Marketing, strategy, and the small firm: A systematic inquiry
Trapp, Paul Stephen
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/22550
Description
Title
Marketing, strategy, and the small firm: A systematic inquiry
Author(s)
Trapp, Paul Stephen
Issue Date
1991
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Gardner, D.
Department of Study
Business Administration
Discipline
Business Administration
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Business Administration, Marketing
Language
eng
Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation was to empirically investigate and better understand the linkage between business orientation, strategic posture, marketing strategy, and performance. The theoretical model employed explicitly incorporated a contingency approach to theory development, and as such contained contingency variables, response variables, and performance variables.
The population under study was defined as independently owned and operated Christian bookstores. A sample of 600 firms was drawn from the national membership roster of the Christian Booksellers Association. Utilizing a highly structured mail questionnaire to collect data for the study, 301 usable responses were obtained. In addition to the Christian booksellers, a second sample was collected for the purpose of comparison. This second sample was composed of 208 retailer clientele from the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) of Northwest Indiana (89 usable responses obtained).
Several conclusions were drawn from the results of this dissertation. Overall, the theoretical model offered a viable framework for investigating the research questions put forth and their attendant hypotheses. There did appear to be a systematic relationship between business orientation, strategic posture (as operationalized by the Miles and Snow strategic typology), and extent of marketing strategy practices. Prospector type organizations exhibited a greater marketing orientation than Analyzer or Defender type organizations, and engaged in marketing strategy practice activities to a greater extent than either of the latter as well. Marketing strategy practices did have an impact on performance (i.e., sales, net profit/loss, sales per square foot, change in sales, profit margin), however the impact of specific practices was not universal across all such measures. Firm and owner/manager characteristics had a significant impact on performance, more so than an organization's current business orientation, strategic posture, and extent of marketing strategy practice activities. The importance of restricting samples of study to sets of firms within homogeneous strategic situations was reaffirmed by the results of the SBDC clientele analysis.
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