Networking in SMEs: Evaluating its contribution to marketing activity Audrey Gilmore * , David Carson, Steve Rocks University of Ulster, Jordanstown Campus, Newtownabbey, County Antrim, Northern Ireland BT37 0PE, UK Received 29 April 2005; received in revised form 19 February 2006; accepted 24 February 2006 Abstract This paper examines the networking activities of SME owner/managers within a food distribution channel, and considers them in relation to the marketing decisions made in an increasingly competitive marketplace. The study period coincided with dynamic changes within a UK regional market resulting from the market entry of multinational supermarket companies. Research findings show that there was wide variation in the extent of networking and marketing carried out by the SME owner/managers working within this channel. However, the level of marketing-led decision-making by each SME owner/manager was related to the level of networking, whereby an SME owner/manager who was proactively networking and utilising his/her marketing network displayed a more sophisticated level of marketing-led decision- making. These findings are the result of a 2 year in-depth qualitative study of 12 SME owner/managers working within the same channel. q 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Decision-making; Marketing activities; Networking; Marketing; Distribution channel 1. Introduction Networking is used by managers to make sense of what happens in complicated markets and provides understanding of inter-organisational relationships in business-to-business markets (Olkonnen, Tikkanen, & Alajoutsijarvi, 2000). Networking can be an important business dimension given the resource constraints and limitations SMEs work within (Deakins, 1991; Gilmore, Carson, & Grant, 2001; Johannisson, 1990). This is especially true in relation to the marketing decisions of SMEs, as owner/managers recognise the need to utilise their limited resources more effectively to compete with increasingly powerful competitors (Falemo, 1989; International Business Review 15 (2006) 278–293 www.elsevier.com/locate/ibusrev 0969-5931/$ - see front matter q 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ibusrev.2006.02.003 * Corresponding author. Tel.: C44 28 9036 6397. E-mail address: aj.gilmore@ulster.ac.uk (A. Gilmore).