www.ccsenet.org/ijbm International Journal of Business and Management Vol. 7, No. 1; January 2012 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 205 Marketing Mix Practice as a Determinant of Entrepreneurial Business Performance Aremu, Mukaila Ayanda (Corresponding author) Department of Business Administration Faculty of Business and Social Sciences, University of Ilorin P. M. B. 1515, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria Tel: 234-803-671-8531 E-mail: aremuilalaa@yahoo.com, aremuilala@unilorin.edu.ng Bamiduro, Joseph Adefemi Department of Business Administration Faculty of Business and Social Sciences, University of Ilorin P. M. B. 1515, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria Tel: 234-802-034-5130 E-mail: fembam2005@yahoo.com Received: April 11, 2011 Accepted: September 7, 2011 Published: January 1, 2012 doi:10.5539/ijbm.v7n1p205 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v7n1p205 Abstract Marketing mix practice is increasingly been adopted in virtually all the sectors of the economy. Marketing mix practice has been a major determinant of any organization’s short run and long run success and differential advantage in any marketing environment. The need for marketing practice by entrepreneur cannot be over emphasized. Marketing mix practice is particularly important in entrepreneurial business in Nigeria today because of the volatility, highly competitive and the turbulent nature of the Nigerian marketing environment. Therefore, the paper attempts to use marketing mix variables as a means of enhancing entrepreneurial business performance. It suggested that adoption of marketing mix by entrepreneur will enable them to have competitive advantage and will serve as a panacea to the problems encountered in the marketing of their entrepreneurial business. Keywords: Marketing, Marketing mix, Entrepreneurial, Business and Performance 1. Introduction The evolution of different marketing practices with different produces and increased rate of competition brings about the need to develop marketing approach, which will serve as a platform for development and survival of the entrepreneurial business in both the short and long run. The stakeholders in entrepreneurial business must plan effectively and efficiently to ensure the steady growth of their business in the face of the depression being faced in developing countries such as Nigeria. Marketing affects the success of entrepreneurial ventures, and entrepreneurial approaches affect the success of marketing efforts, it would seem vital for marketers to understand entrepreneurship. Views of marketing as a dynamic, socially embedded process can be linked with complexity theory. Of the 12 main schools of marketing thought (Sheth et al., 1988), the two most influential are the managerial and the exchange schools. In combination, they make up a common definition of marketing management "the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of goods, ideas and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals" (Kotler, 2000). This definition could restrict attention to exchanges as "one-off" transactions that do not influence other, later transactions. However, an exchange can be embedded in a series of exchanges within an ongoing relationship over time. This view of marketing emphasises the "social embbeddedness" of the parties involved in exchanges (Brownlie et al., 1999; Granovetter, 1985) and recognises that marketing is about interrelated transactions rather than a one-off transaction. That is, "the effective marketing of a post modern era is to not accept and exploit