IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tei/journl/v10y2017i3p18-46.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

David against Goliath - How creative communication helps small advertising agencies survive in a market led by giant agencies

Author

Listed:
  • Jenny - Maria Åström

    (Mälardalen University, P.O. Box 883 721 23 Västerås, Sweden)

  • Karim Carroum Sanz

    (Universitat de Girona, Plaça Sant Domènec, 3 17071 Girona, Spain)

  • Sofia Lena Hagström

    (Mälardalen University, P.O. Box 883 721 23 Västerås, Sweden)

  • Andreu Safont Bagué

    (Universitat de Girona, Plaça Sant Domènec, 3 17071 Girona, Spain)

  • João Pedro Teles Estima

    (Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra, Avenida Doutor Marnoco e Sousa 3000-271 Coimbra, Portugal)

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of the study is to research how national advertising agencies use creativity to compete with larger, global agencies in the advertising market of Sweden, Spain and Portugal. Design/methodology/approach: To conduct the study, the authors keep a qualitative approach: we first carry out an analysis of previous studies about creativity, communication and entrepreneurial orientation, followed by interviews with one small and one large advertising agency for each country. Findings: The findings of the study show that smaller agencies have higher levels of competitive aggressiveness and risk - taking, because of the wish to expand and vulnerability to their larger clients. The levels of opportunity recognition are higher in the large agencies because of their resource assets. All agencies are creative and innovative and equally as proactive, but because the speed of the decision - making process can be faster and communication skills better in a small agency, they can reach higher levels of proactiveness. Research limitations/implications: The implications of the study show that the entrepreneurial orientation to some extent can be used by small agencies to gain competitive advantages on the advertising market. Originality/value: To the best of our knowledge there is no similar study available. This study showed that entrepreneurial orientation, to some extent, can be used by small agencies to gain competitive advantages in the advertising market.

