Customer relationships and the small software firm: A framework for understanding challenges faced in marketing

This paper identi®es the major marketing challenges small software ®rms face during their growth and internationalization processes. It starts with an analysis of small software company activities along a continuum from `project business' to `product business.' This is followed by a brief analysis of the two major schools of thought in marketing, in which there is a paradigm shift from the traditional notion of marketing-mix management towards `relationship marketing' is discernible. Finally, the discussion is summarized in a framework for identifying the major marketing challenges facing software company managers at the beginning of the next millenium. # 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.