Gerald E. Hills

The Evolution and Development of Entrepreneurial Marketing

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the evolution of entrepreneurial marketing (EM). First an historical perspective of the evolution of EM is offered and some central incidents are identified. Further, empirical indications of small and medium‐sized firm marketing behavior are reported and analyzed. Some distinctive differences between EM and administrative focused marketing are identified. This paper provides future scholars with a summary of how EM has evolved into a potential new school of marketing thought and offers several issues that should stimulate future research in EM.

Research at Marketing Interface to Advance Entrepreneurship Theory

The knowledge base for the emerging field of entrepreneurship should be interfunctional and interdisciplinary. Yet the functional discipline of marketing has contributed to the entrepreneurship field in only recent years. And entrepreneurship researchers and writers often address marketing superficially, without an awareness of sophisticated marketing concepts and methods. The objectives of this article are to identify key tangencies at the marketing/entrepreneurship interface, to provide relevant research sources, and to selectively convey illustrative marketing knowledge. Because length constraints prevent In-depth attention to any subject, breadth over depth is our objective. There are three major sections in this paper. First, the marketing/entrepreneurship interface is defined, with attention to various schools of marketing thought and their potential value to the entrepreneurship field. Secondly, unique tangencies with the buyer behavior literature are discussed and venture ideas and their evaluation (product research) are highlighted. Finally, the marketing strategy literature is reviewed as it potentially contributes to new venture development. In addition, other Important interfaces are briefly discussed.

The Marketing/ Small Enterprise Paradox: A Research Agenda

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.

A multidimensional examination of a creativity‐based opportunity recognition model

Purpose – This paper seeks to detail an exploratory examination of a multidimensional, creativity‐based theoretical model of opportunity recognition originally proposed by Hills et al. and later refined by Lumpkin et al., but never empirically tested. The paper also aims to examine the relationship between individual dimensions of the model and creativity.Design/methodology/approach – Analyses were conducted using AMOS software on a sample of 145 entrepreneurs. One structural equation model (SEM) and three confirmatory factor analysis models were tested.Findings – The five‐dimensional model – consisting of preparation, incubation, insight, evaluation, and elaboration – was determined to be the best fitting model. The SEM model also indicated that incubation and elaboration were significantly related to creativity. Overall, a multidimensional, creativity‐based approach to modeling opportunity recognition is supported by this study.Research limitations/implications – Cross‐sectional data do not allow for te...

The entrepreneurial marketing domain: a citation and co-citation analysis

Purpose – Entrepreneurial marketing (EM) is at the brink of becoming an established discipline. To advance the field further and to better guide research efforts in different sub categories, the purpose of this paper is to examine the field’s intellectual structure with the help of citation and co-citation analysis. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on a two-stage research design. First a citation analysis is carried out through which thematic clusters are identified. In a second step a co-citation analysis is conducted to determine the intellectual structure of EM research. Findings – This study exposes the most influential authors and publications and emphasizes conjunctions among scholars and their findings. Results show three streams that are the foundation of EM research: theoretical foundations of management, entrepreneurship, and marketing; the research interface of marketing and entrepreneurship; SME and new venture marketing. Research limitations/implications – The results of a bibliometric analysis are limited by the publications that have been selected as a starting point. However, through the selection criteria chosen to identify the database for analysis, the authors are confident that the results illustrate the intellectual structure of EM research in its entirety. The authors recommend that future research should be conducted in one of the three sub-fields identified in this study. Practical implications – By laying out different research streams within EM it is hoped that future research will be guided in different directions. “Fine-tuning” of research efforts will benefit small, new, and entrepreneurial firms. Originality/value – The analyses conducted in this paper draw a picture of the field that is based on a quantitative approach and therefore sets itself apart from other literature reviews that have a qualitative core.

Examining the Role of Social Network Size and Structural Holes

This study examines the importance of social network size and structural holes within the network to the entrepreneurial opportunity recognition process.

Academic Roots: The Past and Present of Entrepreneurial Marketing

Abstract Research in entrepreneurial marketing is about 30 years old. During this period research has followed many trajectories. Two important but divergent routes are small business marketing and entrepreneurial marketing, mirroring the discourse of small businesses versus entrepreneurial firms. Today, small business marketing and entrepreneurial marketing are regarded as separatebut relatedresearch fields. Entrepreneurial marketing research has been very open-minded towards different approaches in methodology, especially compared to research within mainstream marketing in the US. During this rather long period of time, advances in other disciplines have been beneficial for our own research. One such example is the development of effectuation theory allowing us to understand entrepreneurial decision-making and, consequently, important aspects of entrepreneurial marketing behaviour. Many of the research questions regarded as important by scholars in a panel in 1986 when interest in marketing and entrepreneurship was evolvingare still regarded as important (e.g. new venture growth). Other issues have lost their relevance. But, overall, many important questions still are waiting for an answer and the whole field of entrepreneurial marketing offers tremendous research opportunities.

Research in marketing and entrepreneurship: a retrospective viewpoint

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon 13 years of the Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship and developments in the field over that period.Design/methodology/approach – The authors reflect upon the past and future of the marketing and entrepreneurship discipline.Findings – There is an abundance of important research questions to fuel faculty and PhD student research for years to come.Originality/value – This paper has value as a reflective piece which goes on to pose research questions of the future.

Industry Differences in Opportunity Recognition

This exploratory study examines differences in opportunity recognition by industry. A sample of 142 entrepreneurs completed a detailed questionnaire. Certain differences by industry were in the product, firm and respondents’ characteristics as well as in opportunity recognition processes, especially in regards to innovation and level of creativity. In addition, there was a very clear, significant relationship between level of creativity and the number of opportunities identified and pursued across industries. The implications of this is that future research that involves creativity, such as using the creativity‐based model provided by Lumpkin et al. (2003), should include industry in the analysis.

Entrepreneurial marketing behaviours: impact of firm age, firm size and firm’s founder

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically test whether a systematic relationship exists between firms’ level of entrepreneurial marketing (EM) behaviours and firms’ characteristics, including firm age, firm size and firm’s founder. Design/methodology/approach This paper quantitatively investigates EM behaviours from data collected from 752 business owners through structured interviews. The data analysis applied was multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (multi-group CFA). Findings Results from the analysis show that not all of the firms’ characteristics determine firms’ level of EM practice. The level of EM behaviours has a systematic relationship with firms’ age but not with the founding status of the firms’ manager. The impact of firm size on the level of EM behaviours is evident only when the firms’ age is taken into account. Research limitations/implications This paper concludes that relationships between EM behaviours and firm characteristics are more complicated than anticipated. Firms’ characteristics alone may not be a good measure for identifying the level of a firm’s EM. EM cannot be conceptualized solely in relation to the activities of small firms, young firms or founder-operated firms. Originality/value This paper examines EM behaviours in a large survey and uses multi-group CFA to examine firms’ EM practice through latent variables, instead of observed variables. The findings should complement knowledge regarding the EM concept generated from existing literature.