Market Attitudes and Opinions of Chief Executive Officers as Predictors of Small Professional Service Firm Performance

Abstract

The authors seek to define the relationship between attitudes and opinions about marketing and company performance among very small professional services businesses. Responses to 47 attitudinal statements are regressed on 3 measures of company performance. Eighteen of the 47 are found to be associated with company performance. But only a very few attitudes about marketing turn out to be significant across all measures of company performance. Improvements in staff expertise, employing the services of public relations specialists, advertising in appropriate professional journals, and emphasizing price/value in the service were the only activities thought to be universally effective, regardless of how company performance is measured. Managerial implications are discussed and suggestions for additional research are presented.

Key Words:

• Small businesses
• professional services
• marketing attitudes
• company performance
• marketing actionss