Enhancing the Export Performance of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Through Entrepreneurial Marketing

Abstract

This dissertation contributes to the cross-disciplinary international entrepreneurship/international marketing literature by unpacking how entrepreneurial marketing activities can enable owner-managers to overcome internationalisation challenges alongside stimulating further investigations of entrepreneurial marketing topics. The three papers contained in this dissertation collectively contribute to answering an overarching research question: How can owner-managers of under-resourced, smaller-sized, marginal exporters utilise facets of entrepreneurial marketing activities to expand sales abroad in a post-COVID environment? The first paper of this dissertation (presented in Chapter 2) focused on the performance outcomes of entrepreneurial marketing activities of smaller firms actively moving to export markets in a post-COVID environment. With the competitive intensity of export markets presenting a challenging environmental contingency, this paper considered the effects of the degree of competitive intensity on entrepreneurial marketing activities, not least coopetition behaviour. To further unpack the studied effects of the competitive environment on entrepreneurial marketing activities, the second paper (presented in Chapter 3) unpacked the relationship between entrepreneurial marketing activities and coopetition activities in the previously mentioned post-crisis environment. Specifically, this second paper expanded on the first paper by unpacking the specific role of coopetition in internationalising firms manoeuvring varying competitive intensities across domestic and export markets in a post-COVID environment. The third paper (presented in Chapter 4) explored the outcomes of the first and second papers by investigating the relationship between competitive intensity and coopetition behaviour. Chapter 4 unpacked the complex relationship between competitive intensity and coopetition behaviours, along with effects on a coopetition-oriented mindset preceding coopetition behaviour.