European Journal of Marketing

Emerald Article: Advancing entrepreneurial marketing: Evidence from born global firms Gillian Sullivan Mort, Jay Weerawardena, Peter Liesch

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To cite this document: Gillian Sullivan Mort, Jay Weerawardena, Peter Liesch, (2012),"Advancing entrepreneurial marketing: Evidence from born global firms", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 46 Iss: 3 pp. 542 - 561 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090561211202602 Downloaded on: 05-12-2012 References: This document contains references to 39 other documents To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com This document has been downloaded 674 times since 2012. *

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Advancing entrepreneurial marketing

Evidence from born global rms
Gillian Sullivan Mort
School of Management, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, and

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Received 28 April 2008 Revised 12 December 2008 7 September 2009 Accepted 12 January 2010

Jay Weerawardena and Peter Liesch

UQ Business School, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to advance the domain of entrepreneurial marketing (EM) responding to the challenge to EM scholars to more fully develop EM as a school of marketing thought. The paper seeks to argue that the context of the born global rm is an appropriate and novel context in which to undertake this research. Design/methodology/approach The need to examine the processes of EM justies the use of case study method. In total, nine born global rms, located in the three most populous states in Australia: Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, were selected for study. The rms were drawn from hi-tech and low-tech industry sectors, and included online businesses, in an attempt to capture maximum theoretical variation. Findings The analysis identies the four key strategies of entrepreneurial marketing as comprising opportunity creation, customer intimacy-based innovative products, resource enhancement and importantly, legitimacy. These core strategies of EM are identied by mapping to enhanced performance. Research limitations/implications Some may consider the born global context a limitation. Therefore, it is suggested that further empirical research could be undertaken on other cohorts of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), such as service SMEs, to provide increased insight into the strategies and practices in the domain of EM. Quantitative research to operationalize the EM construct and model theoretical relationships is also suggested. Originality/value This paper advances the domain of EM into a new phase by empirically identifying four core strategies of EM. It nds that EM contributes to the achievement of superior performance in small rms through purposeful strategy based an effectuation approach. Keywords Entrepreneurial marketing, Born global rms, Legitimacy, Effectuation, Entrepreneurialism, Marketing strategy Paper type Research paper

European Journal of Marketing Vol. 46 No. 3/4, 2012 pp. 542-561 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0309-0566 DOI 10.1108/03090561211202602

Introduction Reecting the growing evidence that marketing is key to the success of new rms (Gruber, 2004; Morris et al., 2002), the research stream of entrepreneurial marketing (EM) has grown in signicance over the last two decades. The literature in general suggests that new ventures face several specic marketing challenges that cannot be dealt with by conventional marketing practices requiring them to adopt non-conventional, EM practices. There have been parallel developments that have
This research was supported by a grant from the Australian Research Council.

stressed the importance of research on entrepreneurial marketing. First, there is increasing evidence that marketing should embrace a more cross-functional, cross border and cross disciplinary orientation and focus on inter and intra organizational partnerships with the need for new explanatory frameworks. Second, the issues relating to internationalization of small and medium size rms[1] (SMEs) (ABS, 2002) has gained prominence in the international marketing literature. The emergence of born global rms as high performing SMEs that internationalize rapidly provides an appropriate and novel setting in which to develop a greater understanding of the role of EM in the success of new rms. We also note developments in examining entrepreneurial decision making (Sarasvathy, 2001; Sarasvathy and Simon, 2000) contrasting causal and effectual reasoning in managers and entrepreneurs, highlighting the entrepreneurs contingency-based approach. This paper responds to the challenge to EM scholars to [more] fully develop EM as a school of marketing thought, (Hills et al., 2008). In doing so it develops a clear understanding of the core EM strategies through examining EMs link to performance outcomes. The paper proceeds with a more detailed consideration of the EM literature that provides the rationale for the study. Our literature review will examine how the focus of the literature has evolved over the last few decades. We will establish that our understanding of specic EM strategies driving rm performance is limited. Next the phenomenon of born global rm internationalization will be introduced highlighting that this rm behavior provides an appropriate, theoretically rich setting to examine EM strategies driving rm performance. Next, the research design and qualitative method adopted in the empirical study is explained. The remainder of the paper presents the key ndings from the analysis providing an in depth discussion of each of the EM strategies adopted by sampled born global rms and discusses the implications for theory and practice. Entrepreneurial marketing: development of a research eld EM as a eld initially grew out of academic interest at the interface between marketing and entrepreneurship (Morris et al., 2002). More recently authors in the EM domain have begun to focus on understanding the importance of marketing, that is EM, in the success of new rms (Gruber, 2004). In a review of the EM literature Gruber (2004, p. 165) observes that though many advances have been made [. . .] research ndings are extremely fragmented, and there is no integrated analysis or comprehensive theory of entrepreneurial marketing. Early work in the area focused on the issues associated with the overlap between conventional marketing theories and those advocated by entrepreneurship. The interface between entrepreneurship and marketing was found to be a fruitful focus for research, especially when applied to the marketing behavior of small- and medium-sized businesses (Hills et al., 2008). In this context, early contributors viewed EM as marketing practices adopted in a resource-constrained, entrepreneurial rms and it was argued that rms operating in an EM setting were not well served by the theories, processes and tools of mainstream marketing (Morris et al., 2002). Some contributors were of the view that not all conventional principles prescribed in the marketing literature can or even should be applied in an EM context (Berthon et al., 2006, p. 4). Early work in the area focused on the issues associated with conventional marketing theories and those advocated by entrepreneurship (Collinson and Shaw, 2001).

