMEs, regardless of their entrepreneurial status.
Before this is explored in any detail, the interface between marketing and
entrepreneurship will be penetrated and the concept of innovation included
in the discussion.

The Theoretical Interface of Entrepreneurial Marketing

A fruitful way of understanding the subject is to regard entrepreneurial mar-
keting as an interface between marketing and entrepreneurship – a union
where the two academic disciplines share common applications and norma-
tive statements.

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Gardner (1994, p. 37) states that a general definition of an interface is:

‘that area at which any two systems or disciplines share the same concepts,
objectives, and goal-oriented behaviour’. Examples of this definition include
consumer behaviour, in which marketing and the behavioural sciences focus
on the individual consumer in a purchase/consumption decision frame-
work. Marketing management is another example of an interface between
marketing and management, paying special attention to how managers
should behave in order to manage marketing successfully.
From this stance, we can begin to understand the interface and influence
that entrepreneurial behaviour has on marketing, and vice versa. Research in
this theoretical interface seeks to bring together the disciplines of marketing
and entrepreneurship. In treating them as one, examining the fundamental
characteristics of each discipline and focusing on their commonalities and
differences, the objective is to provide an innovative approach to marketing.
This interface has distinct areas of difference and overlap (Collinson 2002;
Omura et al. 1993). Differences occur between traditional marketing man-
agement, which operates in a consistent environment where market condi-
tions are continuous and the firm is satisfying clearly perceived customer
needs, and pure entrepreneurship, which operates in an uncertain environ-
ment where market conditions are not continuous and the needs of the mar-
ket are still unclear.
On the other hand, overlaps exist in many areas. One such overlap is
where market conditions are continuous and entrepreneurship aids the
process of identifying as yet unperceived needs. Another overlap occurs in a
discontinuous market, where entrepreneurship guides marketing strategy in
order to develop the existing needs in a new environment.
Both subjects are change-focused, opportunistic in nature and innovative
in their approach to management (Collinson and Shaw, 2001). They are also
essentially process-based and market-driven Carson et al. (1995).
Many of the actions undertaken by the entrepreneur are key concepts in
marketing theory, which suggest that successful marketing is undertaken by
firms that identify new opportunities, apply innovative techniques to bring
the product/service to the marketplace and successfully meet the needs of
their chosen target market.

Innovation as Part of the Interface

Innovation was quickly identified as a key element in the interface. Innova-
tion is seen as the phenomenon or process that commercialises inventions.
Gardner (1994, p. 37) proposes that “… the interface of entrepreneurial
behaviour and marketing is that where innovation is brought to market.
Marketing’s role in innovation, then, is to provide the concepts, tools, and
infrastructure to close the gap between innovation and market positioning
to achieve sustainable competitive advantages.”

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If we look at the problem from the other side, innovations may be seen as
the tool that provokes change on the market. Provided that an innovation sup-
plies potential buyers with better value than existing solutions, it can be used to
provoke change! In fact we find many examples of entrepreneurial firms that
gain and grow through the intentional use of innovations.

Marketing Entrepreneurship

Innovation

Figure 11.3 The theoretical interface between marketing, entrepreneurship and inno-
vation is the research field for Entrepeneurial marketing.

Change and Disruptive Behaviour

A central aspect of entrepreneurial marketing is the ability to deal with
change – especially the capability to master change to one’s own advantage.
The idea of using change as a tool for creating disruptive effects on stable
markets is not new. Ansoff (1984, p 180) states that rather than seeking to
preserve the past, the entrepreneurial organisation strives for continuous
change in the status quo. Ansoff contrasts entrepreneurial behaviour with
the more typical incremental behaviour of the organisation. Many organisa-
tions behave entrepreneurial, in a deliberate search for growth through change!
Gardner (1994, p. 51) states that a second but imperative message is that
the interface is, and must be, dynamic. It is certainly not static. Two factors
account for the dynamic nature of the interface. The first is the obvious
nature of the product life cycle and the entrepreneurial response to those
changes. As innovation proves successful, it attracts imitations and compe-
tition, both of which are accompanied by demands for growth and further
opportunities. The second factor is the very turbulence of the market itself.
Gardner continues by saying that the key to dealing with the dynamics of
this interface is to understand the critical success factors at each and every
stage of the life cycle of the innovation and to acquire the flexibility and

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capability to anticipate and evolve in the often rapidly changing environ-

ment.
Here researchers talk about the interface as a new paradigm in marketing.
Carson (1995) argues that although research at the interface is perhaps still
in the discovery phase, it has progressed sufficiently to be perceived as being
uniquely different from either the marketing discipline or the entrepreneur-
ship discipline.
By bringing perspectives from the three areas of marketing, entrepreneur-
ship and innovation together, the resulting interface is the arena for research
in entrepreneurial marketing. The aim is to understand how successful entre-
preneurial organisations, by actions taken on dynamic markets, create con-
tinuous growth over very long periods. In essence, the interface is about mar-
keting that is disequilibrium-provoking, innovative, opportunity driven/
seeking and uses change as a tool for growth.

