Impact of Entrepreneurial Marketing Dimensions on Competitive Advantage of Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises in Plateau State, North Central Nigeria

Abstract

Small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) are known for creating jobs and boosting the economic development of both developed and emerging countries, they are essential to national development, innovation and social inclusion. Therefore, there is an increasing need to address the poor performance of SMEs in Nigeria due to the high rate of failures and their inability to compete favorably with large firms, and the adoption of entrepreneurial marketing practices provides a win-win situation for the enterprise and its stakeholders. The need to investigate how entrepreneurial marketing strategies would improve organization competitiveness in the SME sub-sector is therefore necessary. In order to examine the relationship between entrepreneurial marketing strategies (change driving, bootstrapping, and calculated risk) and competitive advantage in Nigeria's SMEs, this study employed a quantitative approach, owners and managers of SMEs in Plateau State, North Central Nigeria, received questionnaires. 286 owners and managers in all took part in the study. With the aid of SPSS Version 26, multiple regression analysis was used to examine the acquired data. Based on the analysis, the study found that risk taking had a weak link with competitive advantage, change driving and bootstrapping had a strong relationship.