Implementation of marketing concept and organizational culture in SMEs in Al Buraimi – Oman

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of relationship between implementation process of marketing concepts and the culture at the small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME) level of the Omani economy. The marketing culture and behavior provide a comprehensive insight into the implementation process of marketing concepts in SME sector in Oman. This paper seeks to explore the marketing culture of the firm’s members and to what extent they can support or create barriers to the successful implementation of the marketing concept in Al Buraimi region – Oman. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative approach was used to explore the impact of organizational culture on the implementation of marketing concepts on SMEs; to achieve the objective of this study, the paper based on a sample of 240 of SME sector in Al Buraimi. Simple Random Sampling was used for the sample distribution. The IBM analysis program Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used to process the data sets. Findings The findings of this study support the argument about the positive relationship between the implementation of marketing concepts and organizational culture. In the Omani context, organizational culture is related to the whole society’s culture, which has changed over recent years due to changes in lifestyle and consumer behavior. All of this affects the SME sector and its ability to create new ideas for the marketing process. Originality/value The paper finds that there is a logic and structure to the culture and the implementation process of marketing concepts. It helps to identify the impact of the culture of the SME on the implementation of marketing in the SME sector on the Omani economy in light of the new orientation on the part of decision makers in terms of increasing the importance of non-oil activities.