The Strategic use of Schumpeter & Kirzner in Marketing

Omura et al. (1994, p. 169) define the marketing/entrepreneurship/innova-
tion interface using both a Kirznerian and a Schumpeterian view of entrepre-
neurship. In conclusion they state that their framework indicates that mar-
keting and entrepreneurship have distinct domains. Traditional marketing
precludes, since it is reactive to opportunities in the market. Entrepreneur-
ship is proactive in that it creates needs. It operates on or causes disequilibria
conditions and thereby causes disequilibria in the market. The hybrid positions
of traditional marketing and pure entrepreneurship, opportunistic M/E
Interface and Strategic M/E Interface constitute the Interface between Mar-
keting and Entrepreneurship. This is an important starting point for a dis-
cussion of gaining competitive advantage from an entrepreneurial market-
ing perspective.
In mainstream marketing, the most established strategies for gaining com-
petitive advantage emerge from Ansoff (1957) and Porter (1980). Ansoff’s
famous product/market matrix results in four different alternatives:

• market penetration
• market development
• product development
• diversification

From Porter (1980) we have learned four similar, although different, generic
marketing strategies:

• overall cost leadership

• product differentiation
• cost focus
• differentiation focus

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These strategies all start with the seller’s perspective and principal; the pur-
pose being to be a player with a stable and dominant position in the market.
A different view of how to gain competitive advantage can be derived from
Schumpeter and Kirzner. Schumpeter’s (1934) view is that the entrepreneur
creates imbalances in an economy by introducing innovations that destabi-
lise the existing balance in the market. Kirzner (1973; 1979) holds the oppo-
site view in that an entrepreneur is someone with an ability to see opportu-
nities that other people do not see. By exploring unexplored opportunities,
or niches to use marketing vocabulary, the entrepreneur reduces existing
imperfections in an economy.
In order to develop the argument further the concept of customer value
must be introduced. Entrepreneurial marketing, like marketing in general,
can be seen in terms of value creation processes. In fact, creating something
that buyers can use to produce own customer value, the offer to the market,
can be regarded as the ultimate purpose of marketing (Bjerke and Hultman,
2002). In all stable markets, certain levels of perceived customer value, or the
differentiation of customer value between sellers, have become established;
the value balance. Customers have expectations, and if those are met,
repeated buys will occur and the sellers will maintain their market positions.
A traditional market strategy is to become a dominant player and establish a
level of expected customer value that the firm can exploit with profit. Another way
of expressing this is that the dominant firm must set the rules of the game
between sellers and buyers. One of the main strategies in maintaining com-
petitive advantage is to take actions that stabilise the market as much as pos-
sible and exploit the economies of scale in one’s own production.
The intentional and repeated use of innovations to destabilise the value
balance in a market is a Schumpetarian interpretation of an entrepreneurial
strategy. The purpose is of course to challenge the existing value expecta-
tions by delivering better customer value through innovations. Playing by
the rules in the entrepreneurial way is regarded as the kirznerian strategy
and within the existing value balance identifying and exploiting unexplored
needs and niches, as illustrated in figure 11.4.

Value Logic (Schumpeterian dimension)

Old/same New/better

Existing Traditional Change existing

niches marketing value balance
Opportunity
Kirznerian dimension
Unexplored Adapt to existing Set a new
niches value balance and value balance
create new niches

Figure 11.4 Entrepreneurial marketing growth directions.

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A Proposed Structure of Entrepreneurial Marketing for

Today?
The previous discussion has highlighted the complexity of contemporary
research and indicated the difficulty of identifying a clear-cut and distinct
domain for entrepreneurial and small business marketing. In order to facili-
tate comprehension of the field, a structure of the existing research is sug-
gested.
There are three comparatively distinct groups of existing thoughts, empir-
ical observations and emerging theories within the entrepreneurial domain:

• marketing in SMEs and in the early stages of an organisation’s develop-

ment
• as an umbrella for a number of existing marketing techniques and meth-
ods
• a strategic orientation for gaining competitive advantage

First of all, entrepreneurial marketing can be viewed as marketing in early

developmental stages. In this sense, entrepreneurial and small business
management are synonymous. We know from research that such marketing
is very informal, reflects the owner’s personality and personal goals, is done
with limited resources, often without formal planning and market analyses
and is also linked to the owner’s personal network. It is often, but not
always, innovative and opportunity driven. We prefer to call this SME-mar-
keting.
Entrepreneurial marketing is much more complex, however, and inked to
marketing in highly competitive and dynamic environments. As Morris
et al. (1992) state: “For our purposes, entrepreneurial marketing is proposed
as an integrative construct for conceptualising marketing in an era of
change, complexity, chaos, contradiction, and diminishing resources, and
one that will manifest itself differently as companies age and grow. It fuses
key aspects of recent developments in marketing thought and practice with
those in the entrepreneurship area into one comprehensive construct.”
Within such perspective entrepreneurial marketing there are a number of
existing methods which can be seen as an umbrella for a number of market-
ing techniques or methods such as:

• Neo-marketing: the basic rule is to break the old rules.