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With the interface developing as a key research focus in EM, the research stream addressed issues such as creativity, strategy and educational issues followed by key issues associated with applying EM practices (Collinson and Shaw, 2001). Still the main thrust of EM was an emphasis on adapting conventional marketing to forms that were appropriate to small and medium-sized enterprises, acknowledging the likely pivotal role of the entrepreneur in any marketing activities. Some suggested that EM is undertaken in a primitive manner (Carson, 1985), and in an informal fashion, in which rst customers are found through personal networks (Stokes, 2000). In a qualitative study involving a sample of 40 entrepreneurs Stokes (2000) observed substantial differences between marketing practices adopted by entrepreneurs and those of traditional marketing. For example although traditional marketing emphasise the customer need identication as the starting point of the marketing process the sampled rms did it the other way round, gauging customer reaction after the development of the product. As observed by Gruber (2004), early models of EM have strong similarities and see marketing starting off in a primitive fashion in emerging rms and gradually gaining in professionalism, e.g. through the introduction of formal structures and marketing planning processes, and through the development of marketing know-how. In a somewhat strong critique Gruber (2004) suggests that these models give an incomplete account of the evolution of marketing in emerging rms, because they omit the key stage of opportunity recognition, for which market-oriented behavior is essential (Gruber, 2004, p. 175). A noteworthy aspect is that there has been a growing consensus in the EM literature that EM substantially differs from conventional marketing and these differences have been well documented (e.g. Stokes, 2000; Morris et al., 2002; Hills et al., 2008). Recently, work has emerged (Read et al., 2009) that seeks to more thoroughly understand marketing under uncertainty, focusing on the effectuating characteristics of marketing decision making of entrepreneurs. However, this work appears not to recognize the eld of EM, nor does it integrate the extensive literature on EM. Guiding the present research, we adopt the working denition of EM as: the proactive identication and exploitation of opportunities for acquiring and retaining protable customers through innovative approaches to risk management and resource leveraging for value creation (adapted from that of Morris et al., 2002) as it integrates the central aspects of entrepreneurship and marketing into one comprehensive construct. This denition represents a signicant milestone after a decade of research at the marketing-entrepreneurship interface. Most importantly the Morris et al. (2002) denition departs from the past emphasis in the literature that EM is often unsophisticated marketing. However, the literature has not advanced beyond this well-founded denition to empirical work aimed at investigating the specic EM strategies that enhance performance in SMEs. Though lacking a coherent organized agenda, a number of authors (Collinson and Shaw, 2001; Gilmore and Carson, 1999; Gruber, 2004; Jones and Rowley, 2007; Miles and Darroch, 2006; Morris et al., 2002; Stokes, 2000) have made noted contributions to the emerging paradigm of EM. A growing number of researchers implicitly suggest that the role of EM is superior value creation (Gruber, 2004; Morris et al., 2002). They suggest that this value creation operates across multiple levels: there is vigilance in seeking novel sources of value throughout the rm; value-based strategies are based around customer intimacy and there is continuous exploration for novel sources of

value in the marketing mix. However, value creation is not distinct to EM; all rms and marketing practices exist to create value. What must be addressed are the distinctive, core strategies of EM and how these lead to enhanced performance outcomes. The relationship to customers has been suggested as playing a vital role in EM (Jones and Rowley, 2007). Variously termed customer intensity (Morris et al., 2002, p. 10), customer intimacy (Morris et al., 2002, p. 10) or customer orientation (Jones and Rowley, 2007), the focus on customers, calls for a reinforcement of passion for the customer and the marketer as agent for the customer, bringing the customer into the rms planning and operations. Customer intensity has also been identied as driving value for large rms adopting EM processes (Miles and Darroch, 2006). Jones and Rowley (2007) have followed their identication of the importance of customer intensity by explicitly calling for customer co-creation to be included in the EM research agenda. However, research to date has not clearly identied the path from customer intimacy to enhanced performance outcomes in EM. Attempts to integrate the themes of entrepreneurship into EM have led to a central concern for the role of opportunity and the posture of innovativeness, proactiveness and risk taking in rms undertaking entrepreneurial marketing. Gruber (2004) places opportunity recognition as of primary importance incorporating local and distant search as important considerations in opportunity recognition. Miles and Darroch (2006) have also highlighted the importance of opportunity in EM. Innovative product offerings were found to be the primary focus of EM in earlier work the idea comes rst and the check for market acceptance comes second (Stokes, 2000, p. 7). However, the relationship among opportunity, innovative products and performance outcome in EM has received scant attention. Resource leveraging is an approach that nds support as an important aspect of EM in both large and small, new rms. It reects an attitude of doing more with less (Morris et al., 2002). Miles and Darroch (2006) identify examples of large rms that monitor the ability of initiatives to attract external risk capital. For Gruber (2004) and Morris et al. (2002) resource leveraging is an essential part of the proactive approach of small EM rms needing to achieve more with less and to refuse to be limited by the resources controlled at any one point in time. Leveraging scarce marketing resources has received attention (Gruber, 2004). Again the question arises of the link from EM resource leveraging to performance outcomes. Receiving attention in earlier work has been the use of networking in SMEs with some (Gilmore and Carson, 1999) arguing that networking in SMEs is integral to EM. We suggest that networking is not a core aspect of EM, it was not included as part of EM in a seminal review paper (Morris et al., 2002), but is a separate tool or activity pursued by SMEs to access resources (Oviatt and McDougall, 2005; Sullivan Mort and Weerawardena, 2006). Summarizing the current state of the EM research eld, and responding to the call to more fully develop EM as a school of marketing thought (Hills et al., 2008), we observe that some relevant advances have been made in identifying EM as a distinct eld of marketing thought and in capturing features of EM. However, we argue that the core strategies of EM have not been clearly identied; there has been little focus on the link between EM and performance outcomes, which has been specically identied by Morris et al. (2002) as a key direction for research.

