Marketing Performance In Romanian Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises - A Qualitative Study

Marketing performance management has been one of the most prominent streams in recent marketing research and practice. Concepts such as marketing metrics and marketing performance management systems have been advanced, together with holistic models to measuring and managing performance of the marketing process. Nevertheless, these advancements envisage predominantly large organizations, which have the strategic approach and the dedicated resources needed to conduct a proper marketing performance management process. Our paper focuses on the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), aiming to explore the dimensions that such organizations consider or should be considering in order to improve marketing performance. Thus, we conduct an exploratory study using the in-depth interview with 20 marketing professionals from SMEs in Romania, aiming to explore their perceptions, practices and intentions related to measuring and managing marketing performance. Our paper starts with an introduction to the topic of marketing performance management and a review of the most recent contributions in this stream of marketing literature. Further on, the qualitative research methodology is described and continued with the presentation of the findings of the qualitative interviews conducted. Finally, some conclusions and directions for further research are outlined.