How can the combination of intelligence, innovation and interfacing help take a hi-tech SME to market?: A case study
This study interrogates the way in which marketing is carried out, or not carried out within a high technology based small business. The business in question was the basis of a case study undertaken over an 18-month period. This researcher aimed to examine how the combination of entrepreneurial, innovative and relationship marketing can be used to successfully go to market and increase turnover. This PhD project aimed to develop both a theoretical conceptual model and a practice-based application of the model for application in the case study company. The research undertaken combined multiple methods of approach including autoethnographic participant observation, in-depth responsive interviews and inquiry from within the case study company as the researcher was fully embedded in the business for 18 months. This combination of these methods enabled an immersive and robust case study, which sat inline with the interpretivist approach allowing the researcher to gain an insight into the social construction of meaning in relation to the marketing practice of the high technology based small business and how such meaning can be used to inform ‘contextual’ theory development. The case study was then examined and explained using an autoenthographic narrative and positioned in three phases to show the progression from no formal marketing marketing to administrative marketing methods through to innovative and entrepreneurial marketing strategies and techniques. The outcome of the case study research has resulted in an adapted practice based model. This research has informed the development of the 3I’s model and started to show that the weighting of each section may not be equal. The model suggests that market intelligence, marketing innovation and human interfacing used in the correct combination, as suggested by the researcher, can help high technology based small businesses and ultimately businesses in general go to market successfully.
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