Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) need to use specific marketing strategies and approaches due to their limited resources and capabilities. Entrepreneurial marketing (EM) is an alternative marketing management approach under the special conditions that describe SMEs. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate whether EM has a positive and significant effect on different aspects of performance of Iranian halal food SMEs.
A correlative descriptive research method is used and 384 questionnaires with five-point Likert scale are distributed among managers of Iranian halal food SME producers chosen by simple random sampling method. To analyze the data, structural equations modeling based on partial least squares is applied using SmartPLS 3.
The result of data analysis indicates a positive and significant effect of EM on the market and innovative performances of halal food SMEs. Nevertheless, the effect of EM on production performance of aforementioned companies is not confirmed. The findings also show that production, market and innovative performances of halal food SMEs result in their financial performance.
The study’s sample is limited to halal food SMEs of Iran. Although the objectives of the study have been aimed, more research can be done investigating this relationship in other companies from different sectors, contexts and countries. Similar studies can be conducted cross-culturally and in different Islamic countries.
For halal food SMEs that tend to achieve better performance, obtaining improved innovative and market performances requires using EM activities effectively. This paper suggests that halal food SMEs should be innovative, proactive, opportunist, risk-taker and customer-oriented to achieve better market and innovative performances and consequently earn higher profits.
This is one of the earliest studies investigating the effects of EM in the halal food industry. Although very few papers practically recognized the impact of EM on the performance of SMEs and entrepreneurial ventures, the effect of this concept on halal food SMEs has remained unknown.
