A comparison of the relationship marketing outcomes of SMEs vs large enterprises in the Kuwait fast food industry

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of retail chain size on a variety of relationship marketing performance measures in the Kuwait fast food industry. These include customer satisfaction, customer retention, penetration rate, preference ranking and share of customer. Design/methodology/approach - A total of 49 fast food chains, operating a total of 508 restaurants, were included in the study. Interviews with the home office marketing managers of each chain were conducted. In addition, a quota sample of 650 consumers representative of the Kuwait population with respect to age and gender was selected for participation in the study. Findings - Findings suggest that large enterprises (LE) exhibit superior outcomes than small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on many relationship marketing (RM) performance dimensions, including satisfaction, retention, penetration, preference and share of customer. In contrast, SMEs appear to have few advantages in achieving RM outcomes over LEs. Larger firms appear to use their superior resources to take actions to develop and manage customer relationships in ways that smaller firms cannot. Originality/value - Kuwait is an important emerging market in the Middle East, and managers need to understand the dynamics of this specific market.