Preliminary communication
RESEARCHING THE ROLE AND APPLIANCE OF MARKET RESEARCH IN SMALL ENTERPRISES IN CROATIAN ICT INDUSTRY
Bruno Jelečanin
; Veleučilište Baltazar Zaprešić, Zaprešić, Hrvatska
Abstract
The importance of SME in the national economy has always been emphasized. It has frequently been pointed out that the small enterprises are holders and innovators who, because of customization and flexibility, can quickly respond to the market demands. On the other hand, the ICT industry is considered as one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Due to its specificity, it is especially suitable for small enterprises that can easily start and grow a successful business. This paper attempts to connect three elements: small entrepreneurship, the ICT industry and market research, where the advantages of each element are underlined, as is their connection. For that purpose, firstly, a desk research has been conducted, which included browsing through the secondary data from the existing scientific literature about three sub-topics: the importance of developing SME as the foundation of economic progress in Croatia and abroad; the analysis of the importance of market research as the foundation of decision making in SME as it is done abroad; the analysis of the ICT market in Croatia. Afterwards, an exploratory research has been done via in-depth interviews on the sample of 10 subjects, out of population of 4095 SMEs, who are experts with executive positions in small ICT enterprises in Croatia. The study sought to discover how small enterprises in the ICT industry use market research, how they see it and what are the advantages and disadvantages of its application. The results have been compared to existing theoretical framework and the results of similar studies in other countries. From the results it may be concluded that the small enterprises in the ICT industry in Croatia rarely conduct market research as a separate activity, but implement it in their daily operations in a particular way that is tailored to he specifics of the company.
Keywords
the role of SME; Croatian ICT industry; market research; business decisionmaking; implementation of market research in SME in the ICT industry
Hrčak ID:
149530
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2015.
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