Research at the Marketing/Entrepreneurship Interface

Citation

Hills, G.E., Hansen, D.J. and Merrilees, B. (2004), "Research at the Marketing/Entrepreneurship Interface", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 10 No. 1/2, pp. 164-165. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552550410521434

This is the very latest edition, the 14th, released in 2003, in a very long series of publications of the same title to emerge from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Edited by Gerry Hills, David Hensen and Bill Merrilees, it is a rich compendium of cutting edge research articles at the marketing/entrepreneurship interface. This focus on the interface between the two subject areas, which has been sustained since 1987, when the first edition was published, has sought to challenge the ways in which researchers in marketing and in entrepreneurship approach the practice of marketing in the context of the entrepreneurial new venture or small firm. Researchers at the interface, it seems, have rejected the idea that entrepreneurial new ventures or small firms are simply “little big businesses”. They have sought to examine what is peculiar about their circumstances and to explore the many different ways that they practice marketing. The view, it appears, is that theories and models developed in the context of larger organisations are inappropriate in the context of the entrepreneurial new venture and small firm.

The papers presented in this volume, are probably best described, for the most part as “work‐in‐progress”. Notwithstanding this, all have been subjected to a supportive but none‐the‐less rigorous “double‐blind refereeing” process from within the marketing/entrepreneurship, (M&E) special interest group, (SIG) community. The papers were originally presented at meetings of the SIG researching at the M&E interface held in the US and Australia. They were presented by researchers from around the globe researching in the area, from North America, Europe, the Middle East and Australasia. Authors of the many papers published in this compendium are actively encouraged to develop their work further for publication in leading entrepreneurship journals.

The format for the presentation of material follows a standard set for this production since its launch in 1987. There are eight sections in this volume, addressing “marketing and entrepreneurship: conceptions”, strategic marketing and planning”, “opportunity recognition”, “innovation/product development”, “e‐commerce and marketing”, “global marketing”, “francising” and “entrepreneurship contributions”. Under each section there are at least four papers on topics pertinent to that section, providing the reader with 42 papers in total. Some examples of the papers in the book are as follows. Two papers in the first section for example are titled “Methodological individualism as the economic core of the small firm marketing interface” and “Temporal issues related to marketing at the entrepreneurship interface: the high technology case”. Both papers question traditional approaches to researching marketing practices within entrepreneurial small firms and seek to provide new ways to understand them. In the first paper, for example, David Gibson from the University of Newcastle in the UK suggests an alternate economic framework in which multi‐disciplinary understandings of decision‐making processes can be accommodated without discarding the economic imperative of marketing. In the second paper, Bob Schwartz of Eastern Washington University and Richard Teach of Georgia Institute of Technology seek to extend the use of interpoint distance methodology to compare factor structures of marketing strategies of entrepreneurial technology firms at two points in time.

In the section under “Opportunity recognition” another interesting paper is by Debra Malewicki and Gerry Hills of the University of Illinois at Chicago, titled “Factors affecting development of perceived new product opportunities: licensing versus venturing”. In their paper the authors sought to gain insights to whether the factors that predispose individuals to pursue one course of action over another can be identified at an early stage in the decision making process and if so what those factors might be. In the global marketing section David Crick and Shiv Chaudry from the University of Central England and Robert Bradshaw from DeMontfort University in England presented the results of their research into the overseas marketing practices of “successful” UK firms, providing findings from a survey of “Queens Award for Export” winners. Using multivariate quantitative analysis the research demonstrated that there were limited statistical differences between the performance and competitiveness of two groups drawn from the successful firms. The two groups were made up of firms that concentrated their approach on key overseas markets as opposed to firms that spread their efforts over a number of markets.

It's impossible to give full coverage to the amount of material available to researchers in this volume. Whether the researcher is interested in work being done at the M/E interface or not there is still a lot that is of value here. The literature reviewed in each of the papers, the rigor with which the research is carried out and reported, the way that issues are distilled and presented along with a useful agenda for future research must make this volume and the 13 other volumes, for that matter, a valuable addition to any university's library. Yes, as work‐in‐progress, many of the papers are rough at the edges and in need of working up to a higher standard, but that doesn't detract from their value. The vast majorities however are clearly advanced in terms of their development and can be seen to be close in terms of the potential as publications. One major gripe I have is that this volume is really late to the market. Most of the research reported was carried out in the late 1990s, into 2000. To be only receiving it in 2003 is disappointing. The Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies is based at the University of Chicago in Illinois, the particular details are, University of Chicago, College of Business Administration, 601 South Morgan Street, Suite 709 Chicago, IL 60607‐7107, USA. The ISBN for this particular volume is ISBN 1‐884058‐13‐2. You might want to contact Professor Gerry Hills there who hold the Coleman Denton Chair in Entrepreneurship.