20-06-2013, 04:55 PM
E-Marketing - A literature Review from a Small Businesses perspective
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Abstract
Objectives
This paper aims to build a structured literature review to the field of E-Marketing. This literature review will
provide an archive of past research points and methodologies related to the studies of E-Marketing to explore,
analyze and develop a clear understanding about the different research topics and methodologies implemented
in E-Marketing published articles between 2003 and 2010.
Introduction
Small Business Enterprises (SBEs) do play a major and important role in today’s world economy, and they are
recognised as one of the main contributors to economic, development and employment growth. According to
Mulhern (1995) 99% of all European companies are small and medium sized (SME) and from 1985-1995 it
provided 66% of the employment in Europe. On the other hand, the revolution in information technology (IT)
and communications changed the way people conduct business today.
In recent years, increasing numbers of businesses have been using the Internet and other electronic media in
conducting their marketing efforts, giving the chance for Electronic Marketing (as a new marketing
phenomenon and philosophy) to grow in a very dramatic and dynamic way.
From the author point of view, implementing E-Marketing by small business enterprise can change both the
shape and nature of its business all over the world. Because the increase usage of the Internet and other
Electronic Marketing tools (i.e.: E-mail, Intranets, Extranets and Mobile phones) in electronic transactions
might create not only a lot of opportunists for small business enterprises but also can eliminate a lot of its
threats. From this prospective, it is noticed that the Internet, other electronic media tools and Electronic
Marketing tools are playing a vital and essential role in conducting marketing activities within business
enterprises regardless of its type or size.
Small Business Enterprises
Regardless of the high importance of small business enterprises for any economy, it is noticed that defining it
had always been a difficult thing to do. Accordingly, there is a little agreement between researchers,
practitioners, financial institutions and governmental agencies on what defines a small business. Based on
that, small business had been defined in deferent ways in different parts of the world according to national
and local needs (Theng and Boon 1996; Watson and Everrett 1996). Table 1 summarises the official (or most
common definitions) of SBEs used in some countries around the world.
E-Marketing
Electronic Marketing (E-Marketing) can be viewed as a new philosophy and a modern business practice
involved with the marketing of goods, services, information and ideas via the Internet and other electronic
means. By reviewing the relevant literature it is noticed that definitions of electronic marketing (E-Marketing)
vary according to each author's point of view, background and specialization. For that, while Smith and
Chaffey defines it as: “Achieving marketing objectives through applying digital technologies” (Smith and
Chaffey, 2005: 11), Strauss and Frost define it as: “The use of electronic data and applications for planning
and executing the conception, distribution and pricing of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that
satisfy individual and organizational goals” (Strauss and Frost, 2001: 454).
Sample and Procedures
The author reviewed the literature by implementing three stages search. In the first stage, the author started by
determining the initial databases that could be considered as the potential publications outlets in the field of EMarketing.
Based on that and by taking into consideration: the size of the database, its level of comprehensive
and its collections of reviewed management journals, the following online databases were searched to provide
a comprehensive bibliography of the E-Marketing literature:-
- Emerald (MCB) Database;
- EBSCO Electronic Database;
- Proquest Direct Database;
- Science Direct (Elsevier) Database ;
- ABI/Inform database ; and:
- University of Bradford catalogue.
In the second stage, the search descriptors and time length were determined in the light of E-Marketing
components. Based on that, the literature search was based on some descriptors to investigate the different
research areas and methodologies applied in the literature of E-Marketing in general and E-Marketing in
Small Business Enterprises (SBEs) in particular.
These descriptors was: Electronic Marketing (E-Marketing),
Internet Marketing (I-M), Intranet Marketing, Extranet Marketing, E-Business, E-Commerce, Electronic
Marketplace (E-Marketplace), E-mail marketing and Mobile Phone marketing (MM).
Although, it is noticed that despite of the fast growth in E-Marketing research in the last decade, it appears
that only from the late 1980s researches on E-Marketing and Internet Marketing begun to appear in the
literature. Starting with the work of: Malone, Yates and Benjamin (1987 & 1989), crossing by the work of:
White (1997), Samiee (1998), Wientzen (2000), Porter (2001) and so on. The literature time period starts from
2003 and ends June 2010 as a step towards building a complete archive of the past publications in the field of
E-Marketing from 1993 to 2010.