Recently the effectiveness of entrepreneurial marketing (EM) for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has been largely discussed. Researchers have suggested unlearning administrative marketing and moving towards EM considering its effectiveness in the current volatile environment. Despite such large applicability and acceptability of EM for achieving success and competitive advantage, its research and practice remain sparse in developing countries. According to the report of IBM and Oxford Economies &ldquoEntrepreneurial India&rdquo 9 out of 10 SMEs fails within initial five years. Since SMEs account for more than 90% of Indian firms and contribute 38% of GDP, reducing the failure rate has become essential. Previous studies have explored the issue through fields like finance, owners&rsquo characteristics, and human resources however very few studies have explored the problems through marketing lens. On the other hand, majority of studies on EM and SMEs in the developed countries have considered them as &ldquouniform object of analysis&rdquo (considers service, manufacturing, construction and retail based SMEs as same). However, the research findings may not be relevant or directly applicable across various industries due to their distinctive operations and offerings. Considering the gaps, this study aims to investigate the effect of EM on manufacturing-based SMEs, as this sector has been reported to be the most affected sector after aviation and tourism. The study propose to explore the distinctive strategies and operational activities followed by manufacturing-based SMEs operating in developing economies like India and their impact on performance. The study aims to analyse the mediating effect of innovative performance (relevant to compete against large organisation) and organisational agility (important to survive in uncertain environment) in the relationship between EM and manufacturing-based SME. The research also examines the moderating role of business ties in such relationships (mediated moderation). The result indicates that EM significantly impacts both innovation and SME performance. Furthermore, the innovative performance partially mediates the link between EM and SME performance. Likewise, the findings demonstrate that EM is positively related to OA and the performance of manufacturing-based SME However, the study reveals that BT negatively moderates the direct and indirect relationship between EM and SME performance.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial marketing, small and medium enterprises, innovative performance, organisational agility, business ties