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We conjecture that an examination of EM in highly entrepreneurial SMEs in their internationalization efforts constitutes a meaningful research path to identify the core characteristics of EM and understand how they lead to enhanced performance outcomes. We suggest that born global rms provide the appropriate setting to conduct this research. Born globals: exemplar SMEs Referred to variously as born globals, international new ventures and global start-ups, these exemplar SMEs have come of age during the current era of globalization. Since they were rst formally identied in a study of Australian high value-added exporters by McKinsey & Company and the Australian Manufacturing Council (AMC) (McKinsey & Co. and AMC Australian Manufacturing Council, 1993) born globals have attracted both academic and practitioner interest over the last decades. Academic interest in born global rm internationalization is amply demonstrated by several comprehensive literature reviews undertaken in recent years (Rialp et al., 2005; Aspelund et al., 2007). We apply the term born global and consistent with other scholars (e.g. Knight and Cavusgil, 1996; Rennie, 1993), dene the born global rm as business organizations that from inception, seek to derive signicant competitive advantages from the use of resources and the sale of outputs in multiple countries (Oviatt and McDougal, 1994, p. 49). Born globals are highly entrepreneurial, high performing small rms that challenge the conventional theories of incremental or gradual internationalization (Axinn and Matthyssens, 2002; Oviatt and McDougal, 1994). These rms have several unique operational and behavioral characteristics. First, born globals are leading exemplars of successful international small and medium enterprises (SMEs); in most countries, including USA, SMEs comprise the majority of rms. Second, the born global phenomenon is widespread, with researchers observing its occurrence in virtually all major trading countries, and across industry sectors (Knight and Cavusgil, 1996). Third, these rms challenge the conventional theories of internationalization by directly entering global markets with highly innovative products, sometimes even bypassing the domestic market (Oviatt and McDougall, 1994; Knight and Cavusgil, 1996; Liesch and Knight, 1999). Fourth, born globals challenge the long-held belief that the strategic options of small rms are constrained by resource poverty (Welsh and White, 1981), e.g. lack of nancial capital (Boer, 1992) or management skills (Martin and and Staines, 1994). Recent attempts to model the accelerated internationalization of born global rms (Weerawardena et al., 2007) suggest that the internationalization of these rms is driven by highly entrepreneurial owner managers with a global mindset which allows them to overcome the adversity of resource poverty. Some discussion (Weerawardena et al., 2007) suggests that conventional measures of performance such as prot, return on investment and even market share are inappropriate as the objective of these born global rms is quickly establishing footholds, platforms, in multiple markets overseas. Thus rapid international market entry is the key performance indicator for born globals. Surprisingly, prior research on EM has paid scant attention to this highly performing cohort of small rms in efforts to advance the EM eld. Therefore, we believe that born globals provide an appropriate and theoretically rich setting to examine EM strategies that enable these rms to compete more effectively. The Weerawardena et al. (2007) model as well as others (Aspelund et al., 2007), assigns a prominent place to marketing strategy in born globals further justifying our focus on EM in the born global rm context.

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Therefore, the overall research question guiding this study is: How does EM contribute to enhanced performance outcomes? and we examine the research question in the context of born global rms. Method Approach The need to examine the processes of EM in born globals justies the use of case study method adopted for this research (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 1994). Case study research is uniquely suited to understanding real life events by retaining holistic and meaningful characteristics of organizational and managerial processes (Yin, 1994). Multiple case research design is adopted, a more robust design than a single case study (Yin, 1994). Eisenhardt (1989) and Yin (1994) emphasize the importance of having case study research process grounded in the theoretical literature. Thus collection of data was guided by the research question outlined above, and a case study protocol was used to guide the data collection process in order to enhance the reliability of the research (Yin, 1994). Sampling The sampling strategy follows theoretical replication logic as suggested by Yin (1994). The key principle underlying the selection of cases was relevance rather than representativeness (Stake, 1994). Consistent with the four to ten cases suggested by Eisenhardt (1989), nine born global rms were selected for study. The operationalization of born global was the rm had started exporting within the rst three years of operation, and had at least 25 percent of sales income derived from exporting (Knight and Cavusgil, 1996). Sampling proceeded until theoretical saturation was achieved. Theoretical saturation occurs at the point where incremental learning is minimal (Eisenhardt, 1989, p. 545). The point of theoretical saturation is identied during analysis when no new ideas / themes are emerging from the analysis; where new cases are merely recapitulating existing ndings. The characteristics of the sampled organizations taking part in the study are indicated in Table I. The rms were based in the three most populous states of Australia, namely Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, where the born global phenomenon was rst identied (McKinsey & Co and AMC, 1993). The rms were drawn from hi-tech and low-tech industry sectors in an attempt to capture maximum theoretical variation. The sampled rms entered markets in an accelerated fashion and operated in a variety of geographic markets, including the most sophisticated markets such as USA and Europe. Data collection In depth interviews were conducted with key decision-makers in each rm. Founders, CEOs and senior managers were chosen, as they possess the most comprehensive knowledge of the characteristics of the organization, its strategy and performance (Snow and Hrebiniak, 1980). Initial interviews were of around two-and-a-half hour duration with multiple follow-up interviews over a two year period. Relevant documents and archival data about the organization were collected at the time of interview. These data were collected to provide triangulation of reference material for thematic analysis and for post-research inquiry (Creswell, 2003).

