[01] Klodiana Gorica, Department of Marketing–Tourism, University of Tirana, Faculty of Economics, Tirana, Albania. [02] Ana Buhaljoti, Department of Marketing–Tourism, University of Tirana, Faculty of Economics, Tirana, Albania.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have a powerful impact on the economic environment of Albania. They are becoming the main source of employment and competitiveness creating entrepreneurial spirit and innovation. However, driven by limited resources in finance, knowledge, information, time and opportunities compared with larger firms, SMEs do not practice the traditional marketing concept to deliver market offering in the market place. Realizing that marketing in SME enterprises is a simpler version of the marketing in big firms, it is essential to understand how businesses can operate with limited marketing resources. The unstable business environment in Albania forces companies to use non-standard approaches of business development and thus traditional patterns of marketing have to be adjusted. This paper provides insights into the way in which SMEs in Albania use entrepreneurial marketing. The research is developed in the fast changing economic environment of Albania with a highly developing enterprisers sector. It studies the entrepreneurial marketing practices and relevance for increasing the efficiency of SMEs operations. The study has been made possible with a descriptive, qualitative research with structured interviews from 4 representatives of Small and Medium Enterprises from different sectors in Albania. SME owners affirmed that their business was dependent on word-of-mouth recommendations as they do not have the time and resources for marketing. But, they spent considerable time talking to customers, networking, building relationships with satisfied customers who then recommend the business to others. Although mostly unaware of the marketing terminology, SMEs in Albania tend to spend considerable time and resources on marketing.

Entrepreneurial Marketing, Innovative Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Small and Medium Enterprise (SME), Albania

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