An empirical investigation of entrepreneurial marketing dimensions

Abstract

Although entrepreneurial marketing (EM) behaviors are widely reported within marketing practice today, there is no common agreement on how many dimensions are underlying EM behaviors. When investigating firms’ EM behaviors, researchers use different elements to represent dimensions of EM behaviors. The current study aims to identify dimensions underlying EM behaviors and to examine the existence of these EM dimensions using empirical data. Based on the literature review, we propose six dimensions underlying EM behaviors, namely growth orientation; opportunity orientation; total customer focus; value creation through networks; informal market analysis; and closeness to the market. These EM dimensions are quantitatively confirmed based on survey data and confirmatory factor analysis. Results show that a proposed model fits well with the data and fits better than other feasible alternative models. We believe that the empirically verified dimensions of EM behaviors should provide a foundation upon which researchers can build and test for a broader theory.