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Case Interviewed String bikini/online business Bathing products Designer bags Security surveillance Pollution control Laser gun facilitated role Non-technical/ playing game /online business technical Electrical switchgear Smelter technology Tissue culture Technical Technical Technical 70 60 70 80 Technical 80 Technical 60 Non-technical 60 1997 2001 1999 1991 2002 1993 1994 Non-technical 70 2001 Non-technical 90 2002

Table I. Characteristics of sample Nature of business Technical/nontechnical Year of inception Year rst exported 2002 within 6 months 2003 1998 2004 2003 1994 2005 1996 1995 Export intensity (%) Markets served (in order of entry) 60 markets globally; major markets USA and Europe USA, Asia, Australia Europe, USA, Asia USA, Australia, Europe USA, Europe USA 70 countries including USA, UK, Latin America Korea, China, South America USA, China, Canada and India

Founder/CEO

Founders/CEOs

Founder/CEOs and Principal Designer

Founders/CEOs

Founder/CEO

Founders/CEOs

Principal Founder/ CEO

Current CEO and Founder

CEO and Founder

Data analysis The analysis proceeded using the processes adapted from Glaser and Strauss (1967), Creswell (2003) and Yin (1994). In analyzing data several techniques were adopted to remain focused on the research problem. Matrices were employed as an analytical tool to analyze and report data. The matrix technique promotes pattern matching and the effective categorization of data (Miles and Huberman, 1984). The research also adopted a general analytic approach that prioritizes information through the development of categories of data and the examination of similarities. The transcripts, documentary and observational evidence from each organization were then organized into chunks and each chunk was labelled with a term often based on the natural language of the interviewee or document. Documents, observations and interview data were initially recorded separately, cross-checked for consistency and included for further analysis when veried by each source. These chunks formed the basis of the coding frame. Next, the codes were used to develop sub-themes and then progressively a smaller number of overall themes. These emerging themes are reported in depth. Finally, returning to the literature, the emergent themes and propositions were compared with the literature seeking both conicting and similar frameworks following Pandit (1996). As observed by Eisenhardt (1989), tying emergent theory to extant literature enhances the internal validity, generalizability, and theoretical level. Validity and research soundness Validity and soundness of research are important issues in all research and indeed validity, in terms of credibility and authenticity, is often identied as one of the strengths of qualitative research. In this research, several primary strategies (Creswell, 2003) for addressing soundness and validity were implemented. Relevant documents and archival data about the organization were collected at the time of the open-ended interview. Observations made at this time were recorded. These were analyzed to provide triangulation of thematic analysis. Rich, thick descriptions are used to convey the ndings of the research to improve the shared experience and judgment of the readers. Negative case analysis of negative or discrepant information was also considered in the overall analysis. Thus examples of contrary views and extreme instances, that would be regarded as outliers in quantitative statistical methods and discarded from further analysis, were considered in our approach because real life is composed of different perspectives (Creswell, 2003, p. 196). Findings The ndings of the research are presented incorporating four emergent themes of the in-depth case studies to address the overall research question How does EM contribute to performance outcomes? Specically we identify that four core strategies of EM emerge from the analysis namely: opportunity creation; customer intimacy based innovative products; resource enhancement; and legitimacy, which are used strategically to achieve enhanced performance outcomes. Opportunity creation We identify the theme of opportunity creation as playing an important role in born global success, advancing the extant EM literature (Gruber, 2004; Morris et al., 2002).

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Opportunity creation in EM should be distinguished from opportunity identication and exploitation (Morris et al., 2002; Shane and Venkataraman, 2000) by the active agency of the rm. A process of identication and then exploitation relies on the a priori existence of opportunities waiting to be discovered. The case evidence suggests a much more active process characteristic of EM. The sampled rms actively create opportunities that can be exploited using innovative approaches and products that actively contribute to their speed of market entry, the essential performance criterion for successful born globals. They are active in creating opportunity as new challenges emerge to be overcome. Case A, the online bikini company, created new opportunities in the online environment. They were able to begin with their business analysis skill set developed in their work with large organizations both domestic and multinational, and adaptively use the skills to create opportunities. They pursued continuous opportunities to found a successful rm operating within 60 markets globally within a very short period of time asking What sells online [. . .] obviously pornography but we didnt want to do that then we thought whats the next best thing?? We want sexy and came up with bikinis!! All the sampled rms sought to create opportunities in the global marketplace, not restricted to their country of birth. CEO of Case F, the gaming company: We sell hardly any equipment in Australia because it is such a small market [. . .] Opportunity creation forms the basis or rationale for the existence of the rm and is an ongoing mindset, inuenced by their global orientation enabling them to prosper in global markets. The ability to create opportunity in the sampled born globals is a result of both the possession of prior information and the cognitive ability to develop the opportunity (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000). The CEO of Case G, the electrical switchgear company, had very specic knowledge of industry trends and needs leading to the ability to create opportunity by providing very specic solutions to rectify power failures. According to the CEO the electrical switchgear industry was dominated age-old inefcient transformers So we looked at all that [. . .] we said that ok we must develop something better [. . .] so what we have got is a solid bi-electric product [. . .] We eliminated the use of gas, we eliminated the use of oil, we are maintenance free. The new switch gear is built on articial intelligence and communication technologies and not only locate the failure in a fraction of a second and try to rectify it, failing which is will communicate with the base station. Our latest generation has got [. . .] all modern communications capability and all sorts of automation [. . .] Case C, the bag company created opportunity through a metastasizing business model of continuous opportunity creation. Starting with competition to the national postal service they moved into speedy delivery through bike couriers and harvested that business: a chance meeting with a designer led to the opportunity to develop innovative bags, following their experience with bags as part of the bike delivery company. There is evidence of rapid learning from market experiments leading to the initial opportunity being redened in an ongoing creation process. This approach to opportunity is also evident in Case D, a security surveillance technology company also found that they used market experiments to create opportunity through a process of extension and transformation. Also in terms of the technology [. . .] that we initially got from the CRC [Cooperative Research Centre] in Adelaide we found that that wasnt quite mature; it was still concepts and things like that and it took us many years to turn it into a product.

