A common perspective within the literature is that, though family businesses tend to
have a customer-focussed strategy in marketing and operating their business, there
is no direct tie to the performance of the business as a whole (Craig et al., 2008).
Accordingly, the view that marketing and customer-focussed initiatives will not affect
overall competitive ability with regard to large format big box retailers is pervasive.
Future empirical inquiry and effective communication of these data could help small
family-owned businesses. We hope the present research provides meaningful insights
on which future research can expand.