Are growth-oriented SMEs more likely to adopt market and brand orientations?

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how SMEs with varying growth intentions differ from each other with regard to market orientation and brand orientation. Both of these strategic orientations are seen to lead to enhanced market performance. Consequently, the authors investigate whether those small firms that regard growth as an important goal have adopted market or brand orientation. Design/methodology/approach – Responses from 492 SMEs were analysed. They were clustered into four groups according to their growth intentions. These groups included firms that have low growth intention, capital adequacy growth intention, expansion growth intention and high growth intention. ANOVA was used to explore whether these groups differed in their market or brand orientation. Findings – The results indicate that the higher growth intention group the SME belonged to the more market and brand oriented it is. The biggest differences between the SMEs were found with regards to brand orientation. Research limitations/implications – The findings suggest that SMEs have acknowledged the positive effect of market and brand orientations on firm growth, thus highlighting the importance of supporting growth-oriented SMEs in their quest to become more market or brand oriented. Originality/value – The study sheds more light on the little researched themes of market and brand orientations in the context of SMEs. It also offers insights into how growth intentions affect the adoption of different strategic orientations.

The impact of entrepreneurial orientation on B2B branding and business growth in emerging markets

“…On the other hand, SMEs tend to regard brand building as something that is appropriate only for large companies (Merrilees, 2007). However, branding helps entrepreneurial small businesses to focus their efforts on those opportunities that have the greatest potential Industrial Marketing Management xxx (2015) xxx-xxx to contribute to firm performance (Merrilees, 2007) and it has been suggested that SMEs with higher levels of growth orientation are also more brand-oriented (Reijonen, Párdányi, Tuominen, Laukkanen, & Komppula, 2014). Therefore, brand orientation supports small firms in sharpening their strategies.…”

The Impact Of Market And Brand Orientation On Performance: An Empirical Study

“…When reviewing the academic studies in the literature, it is understood that different perspectives are used for the concepts of market orientation, brand orientation and firm performance. Narver, and Slater (1990), Reijonen et al (2014) have considered customer orientation, competitiveness, and coordination of departments to be one approach in interpreting market orientation. In summary, these studies are interpreted as being marketoriented, customer-oriented, and orientation towards the rivalry and cooperation between the units.…”

“…Authors have claimed for a long time that market orientation and brand orientation and firm performance should be linked Narver & Slater 1990;Kohli, Jaworski, and Kumar (1990) //dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2017.12.02.5 Corresponding Author: T. Sabri Erdil Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of the conference eISSN: 52 resulting from consistency in marketing strategies (Hu et al 2012;Hirvonen, & Laukkanen 2014;Ramli, & Iskander, 2014;Reijonen et al 2014). …”

SMEs Branding: The Interaction of Entrepreneurial Orientation

“…It is true that marketing performance can be measured through many different aspects; brand orientation is one of these main aspects, which streams to brand performance and-as a result-to marketing performance in general. Reijonen et al (2014) [65] survey 492 SEMs to find the impact of growth intention on brand orientation, and they find that corporations with a high intention for growth are likely to become highly brandoriented. Another research establishes a significant relationship between brand orientation and customer relationship performance and that whenever brand orientation increases there will be an increase in customer relationship performance (Chovancova et al, 2015) [20].…”