We nd that opportunity creation is an active strategy in EM. Opportunity creation requires rapid market learning and perseverance in the face of initial obstacles and the ability to take advantage of contingencies or unexpected events as they arise. It is allied to the processes of effectual decision making discussed by Sarasvathy (2001). Effectuation is a decision making orientation that may be best understood by contrasting it with the more familiar causal decision making processes. Causal decision making has a particular known or preferred outcome or end point; causal decision making is focused on selection of the best options or means by which to achieve a known desired outcome. Effectual decision making is undertaken when the end point may not be known, or possibly only the broad goal is known and the roadmap is not available. All that is known by the decision maker is who they are, what they know and who they know (Sarasvathy, 2001, p. 250). They must operate under a set of constraints to achieve best outcome within an acceptable risk framework. For example, in Case D the founder owned a particular type of non-motion technology. When leaving a large corporation he had only an aspiration to own his own business, using the non-motion technology in some way. He was condant in himself and of his skill set developed over many years in a large corporate environment and he had a good colleague who also was interested in developing a business and had a good skill set. From this platform they spent the next two years creating a series of new opportunities combining the initial technology with imaging technology and articial intelligence in-house to deliver a cutting edge security surveillance technology, which they rapidly exported to international markets. Opportunity creation is distinct from the earlier focus in EM literature (Morris et al., 2002) on objective opportunities that are just waiting to be discovered. For example, EM is identied with the means of identifying and exploiting unnoticed market positions (Morris et al., 2002, p. 6) through environmental scanning. In a theoretical advancement, we identify opportunity creation as an active, ongoing and integral aspect of EM and as a prerequisite for enhanced performance; for born globals that means rapid entry into global markets. Customer intimacy based innovative products Grounded in opportunity creation, we identify the process of developing customer intimacy based innovative products as a focal strategy of EM in born global rms leading to rapid global market entry. Entrepreneurship has been identied as having three key components (Covin and Slevin, 1986): (1) innovativeness; (2) proactiveness; and (3) risk management. However, the ability to develop and congure innovativeness as marketable products provides a compelling source of competitive advantage and superior performance in the sampled born global rms. This interaction with customers undertaken as a process of market sensing facilitates the rapid internationalization of the sampled born global rms. They followed value-based strategies around customer intimacy. Consistent with the literature (Morris et al., 2002), but advancing the nexus between the customers role and new product development, the CEO of the Case F, the gaming company related: We

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really got to know really well the nal customer [. . .] the nal customers experience is the key [to product development]. He related how the development of the innovative laser gun product depended on a number of radical approaches to the game experience. Our product works on the principle of What you see is what you get. That is an important concept in gaming that we have used here... We have to get that nal end user experience. Similarly Case A, the string bikini company, pursues customer intimacy resulting in innovative product solutions:
[. . .] with the internet you are working with the customers closely [. . .] we actually think much closer to market, thats another reason why we stayed online [. . .] Our customers send us pages and pages of information. they feedback constantly.

Ongoing customer relationships and intimacy resulting in innovative products is also exemplied in Case H, the smelting rm:
The rst sort of 12 month chunk of a project timeline is where we will have kick-off meetings; we will go and visit the client once we have signed a contract [. . .] We will do a process design which is really we will throw the numbers into our metallurgical model.

We identify the importance of innovative products and their role in generating enhanced performance outcomes in the sampled born global rms. However, our ndings are in contrast to prior attempts to model the role of product development in the EM process, which identify the sequence as being rst, the product innovation and only second, the customer needs. Here we see reliance on a greater market understanding embedded in opportunity creation and products built on primary and continued customer intimacy. Thus, we have advanced EM in two ways. First, we have empirically claried that in EM customer intimacy and the development of innovative products follow an iterative process with active customer feedback seeking by the rm. Second, we link customer intimacy and the development of innovative products in one strategic dimension, rather than two separate dimensions, as in previous literature (Morris et al., 2002). Small rms demonstrating EM attempt to eliminate chances of failure in the market, and thereby enhance performance outcomes in rapid entry into global markets, through the development of customer intimacy based innovative products. Resource enhancement We identify the theme of resource enhancement as a strong element of EM in born global rms leading to superior performance outcomes. Resource enhancement is integral to the success of born global rms, consistent with the need in small rms to overcome resource poverty and liability of smallness (Morris et al., 2002; Gruber, 2004). Resource leveraging has been described as doing more with less (Morris et al., 2002), characteristic of many small rms which are resource constrained. EM in the sampled born global rms demonstrates resource enhancement, which we argue is a highly developed ability to identify and mobilize resources from external sources, enrich and extend existing internal resources and to recombine these in novel, elaborated ways with a strategic purpose. We observe that the process of resource enhancement in EM that results in superior international market performance is likely achieved through an effectuation posture (Sarasvathy, 2001), which allows a more extemporaneous approach to development, enhancement and use of resources.

