Geoffrey A. Lancaster

A marketing strategy for public sector organisations compelled to operate in a compulsory competitive tendering environment

This article is concerned with entrepreneurial behaviour and the use of marketing by architectural professionals and their business colleagues in building services as a response to the extension of Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CTT) in the UK. CTT is where the functions of the operational divisions under local jurisdiction are offered for tender. Such tenders may be awarded to either private sector operators or the existing in‐house team. The underlying assumption by Central Government is that the outcome will be beneficial to the final consumer through, as a minimum, reduced operating costs. An appropriate academic environment in which to analyse the situation is that suggested by the marketing/ entrepreneurship interface.

Entrepreneurship and the small to medium sized enterprise: a divergent / convergent paradox in thinking patterns between advisers and SME owner managers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to suggest a framework for competing theories of entrepreneurship but to argue for transparency in ones attempts to understand this phenomenon. Then to argue that, when matching small business advisers to small business, one should consider their entrepreneurial abilities and match as appropriate. A parsimonious method is suggested to measure entrepreneurial ability – divergent thinking.Design/methodology/approach – A discussion of entrepreneurship and a proposed matrix that considers the relative entrepreneurial abilities of both partners and is then expanded to account for different decision scenarios.Findings – A simple test for divergent thinking is suggested to measure entrepreneurship, applied to some hypothetical scenarios, and is supported by some broad evidence on the relationship between small businesses and commercial banks.Research limitations/implications – At this stage a conceptual article but with real implications for managing SME and adviser relati...

A scheme to increase profitability in entrepreneurial SMEs

Purpose – This article aims to demonstrate how small entrepreneurial firms can employ low cost market research techniques in the area of service evaluation to prioritise the sales effort, increase sales and improve margins.Design/methodology/approach – “Triangulation” has been used. Secondary data included academic sources and internal company records. Primary data included exploratory depth interviews and group discussions, a questionnaire‐based survey and the construction of case studies.Findings – It can be seen from the case study results presented that a customer service appreciation survey can yield useful and actionable information, which can be used creatively by entrepreneurs to bring about significant improvements in business performance in a short space of time.Research limitations/implications – It would have been better if more extensive data were available on customers to allow for more sophisticated quota sampling controls.Practical implications – A model of small firm growth is discussed a...

Moving towards a control technique to help small firms monitor and control key marketing parameters: a survival aid

This article considers that one way to help the small‐ and medium‐sized enterprise (SME) to survive is to offer it a robust but simple monitoring and control technique that would help it manage the business effectively and this, in turn, should help to increase its chances of survival. This technique should also be of interest to all people involved with monitoring or advising a large number of small enterprises or business units within a larger organization. For example, a bank manager or a small business consultant responsible for a portfolio of firms. The authors utilize process control techniques more often used in production and inventory control systems to demonstrate how one might monitor the marketing “health” of small firms.