A PLEA FOR BIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH AS INSIGHT INTO SMALLER FIRM MARKETING THEORY GENERATION

Abstract

Much existing marketing theory of the firm fails to account for the particular behaviour of the smaller firm and, more specifically, the microenterprise. Research at the Marketing and Entrepreneurship interface has produced a range of alternative insights into smaller firm marketing and in terms of how formal models of marketing need to be altered in order to account for the practices of networking, word of mouth marketing, opportunity recognition and other entrepreneurial marketing factors. A radical rethinking of small firm marketing theory is needed, based on the joining together of existing Marketing and Entrepreneurship inter-face constructs and additional insight from other disciplines. Creativity is one of the central components of the Marketing and Entrepreneurship interface, giving the smaller firm competitive advantage in the marketplace. This paper examines evidence of creative, entrepreneurial marketing from a biographical perspective by focusing on the behaviour of the risk taking artist. By adopting a little used methodology in small firm research, this gives fresh insight and informs small firm marketing theory and practice.