Simple mobilization of resources external to the rm is exemplied in Case I where the CEO relates:
[. . .] if I was going into a new country [. . .] sometimes I could touch base with my CDC people [Commonwealth Development Corporation] and theyd give me the insight when I got there. Theyd always open the door to me and tell me okay this is the story and you can get funding from these organizations.

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More importantly, we nd evidence of the enrichment and extension of existing resources characteristic of resource enhancement in Cases A and I use of and development of internet related marketing strategies, especially the use of advanced strategies beyond the establishment of a company website. Similarly, the CEO in Case F, the gaming company, relates:
We used internet marketing and had a website. But we made a lot of use of search engine optimization from very early in the life of the business. This enabled this small rm to punch above its weight.

We also nd an innovative combination and recombination of resources in the use of online marketing and strategic publicity as examples of enrichment, extension and recombination of existing resources in both Case B, the bathing products company, and Case A, the string bikini company. Case A: publicity and online marketing. These are the two tools that we used [. . .] its part of the whole publicity strategy because we had we had youngish women [. . .] doing an online business in an industry that dominantly run by men. Case C, the bag company showed a very early focus on the brand and the development of the brand using innovative EM approaches. For example they rst promoted the brand at a bike messenger competition in Barcelona. The CEO related:
We really got stuck into the promotional side of the business very early on we really pushed that logo and not the product that the logo represented at all. We would put this logo wherever we could without basically offending someone elses personal property [. . .].

Another innovative approach was this rms bags for beer promotion. Instead of a traditional sale the company offered to exchange bags for payment of beer. CEO Case C: We use weird ideas [. . .] where we, for one week only, we will only accept beer as payment for our product! Case D demonstrates an alternate to the previous approach to resource enhancement in EM showing experimentation with as many options as possible within a limited set, exploiting contingencies as they arise over time, always seeking to control an unpredictable future. This is a further example of an effectuation (Sarasvathy, 2001) approach in EM, here directed to enhancement of resources to achieve international market performance. The founder/manager of Case D relates:
[. . .] may be I should get into how we funded it. From 2001 to probably about June [ve years later], [we] had put in something like six and half million dollars to get the company to where it is. Now why did we put it in? Because we couldnt nd anyone else who would. We went to angels, venture capitalists to all sorts of people and all we could raise was [. . .] people would say we would give you 200k for 30 percent of the company [. . .] Fortunately we are now as of today, to a point where customer money has exceeded our expenses.

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The manager/founders still own one hundred percent of the company, having exerted control over an unpredictable future:
And now we have lots of investors. The person, who I talking to just before [. . .] they would like to put in 10 million dollars into the company.

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We nd that resource enhancement, within an effectuation posture, is an important dimension of EM in the strategy of the born global rms. Earlier EM literature (Morris et al., 2002, p. 8) emphasizes the ability to use other peoples resources, whereas resource enhancement is a strategically driven EM marketing process that develops new resource combinations. Strategic enhancement of resources allows these small rms to compete successfully in rapid international market entry. Legitimacy Finally, the analysis suggests the theme of legitimacy as a strong element of EM leading to the success of born global rms, in particular in getting market acceptance for a small, unknown rm, and its products. Legitimacy has not previously been identied in the EM literature as a component of EM. We found it to be integral to the success of the small born global rms, which have the task of establishing the rm and developing successful products for the global marketplace. The born global rms demonstrate a number of techniques for enhancing legitimacy. It may relate to simple web page based strategies of appearing to be a global or US based rm. The CEO of Case F, the gaming company relates: Our website was always in Americanized English and all the pricing was in US dollars. They may choose to exhibit in the premier trade show to match their expected and intended positioning strategy. For example Case C very early sought at a major trade show in Germany called Outdoor
[. . .] which is a big [. . .] everything to do with camping and outdoor pursuits, hiking, tents, bags, backpacks, you name it, canoes [. . .] its huge. And we thought, What have we got to lose? Lets just go there and exhibit at this show. [. . .] And the response was phenomenal.

The use of prizes and awards for the business or in the product category is often used strategically to enhance visibility and credibility. The CEO of Case D, the security surveillance technology company relates:
[. . .] at that time when we [rst] went to that show we were really a very small player [. . .] we had to stand in the corridors and drag people in [. . .] In 2004 [. . .] we won the best security product award for the show. So in a year we were considered the best and after that it really took off.

The CEO relates how they went on to win a succession of prizes and to gain widespread legitimacy as one of the leading international rms:
We then won the best security product in Europe award called the Detective International Award, in the later half of 2004 [. . .] over this last year its been recognized worldwide as the unique capability.

The situation was similar for Case G, the electrical switchgear company. The CEO relates:
The Premier of XXX state Export Award [is] held every year. We won it once. We won the emerging exporter one year [. . .] We promote it in our newsletters and things.