• Subversive marketing (Bonoma, 1986): refers to the need for marketers to
undermine company structure and process in order to implement innova-
tive marketing structures.
• Environmental marketing (Zeithamel and Zeithamel, 1986): marketing the-
ory should explicitly adopt a proactive, entrepreneurial orientation to the
management of environmental conditions. There is a need to lead cus-
tomers and markets and to redefine critical aspects of the external operat-

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ing environment. They provide taxonomy of environmental manage-

ment strategies and link these strategies to financial analyses and stages in
the product life cycle.
• Proactive marketing (Davis, Morris and Allen 1991): marketing practices
related to environmental conditions. In times of calm, firms can concen-
trate on incremental improvements and satisfying existing customers’
needs. When there are stronger interdependencies among firms, market-
ers should pay more attention to anticipating and quickly responding to
the moves of competitors. In turbulent environments, managers need to
introduce higher levels of entrepreneurship into organisations.
• Expeditionary marketing (Hamel and Pralad, 1992): the role of marketers to
stay ahead of competitors. Marketing serves to identify the unarticulated
needs of customers and the new potential functionalities of products,
extending the firms’ “opportunity horizon”. Marketers must also lead cus-
tomers.
• Chaos marketing (Nilson, 1995): marketing in highly dynamic (chaotic)
markets.
• Radical marketing (Hill and Rifkin, 1999): describes a set of approaches that
are seen as challenging the status quo or immutable laws of marketing.
• Guerrilla marketing (Levinson 1993): bootstrapping, creative use of availa-
ble resources and a highly targeted mix of innovative communication
techniques. The third, and perhaps the most promising stream of
research, covers the strategic orientation of firms, which – regardless of
size – use entrepreneurship intentionally in order to sharpen and vitalise
the organisation’s competitive advantage.

On foundations laid by Edith Penrose (1959), a focus on internal resources as

the base for gaining competitive advantage has received strong acceptance.
These resources must continuously be bundled, re-bundled, refined and
tuned into innovative and dynamic capabilities (see for example Schulz and
Hofer, 1999). In stable environments that can be forecasted, such processes
can be manageable and performed by managers. In a turbulent and chang-
ing environment, this is an entrepreneurial process with the ultimate pur-
pose of continuously creating and improving the potential customer value
(Bjerke and Hultman, 2002; Morgan et al., 2005). As mentioned previously,
Schumpeter (1934) and Kirzner (1979) can be interpreted as indicating how
to transfer the capabilities into competitive position on a market.

Some Final Words

So far, much of the research is still in a phase of emergence and it is probably
wise to maintain an eclectic position on the different streams of entrepre-

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neurial marketing. Carson (2005) elegantly summarises the discussion of

separate standpoints and at the same time indicate directions for the future:
“I think we need a holistic interpretation of the domain, rather than focus-
ing on an ‘either / or’ scenario. It is important to realize that, although the
SME is an important part of the domain, it does not preclude research into
issues in the larger firm, as well. Therefore, the domain has the potential to
embrace issues at the corporate level right down to one person businesses.”
In the last century, marketing has developed over a wide range of perspec-
tives and research buzzwords. Since the Second World War transactions,
relationship and managerial aspects have been in focus. It is now time to
focus on competitive advantage and value creation in highly competitive
and dynamic markets.
Finally, it is important to state that, looking at entrepreneurial marketing
from a general marketing perspective, it must be regarded as supplementary to
existing theories. The area is not revolutionary in the sense that existing mar-
keting perspectives are regarded as being obsolete! But entrepreneurial firms,
large as well as SMEs, represent a substantial and growing part of the econ-
omy. The marketing behaviour of such firms needs to be considered within
marketing and as advocated in this chapter; such research has a lot to con-
tribute to the development of modern marketing theory.
Future research will expose what kind of influence mainstream marketing
theory and business behaviour entrepreneurial marketing will have. Market
competition and turbulence can be expected to increase. Present trends,
such as more technological developments as well as reduced costs for R&D
and manufacturing, offer opportunities to new players and aggressive entre-
preneurial firms. Depending on their ability to exploit the new trends, busi-
nesses can be expected to grow and increase their profits.

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