Identifying the factors affecting innovative marketing in small and medium-sized enterprises in the information technology industry
Abstract
The present study aimed to identify factors affecting innovative marketing in small and medium-sized enterprises active in the Middle East information technology industry. The researchers employed a mixed research design, which included following a sequential exploratory research approach to conduct their study. The researchers conducted qualitative research through interviews with 22 managers and founders of the company in five countries, Jordan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey, while they analyzed 385 questionnaires through structural equation modeling in their quantitative research. The findings showed that customer orientation with a coefficient of 0.33 is the strongest predictor of innovative marketing performance, followed by innovative organizational culture with a coefficient of 0.28 and digital marketing skills with a coefficient of 0.24. The researchers identified budget constraints and skilled labor shortages as the two most critical obstacles, with budget constraints measuring 31.4 and skilled labor shortages measuring 12.4. Social networks with an average effectiveness of 18.4 were the most effective innovative marketing tool. The studied countries showed different results in their assessment of innovative marketing performance.