Bella Gazdiyeva, Abraham Althonayan, Zhailagul Sagyndykova, Aida Akhmetzhanova, Zarina Gabdullina, Marina Tavluy, Gulnara Fatkieva
Entrepreneurial marketing (EM) in SMEs is greatly different than the traditional marketing in large organizations. Higher education institutions generally instruct traditional marketing through orthodox and conventional teaching pedagogies. In consequence, the literature highlights that graduate entrepreneurs are struggling in EM during the start-up phases of their small and medium sized entrepreneurial ventures. Also causing many entrepreneurs to fail and unable to contribute to the economy. To address this contemporary problem, this study has used multiple case studies and triangulated its findings with a focus group discussion. This study has explored the EM challenges during the start-up phase faced by the graduate entrepreneurs who have exposure to both, higher education and practical EM experiences. After the rigorous analysis, four contemporary EM challenges due to the pedagogical gaps in entrepreneurship education are discovered. To overcome these challenges, a practical model of EM pedagogy has been developed that is grounded in, the recent entrepreneurship education literature; and the recommendations from the graduate entrepreneurs as well. The EM pedagogy model is practically implementable at business schools worldwide to produce high quality graduate entrepreneurs in the future, which are well-skilled to overcome EM challenges and survive.