Academic roots : the past and the present of entrepreneurial marketing

Research in entrepreneurial marketing is about 30 years old. During this period research has followed many trajectories. Two important but divergent routes are small business marketing versus entrepreneurial marketing mirroring the discourse of small businesses versus entrepreneurial firms. Today small business marketing and entrepreneurial marketing are regarded as separate research fields, however related. EM-researches have been very open-minded towards different approaches in methodology, especially compared to research within mainstream marketing in the US. During this rather long period of time advances in other disciplines have been beneficial for our own research. One such example is the development of Effectuation theory allowing us to understand entrepreneurial decision-making and consequently, important aspects of entrepreneurial marketing behaviour. Many of the research questions, regarded as important by scholars in a panel 1986, are still regarded as important, for example new venture growth. Other issues have lost its relevance. But over all many important questions still are waiting for an answer and the whole research field of Entrepreneurial marketing offers tremendous research opportunities