Small Business Owners Undertaking Organized Marketing Activities: Out of Need or Available Resources?

AbstractThe main objective of the paper is to identify if SMEs managers undertake marketing activities (in the sense of having a responsible employee or a department for marketing activities) out of need (in the sense of competitiveness level in the market) or starting from available resources (financial and human assets). Therefore to shed some light on this nexus, the authors analyze the relationship between who has the responsibility of marketing activities within SMEs, its size (in terms of financial and human assets) and business sector. However, even if we find no generalized model, the paper still rises awareness for academics and practitioners, that SMEs need simplified marketing tools/applications (regardless of their level of financial and human resources and field of business) for coping with the continuously growing market competitiveness