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

Abstract

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.

Citation

Kilenthong, P., Hultman, C.M. and Hills, G.E. (2016), "Entrepreneurial marketing behaviours: impact of firm age, firm size and firm’s founder", Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 127-145. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRME-05-2015-0029