Ken Grant

Little has been written about how marketing may contribute to the successful commercialization of innovation. Building on a conceptual model developed by Cummins et al (1999), this paper puts forward the view that for successful commercialization of innovation by SME–s, greater attention must be given to the marketing considerations.

In interviewing owners/managers of small and medium sized enterprises (SME's) regarding the use of networking within their marketing decision making the problems of succession of networks were raised. This paper reports on a pilot study identifying six issues in handing over marketing networks as faced by entrepreneurs.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a planning model which is intuitive and iterative and thereby assists and encourages managers and students to develop commercially sensible plans for various business situations.

Differences between Australian high and low effectiveness sales organizations are examined. The study results indicate that effectiveness is apparently not constrained by external factors, and not influence by field sales manager activity priorities.

Investigates the antecedents and outcomes of salesperson burnout. Prior research on burnout in personal selling is extended by including a more complete set of predictors of burnout, and by testing the conceptual model of burnout using a multi-company sample of field salespeople in an international setting. Relationships among burnout, attitudes, a...

Considers how to research small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs’ decision making in the context of their own environment, in order to reach some in-depth understanding of such phenomena. Previous work has called for the use of more appropriate methods for understanding and assessing SME management decision making. The discussion tak...

The primary emphasis of previous research concerning salespeople has been focused on their attitudes and behavior. The relationship between organizational variables and salesperson attitudes and behavior has received very limited attention. Sales territory design is largely uncontrollable by the salesperson, yet is acknowledged by managers and rese...

Acknowledges that SMEs (small to medium-sized enterprises) cannot do conventional marketing because of the limitations of resources which are inherent to all SMEs and also because SME owner/managers behave and think differently from conventional marketing decision-making practices in large companies. In this context the discussion focuses on SME ch...

This paper considers the concept that the owner-managers of small and medium-sized enterprises (referred to as SMEs) develop networks during the life of their businesses and that these networks by necessity, change over time. Some evidence from an exploratory empirical study carried out simultaneously in Northern Ireland and Australia is presented...

Examines the impact of manager and salesforce antecedents on sales organization effectiveness, using a sample of 146 Australian sales units. Indicates that sales manager monitoring, directing, evaluating and rewarding activities distinguish between high and low sales unit profitability and managers’ satisfaction with their units. Suggests that sale...

Some consideration of the specific SME (small/medium sized enterprises) literature outlining perspectives on pricing practice in SMEs is given in this paper. Outlines some empirical findings gathered from in-depth interviews with 40 SME owner-managers in Northern Ireland. The findings provide corroboration of previous studies and expand the underst...

A conceptual model is developed and empirically tested, examining the relationships among the sales management control system, sales territory design, salesforce behavior and outcome performance, and sales organization effectiveness constructs. A sample of 58 Australian chief sales executives and 146 field sales managers was used to test the model....

A small, but expanding, base of theory and practice points to placing more sales management emphasis on the activities of salespeople such as call planning and sales presentations to improve their performance. The results of a study of 146 field sales managers in 58 Australian sales organizations indicate that sales forces with high behavior and ou...

Examines how sales managers can affect and improve salesforce performance. Describes the similarities and differences between high- and low-performance salesforces and the ways in which sales management can create the opportunity for salespeople to perform well. Discusses research implications and offers management guidelines to improve the effecti...

Designing marketing strategies for competing in global markets requires knowledge about the inter-country differences that affect strategy development. The issue is particularly relevant in the management of field salesforces. A comparative study of 99 Australian and 107 American business-to-business salesforces examines the differences in field sa...

Analyses salesforce performance and examines high and low performance Australian sales organizations. Chief sales executives in 99 companies describe their sales organizations' characteristics, management priorities, salesforce performance and sales organization effectiveness. The companies are divided into two performance groups and compared acros...

The paper examines the differences in market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation in SME's classified as leaders and laggards. The sample was collected from 79 SME managers across Australia. The results indicate that there are significant differences in the aggregate levels of market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation between leader...

The aim of this study is to provide deeper insight into the differences in the level of market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation especially among small and medium sized enterprises (SME's). The data was collected from 77 SME managers across Australia. The results indicate that there are significant differences in aggregate market orientat...

This study aims to investigate drivers of marketing productivity in large companies and SME's; and to examine whether different sizes of companies exhibit different levels of marketing productivity. The sample in this study is marketing managers from 253 large companies and SME's across Australia. The results indicate that marketing activities, sal...

This study aims to investigate the relationship among entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, salesforce performance, and sales organisation effectiveness in SME's. The results indicate that entrepreneurial orientation was not found to be important driver of salesforce performance and sales organisation effectiveness. However, market orien...

The selling function is a key part of marketing in SME's, and the personal selling function is a key factor in successful marketing. Research on salesforce performance has been concerned mainly with large companies; there is a dearth of similar studies that have been conducted in SME's. This pilot study paper examines the relationship between sales...

This paper identifies a conceptual process describing how owner/managers of small and medium-sized enterprises undertake innovation in marketing. A model is presented which identifies seven elements in the process including the drive for profits. The process was derived from previously published research and further developed from a series of inter...