ENTREPRENEURIAL MARKETING

ABSTRACT:
This paper furthers the conceptual development of entrepreneurial marketing
(EM) as theory. EM draws on the work of both marketing and entrepreneurship
scholars and has evolved primarily from the marketing management and
entrepreneurship literatures. Beginning with an overview of the different schools
of thought from which the concept of EM has evolved, this paper attempts to
outline and review the issues of EM that delineate it as a distinct area within the
discipline of marketing. The discussion presents three potential locus of EM
thought within the firm: vertical EM, horizontal EM, and EM as a temporal
phenomenon. Finally, in adopting Hunt's (2010) benchmarks that seek to verify
the existence of a distinct body of theory, the paper concludes that EM is
advancing towards theory construction.

PURPOSE:
The purpose of this paper is to present the author's view of the role of
entrepreneurial marketing (EM) as a strategy to address the dynamic marketing
environment of recent times.

Design/methodology/approach:
The author reflects on some significant marketing changes and provides some
contemporary example of companies that have successfully adopted EM
approaches and challenged traditional marketing wisdom.

Findings:
EM is best conceived not as a nexus between marketing and
entrepreneurship, but as an augmented process, where both the entrepreneur
and the customer are the core actors, co‐creating value within the marketing
environment.

Originality/value:
While this is an opinion piece, the paper provides evidence of how EM can be
adopted and applied by entrepreneurial firms and challenges marketers to
create and control their own‐marketing environment.
This paper furthers the conceptual development of entrepreneurial marketing
(EM) as theory. EM draws on the work of both marketing and entrepreneurship
scholars and has evolved primarily from the marketing management and
entrepreneurship literatures. Beginning with an overview of the different schools
of thought from which the concept of EM has evolved, this paper attempts to
outline and review the issues of EM that delineate it as a distinct area within the
discipline of marketing. The discussion presents three potential locus of EM
thought within the firm: vertical EM, horizontal EM, and EM as a temporal
phenomenon. Finally, in adopting Hunt's (2010) benchmarks that seek to verify
the existence of a distinct body of theory, the paper concludes that EM is
advancing towards theory construction.

PURPOSE:
The purpose of this paper is to present the author's view of the role of
entrepreneurial marketing (EM) as a strategy to address the dynamic marketing
environment of recent times.

Design/methodology/approach:
The author reflects on some significant marketing changes and provides some
contemporary example of companies that have successfully adopted EM
approaches and challenged traditional marketing wisdom.

Findings:
EM is best conceived not as a nexus between marketing and
entrepreneurship, but as an augmented process, where both the entrepreneur
and the customer are the core actors, co‐creating value within the marketing
environment.

Originality/value:
While this is an opinion piece, the paper provides evidence of how EM can be
adopted and applied by entrepreneurial firms and challenges marketers to
create and control their own‐marketing environment.