In subsequent years the rm continued to enter for export awards and in 2007 they were short-listed as the Exporter of the Year from their state in the competition at the national level, again using these awards to enhance legitimacy. Case G has pursued an allied legitimacy strategy seeking of being awarded international accreditation from KEMA, the global standards authority specializing in inspections and measurements, testing and certication for the electivity industry. On the other hand we have also seen examples of the founders technical expertise providing initial market legitimacy and acceptance for any offering of the rm. For example, the founding CEO of Case H, a smelting technology rm, has long been an acknowledged international expert in the eld, holding senior academic appointments and recipient of major national and international prizes. Also identied as a legitimacy strategy, is the approach of senior members of the rm giving addresses at international conferences and seminars. In fact some rms never attend trade shows. They prefer to only use presentations at seminars and conferences with the associated legitimacy that is conferred within these industry gatherings. For some rms it also results in the immediate placement of new orders. The CEO of Case E relates:
[Our chief technologist] has been going on the lecture circuit and presenting papers, and going to the electrostatic precipitator conference, which has just recently been in C.. in May. That was its 10th conference [. . .] And he presented, because he is a leader in electrostatic precipitator control [. . .] and we presented papers to have that as a technology credibility platform.

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The bathing products company, Case B, demonstrates a unique approach to establishing legitimacy. The companys products did use high quality ingredients and innovative packaging with each scent personied by an individual character. However the CEOs realized that this would not in all likelihood be enough to establish the brand and the rm so they sought acceptance in the reference sites of the high end department stores Fred Segal and Henry Bendall in Los Angeles and New York. These stores attract afuent shoppers but moreover set the trends for new products. Having established legitimacy in the most demanding market in the world they were the able to rapidly enter other markets globally, building on this credibility. Overall, we nd that establishing legitimacy is a fundamental EM strategy. It is one that has previously escaped the scrutiny of the EM literature but we have found it to be strongly present in all the rms studied here. We identify legitimacy as a critical dimension of EM enabling enhanced performance outcomes, specically for born globals facilitating early and rapid internationalization by small unknown rms, with unknown products. Discussion and implications for theory and practice The overall research problem which guided this study was: How does EM contribute to enhanced performance outcomes? and we empirically examined the research question in the context of those high performing SMEs, the born global rms. As noted earlier, born globals are exemplar SMEs and their superior marketing capability is suggested to be a key driver of the accelerated internationalization (Weerawardena et al., 2007). We proceeded by establishing those key aspects of EM that linked strongly to born global performance in rapid internationalization. The ndings of the study amply demonstrate that born global rms make extensive use of EM and that EM is implicated in their

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enhanced performance outcomes; speed of market entry and rapid internationalization. This paper advances EM into a new phase. It identies four core EM strategies by empirical study examining impacts on rapid internationalization in the sampled born global rms. It nds that EM contributes to the achievement of superior market performance in small rms through purposeful strategy based on an effectuation approach that substantially departs from conventionally accepted marketing undertaken by established rms. We depart from observation that EM actions are unplanned but do agree they are non-linear, characteristic of effectuation (Sarasvathy, 2001) where a rms goals are broadly known but the means to get there cannot be followed in a lock step, logical, causative fashion. Causative decision making provides an appropriate process for growing market share in existing markets, whereas effectuation is appropriate for developing new markets for new products (Sarasvathy, 2001), as is the case for these born globals. The approach of linking EM to performance and identifying its basis in effectuation is a focus not clearly evident previously in the EM literature, providing a clear contribution of this paper to advancing the EM eld. As might be expected from the literature explicating the difference between traditional marketing and EM (Morris et al., 2002), the EM attributes identied here do differ from traditional marketing approaches. In our literature review we established that over the last few decades the EM literature has progressed as a distinctive eld of research, identifying the key features that differentiate EM from conventional marketing. However, core EM strategies and how they relate to rm performance have not been examined. Using the high performing SMEs, the born globals, we identify a set of four core EM strategies, opportunity creation, customer intimacy focused innovative products, resource enhancement and legitimacy, leading to accelerated internationalization. The ndings highlight opportunity creation as a central aspect of EM. We nd that opportunity creation is an ongoing, multifaceted process which is inuenced by a number of factors including the ability to innovate and also prior experience in an industry or with allied products or existing knowledge of technology or markets. As noted in the ndings, the emergent opportunity creation aspect of EM differs from opportunity identication and exploitation which is suggested as key feature of entrepreneurship (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000). EM literature has assigned a central role to passion, zeal, persistence and creativity, as a key features that differentiate EM from conventional marketing (Morris et al., 2002, p. 6). However, how these characteristic emerge in an empirical setting as a specic strategy having potential to contribute to rm performance has not previously been examined. We nd that the nature of the opportunity may change and require rapid market learning and perseverance in the face of initial obstacles. Opportunity creation was found to be central to the growth of rms in both the hi-tech sector and the low-tech sector. In contrast to some of the early literature on EM, we nd that not only does EM require a close relationship between knowledge of customer needs and the successful development of innovative products, but linked customer intimacy focused innovative products is a core strategy of EM. Whilst the EM literature has identied customer-intensity as a key feature in EM (Morris et al., 2002), incorporating creative approaches to customer acquisition, retention, and development and as a form of building visceral relationships with customer, the identication of customer needs is suggested as an unarticulated process (Morris et al., 2002, p. 6). Our ndings suggest that the entrepreneurial owner/managers of born global rms embark on the

