Conceptualizing Marketing Management Process in Knowledge Based Businesses: The Case of the Arāk Science and Technology Park

Research on knowledge-based businesses is proliferating in today's competitive economy. Nowadays, it is extremely obvious that marketing management process is significantly affecting management of knowledge-based businesses. However, there is a lack of academic research in this field and the current relevant literature is quite poor. This paper aims to conceptualize the marketing management process of knowledge-based businesses in the Arāk Science and Technology Park. To this end, the qualitative approach, and particularly, the strategy of mixed case study is adopted. First a purposive (criterion-based) sampling method is selected and then in-depth semi-structured interview is performed through putting open question to ten owner/managers/entrepreneurs in the Arāk Science and Technology Park. Findings of the study show that marketing management process in knowledge-based businesses is implemented in the seven successive phases as follows: identifying and understanding the customer's needs; developing products, services and processes to fulfill customer's needs; effective penetration pricing of products and services; identifying competitors; localizing and facilitating the customer's access to products and services; ensuring customer's satisfaction during and after the exchange process and finally establishing long term relationships with customers.