Suggested Citation

  • Jenny - Maria Åström & Karim Carroum Sanz & Sofia Lena Hagström & Andreu Safont Bagué & João Pedro Teles Estima, 2017. "David against Goliath - How creative communication helps small advertising agencies survive in a market led by giant agencies," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), International Hellenic University (IHU), Kavala Campus, Greece (formerly Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology - EMaTTech), vol. 10(3), pages 18-46, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:tei:journl:v:10:y:2017:i:3:p:18-46
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ijbesar.teiemt.gr/docs/volume10_issue3/david_against_goliath.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://ijbesar.teiemt.gr/volume10_issue3.php
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ashiqur Rahman & Mehmet Civelek & Ludmila Kozubíková, 2016. "Proactiveness, Competitive Aggressiveness And Autonomy: A Comparative Study From The Czech Republic," Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 11(3), pages 631-650, September.
    2. William J. Baumol, 2002. "Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Growth: The David-Goliath Symbiosis," Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, Pepperdine University, Graziadio School of Business and Management, vol. 7(2), pages 1-10, Summer.
    3. Sharon Horsky, 2006. "The Changing Architecture of Advertising Agencies," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(4), pages 367-383, 07-08.
    4. Mazzei, Matthew J. & Flynn, C. Brian & Haynie, Jeffrey J., 2016. "Moving beyond initial success: Promoting innovation in small businesses through high-performance work practices," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 51-60.
    5. Ajamieh, Aseel & Benitez, Jose & Braojos, Jessica & Gelhard, Carsten, 2016. "IT infrastructure and competitive aggressiveness in explaining and predicting performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 4667-4674.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kyriaki Papadopoulou, 2020. "Comparative Review Of Performance Measurement Methods Effectiveness," Economics and Management, Faculty of Economics, SOUTH-WEST UNIVERSITY "NEOFIT RILSKI", BLAGOEVGRAD, vol. 17(1), pages 127-139.
    2. David E. Cantor & Tingting Yan & Mark Pagell & Wendy L. Tate, 2022. "From the editors: Introduction to the emerging discourse incubator on the topic of leveraging multiple types of resources within the supply network for competitive advantage," Journal of Supply Chain Management, Institute for Supply Management, vol. 58(2), pages 3-7, April.
    3. Alvin J. Silk & Marta M. Stiglin, 2016. "Build It, Buy It, or Both? Rethinking the Sourcing of Advertising Services," International Journal of Marketing Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 8(1), pages 1-13, February.
    4. Jaroslav Belas & Jan Dvorsky & Ludmila Kozubikova & Martin Cepel, 2019. "Important Factors of SMEs Entrepreneurial Orientation," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 3, pages 165-179.
    5. Jose Benitez & Laura Ruiz & Ana Castillo & Javier Llorens, 2020. "How corporate social responsibility activities influence employer reputation: The role of social media capability," Post-Print hal-02462583, HAL.
    6. Maria Alipranti & Evangelos Mitrokostas & Emmanuel Petrakis, 2013. "Comparative versus Informative Advertising in Oligopolistic Markets," Working Papers 1301, University of Crete, Department of Economics.
    7. Douhan, Robin & Norbäck, Pehr-Johan & Persson, Lars, 2009. "Entrepreneurial Innovations, Entrepreneurship Policy and Globalization," Working Paper Series 807, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 23 Jul 2013.
    8. Tulin Dzhengiz & Eva Niesten, 2020. "Competences for Environmental Sustainability: A Systematic Review on the Impact of Absorptive Capacity and Capabilities," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(4), pages 881-906, April.
    9. Zhang, Dengjun & Xie, Yifan, 2022. "Customer environmental concerns and profit margin: Evidence from manufacturing firms," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    10. Angie-Lorena Riaño-Castillo & Gonzalo Maldonado Guzman & Ruben Michael Rodriguez González & Sandra Yesenia Pinzón Castro, 2021. "Impact of Social Innovation on Innovation and Business Growth in Mexico," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 14(6), pages 1-59, June.
    11. Barba-Aragón, María Isabel & Jiménez-Jiménez, Daniel, 2020. "HRM and radical innovation: A dual approach with exploration as a mediator," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 791-803.
    12. Małgorzata Okręglicka & Prabhat Mittal & Valentinas Navickas, 2023. "Exploring the Mechanisms Linking Perceived Organizational Support, Autonomy, Risk Taking, Competitive Aggressiveness and Corporate Sustainability: The Mediating Role of Innovativeness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-23, March.
    13. Chiraz Feki & Sirine Mnif, 2016. "Entrepreneurship, Technological Innovation, and Economic Growth: Empirical Analysis of Panel Data," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 7(4), pages 984-999, December.
    14. Lindholm-Dahlstrand, Asa & Andersson, Martin & Carlsson, Bo, 2016. "Entrepreneurial Experimentation: A key function in Entrepreneurial Systems of Innovation," Papers in Innovation Studies 2016/20, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    15. Becker, Annette & Hottenrott, Hanna & Mukherjee, Anwesha, 2022. "Division of labor in R&D? Firm size and specialization in corporate research," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 1-23.
    16. Anna N. Ermakova & Svetlana S. Vaytsekhovskaya & Viktoria B. Malitskaya & Natalya Ð . Prodanova, 2016. "Investment Attractiveness of Small Innovational Business under the Conditions of Globalization and Integration," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2), pages 258-267.
    17. Ufuk Akcigit & William Kerr, 2015. "Growth through Heterogeneous Innovation, Second Version," PIER Working Paper Archive 15-020, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 25 Mar 2015.
    18. Bergeaud Antonin & Schmidt Julia & Zago Riccardo, 2022. "Patents that Match your Standards: Firm-level Evidence on Competition and Growth," Working papers 876, Banque de France.
    19. Muhammad, Nabeel & Léo-Paul, Dana, 2015. "Collective Efficacy of a Regional Network: Extending the Social Embeddedness Perspective of Entrepreneurship," MPRA Paper 70120, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Gustavsson Tingvall, Patrik & Videnord, Josefin, 2017. "Regional Effects of Publicly Sponsored R&D Grants on SME Performance," Ratio Working Papers 289, The Ratio Institute.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Creativity; Communication; Advertising; Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurial Orientation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M37 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Advertising
    • M1 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tei:journl:v:10:y:2017:i:3:p:18-46. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kostas Stergidis (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dbikagr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.