| Summary: | This research investigates the impact of formalised marketing information on SME growth. It is recognised that SM Es present peculiar characteristics that make their marketing distinctive from larger companies. The lack of resources in SMEs is a barrier to effective marketing. Furthermore, marketing plays an important role in fostering a sustainable relationship with consumers, enabling SME growth. However, SMEs marketing decision-making is affected by whether the SME manages to acquire, analyse and utilise formalised marketing information. For the purpose of this research, marketing information is defined as it follows: 'structured data usable within a marketing context'. In this research it is also hypothesised that the type and source of information acquired, as well as the frequency of use, present a positive relationship with growth. It is also hypothesised that in order to have a significant effect of the use of information on growth, the main explanatory variables have to interact with some moderating variables. The methodology is hypothetico-deductive; using a mix of qualitative and quantitative techniques, the main analysis has been conducted using multivariate data analysis (more specifically peA and binary logistic regression) on a sample of approximately 300 food and drink SMEs. The results showed the use of formalised marketing information is critical to business growth. However this is true under specific conditions and when the use of formalised marketing information does interact with specific moderators. The implications of this research contribute academically to providing better understanding of the relationship between the use of formalised marketing information and business growth. This research contributes to practitioners by pointing out the importance of training in brder to develop their marketing skills. It also contributes to policy makers by addressing the issues of sustainability related to the subsidised access to formalised marketing information through tax payers' money.
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