innovative product development resulting from strong customer intimacy. This unique feature makes born globals niche marketers in which the rm maintains close relationship with their customers. It is the close linkage between customer intimacy and innovative products that allows EM to deliver enhanced performance outcomes. In the initial stages of foundation and early development, the rm has a product concept. However, the customer is intimately involved in developing the specics of the product conformation and in making the product marketable; intimately involved in moving from product concept to commercialization. Given that the born global rms rapidly enter global markets, we found that the ability to enhance resources was particularly critical. Extant EM literature has identied resource leveraging as a feature distinguishing EM from conventional marketing. Resource leveraging involves the ability to use other peoples resources to accomplish the marketers purpose (Morris et al., 2002, p. 8). Examples cited are bartering, borrowing, renting, leasing, sharing, recycling, contracting and outsourcing. Whilst these activities may enable any SME to overcome their resource constraints, we nd that this is not a sufcient strategy for effective EM. Our ndings suggest that resource enhancing is strategically pursued by sampled born globals to effectively enter difcult to penetrate markets. For example the sampled born globals strategically generated publicity and later actively pursue it gain the attention of their potential customers. Specically, the ndings suggest that ability to enhance resources not only enables resources external to the rm to be mobilized, but also existing internal resources are enriched and both types of resources are combined and recongured. Marketing communication resources are of critical importance and considerable energy and innovation intensity was directed to the end of enhancing these resources for increased effectiveness in market entry and development. Consistent with Boyle (2004), we found the use of publicity to be strongly favoured in these rms and, consistent with the new communication environment, strong use was made of communication using the company website and often online marketing. Use of traditional word-of-mouth communication previously noted as a characteristic of EM was also present but often enhanced globally by use of professional meetings and conferences. We depart from the view that EM is necessarily associated with unsophisticated marketing tactics (Morris et al., 2002, p. 4), highlighting the effectuation rather than causation approach in born global SMEs. In a radical departure from the extant EM literature we nd that the need to gain legitimacy is the focus of much EM in the born global rm leading to rapid international market entry and penetration. Gaining legitimacy for the rms product offerings has not been viewed as an EM in the literature. Small entrepreneurial born global rms face barriers beyond the usually acknowledge resource constraints. They often must compete with well established, trusted rms with international reputations and established brand names which are repositories of trust and market acceptance. They are establishing innovative products from an unknown rm in geographically distributed niche markets. Thus these born global rms use EM techniques directed to legitimacy; to gain acceptance and trust. They strive for success in highly visible and demanding markets or with lead users to signify their legitimacy. We found this to be particularly the case for hi-tech products in business-to-business markets where buyers are reluctant to commit without assurance that the technology will work for their application. They strategically use international certication, prizes, industry

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awards and media recognition to authenticate their products. This is particularly relevant for hi-tech products where buyers are sceptical about the claims of new technology; however it is also relevant for low-tech, fashion products where style and sophistication and acceptance by discerning buyers is of signicant importance. Overall, this study contributes to the EM literature by identifying the four key EM strategies that lead to superior rm performance. The key characteristic of born global rm is their accelerated internationalization which differentiates them from gradually globalizing rms. Our ndings demonstrate how the four key EM strategies lead to the accelerated internationalization of these rms. However, these strategies are not mutually exclusive and can be simultaneously adopted to gain international market entry. For example strategic use of publicity (resource enhancement) facilitated a substantial number of sampled born global to gain acceptance in sophisticated markets (legitimacy). EM research in different contexts has been encouraged in the recent literature (Hills et al., 2008). This study additionally contributes to the EM literature by using the born global context to examine EM strategies that lead to rm performance. This research offers managers and practitioners in new ventures a feasible path to EM practices enabling them to overcome challenges relating to opportunity exploitation and product development, surmounting resource constraints, the establishment of viable enterprises and enhancement of performance. In the rst instance, they must embed practices for opportunity creation and for moving products from concept stage to market-ready commercially viable offerings by exploiting customer intimacy. Their next substantive set of practices must address adaptive resource enhancement, and most importantly practices that establish legitimacy for the newly emerging rm and its product offerings. Overall the ndings of the study signicantly contribute to the development of EM as a school of marketing thought (Hills et al., 2008), specically identifying the core strategies of EM and identifying the role of EM in successful performance outcomes; in this context the accelerated internationalization of born global rms. EM is distinguished by a set of strategies for opportunity creation, customer intimacy based innovative products, adaptive resource enhancement and legitimacy for the emerging rm and its products. We ndings of the study provide a much clearer conceptualization of how EM overcomes the problem of resource poverty in small, new rms, such as the born globals. The ndings particularly indicate that the inuence of EM is instrumental in overcoming not only resource limitations in nances and personnel but also liabilities of organizational newness, associated with being unknown entities in which there is a lack of trust (Gruber, 2004). Limitations and directions for future research While this study has argued that the born global cohort of SMEs has provided a suitable context for examination of EM, the nature of the sample may be viewed by some as constituting a limitation. Therefore, it is suggested that further empirical research could be undertaken on other cohorts of successful SMEs, such as service SMEs, to provide further insight into the strategies and practices in the domain of EM. Quantitative work to develop greater insight by operationalizing the EM construct and modelling theoretical relationships is also suggested, which could include testing the relationship between and effects of both EM and networking. Further attention should also be directed to EM in established rms.

Conclusion The eld of entrepreneurial marketing has evolved over more than two decades. Early work in the area focused on the issues associated with the overlap between conventional marketing theories and theories of entrepreneurship at the entrepreneurship-marketing interface, and then the difference between EM and traditional marketing. EM was initially most clearly associated with small, resource impoverished rms and practices interpreted as unsophisticated and lacking coherent focus. Latterly, the visionary nature of EM has come to the fore. This paper advances EM into a new phase by identifying four core strategies of EM, the reliance on effectuation rather than causation in aspects of its approach to decision making and EMs link to the achievement of superior performance in newly established rms through a purposeful strategic approach that substantially departs from conventionally accepted marketing undertaken by established rms in established markets.
Note 1. SMEs are dened by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2002) as businesses employing fewer than 200 people. As this research was undertaken in Australia the said denition is adopted.

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