Marketing in “survivor” medium‐sized British manufacturing firms: 1987‐1997

For many years scholars of marketing have advocated the importance of marketing as a key determinant of business performance, and particularly for small and medium‐sized enterprises. In the UK, efforts have been made to translate theory into practice in an attempt to improve the competitiveness of the country's small and medium‐sized enterprises. Indeed, since the mid‐1980s, it has been a matter of government policy that a considerable emphasis be placed on seeking to improve the marketing performance of small‐ and medium‐sized firms. Thus, this article examines the marketing activities of a sample of 42 medium‐sized manufacturing firms over a ten‐year period. It reveals that the 42 firms known to have survived the economic exigencies of the decade were amongst the most market oriented of those surveyed in 1987, and that they have embraced both the substance and trappings of marketing.