Marketing activities management in SMEs: An exploratory study

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Fu, Yan-Kai

Affiliations: Department of Business Administration, China University of Science and Technology, No. 245, Sec. 3, Academia Rd., Nankang, Taipei, 115 Taiwan, R.O.C. Tel.: +886 2 27821862 213; Fax: +886 2 27864984; E-mail: yankaifu@cc.cust.edu.tw

Abstract: For many years, marketing activities management was mostly found in marketing textbooks or in articles focusing on large organizations in Western contexts. However, it is becoming apparent that the basic principles and practices that apply in one specific surrounding may not necessarily be relevant and applicable in another. To fill this gap, this paper examines marketing activities in Eastern business environments. In addition, no published study has examined whether an employee's involvement in marketing activities management is affected by that employee's level within the general hierarchy of marketing managers, and existing scales lack measures for constructs in marketing activities management that are of interest in this study. To provide appropriate scales for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), a questionnaire was devised to measures sales (channel) managers' degree of participation in marketing activities. The research results indicate that sales (channel) managers at all hierarchical levels participate in executing various aspects of marketing activities management. The degree of involvement, however, varies significantly by the level of the sales (channel) manager. The study concludes with managerial implications of the findings and suggestions for future research.

Keywords: Marketing activities management systems, organizational levels, small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

DOI: 10.3233/HSM-2010-0743

Journal: Human Systems Management, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 155-166, 2011