Entrepreneurial marketing practices and challenges: development of a pedagogy model

• Main Author: Amjad, Tayyab
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English; English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: HB615-715 Entrepreneurship. Risk and uncertainty. Property; HF5001-6182 Business
• Online Access: https://etd.uum.edu.my/9278/1/s902614_01.pdf; https://etd.uum.edu.my/9278/2/s902614_02.pdf; https://etd.uum.edu.my/9278/3/s902614_references.docx; https://etd.uum.edu.my/9278/
• Institution: Universiti Utara Malaysia

Small and medium enterprise and entrepreneurship development are highly pivotal to economic growth. Small and medium enterprise is one of the largest economic sectors globally, whereas, marketing is one of the greatest challenges faced by small and medium enterprise entrepreneurs. The research in small and medium enterprise marketing, also commonly referred as entrepreneurial marketing, has progressed rapidly over the last decade, however, the theoretical developments in entrepreneurial marketing domain are inadequate as yet. Due to this, higher education institutions are also using outdated curricula to teach entrepreneurial marketing, as theoretical developments contribute towards the development of curricula. Moreover, pedagogical choices of business schools for entrepreneurship education are also mismatched with the practical entrepreneurial needs. Thus, a wide theory/pedagogy-practice gap has emerged in the domain of entrepreneurial marketing, due to which, graduates are lacking in practical entrepreneurial marketing skills that are required for the survival of small and medium enterprise ventures. To bridge this gap, the current research is aimed at: 1) exploring entrepreneurial marketing practices of graduate entrepreneurs during the start-up phase, 2) exploring entrepreneurial marketing challenges faced by graduate entrepreneurs during the start-up phase, and, 3) developing a practical model of entrepreneurial marketing pedagogy. For first two explorations, the current study has used a purely qualitative method i.e., the case study in which four small and medium enterprises owned and managed by graduate entrepreneurs were studied. The first exploration has foregrounded 11 entrepreneurial marketing dimensions, as well as how entrepreneurs practice each dimension within their network, thus, making significant theoretical developments. The second exploration has foregrounded two types of entrepreneurial marketing challenges i.e., social and educational. Using educational challenges, a practically implementable entrepreneurial marketing pedagogy model is developed to achieve the third objective, which is also the major and practical contribution of current study.