Abstract:

India expects a USD 2.5 trillion contribution from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to its GDP by 2025. This would be about half of its targeted GDP. This implies an explosive growth performance expectation from the SMEs. Theresearch in the last three decades shows that the (traditional) marketing that works for large organizations might not be blindly duplicated for SMEs. This triggered the emergence of a newer field called entrepreneurial marketing (EM). There have been a few empirical studies conducted to verify the dimensions of EM. The dimensions of EM have not been found significant in all studies done so far. The objective of this study was twofold – to verify the applicable dimensions of EM in SMEs in an emerging economy India and secondly find the effect, if any of EM on firm performance. A quantitative approach was used to explore the impact of Entrepreneurial Marketing on the overall firm performance of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). This study is based on a sample of 181 SMEs. The IBM software SPSS version 21 was used to conduct the regression analysis. The study identified the effective EM dimensions in the Indian context and was able to show the positive relationship between entrepreneurial marketing and SME firm performance.

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