The Marketing/ Small Enterprise Paradox: A Research Agenda

Abstract

Charles H. Davis is Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Citadel, USA. Dr. Davis is actively involved in various small business research efforts. Gerald E. Hills is Professor of Marketing and holder of the Denton Thorne Chair in Small Business Enterprise at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research efforts have focused on new venture creation issues. Raymond W. LaForge is Associate Professor of Marketing at Oklahoma State University. Dr. LaForge has concentrated his attention toward investigating marketing strategy differences between small and large firms.

Research during the past decade has documented the important role of smaller firms in American society. Yet those in the marketing discipline have devoted little attention to the size of enterprise in various strategic marketing situations. The need to include small firms in marketing strategy research projects is discussed, and a number of specific propositions to guide initial small enterprise marketing strategy research efforts are presented. The paper concludes with a discussion of problems and approaches relevant to performing small firm marketing strategy research.