Abstract:  Small and micro enterprises (SMEs) contribute significantly to China’s economic development and people’s livelihood but have high failure rates. This prominent contradiction has aroused great concern in the management field. However, previous related research addressing this issue seems to be cut into two independent fields: entrepreneurship and marketing. Researchers in entrepreneurship field have been overemphasized on the liability of new ventures, neglecting the fact that new ventures can also benefit from their distinct advantages. Marketing scholars have fully studied the strategies to improve the marketing performance of enterprises, but mainly focusing on large and medium-sized enterprises. SMEs possess the characteristics of both small enterprises and start-ups. The feature of SMEs including the organizational structures, management means and market environments they facing is quite different from those of the mature large and medium-sized enterprises, so that the traditional marketing theory is often ineffective for SMEs in some degree. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate the research findings from these two areas above to establish a marketing performance improvement model which fully considering the special characteristics of SMEs.
The previous study usually identified newness of start-ups as various disadvantages. Indeed, new ventures actually have some unique strengths that mature enterprises do not possess. Assets of newness (AoNs) are defined as some positive characteristics that start-ups rather than mature enterprises possess. This kind of asset is only related to the age of the enterprise, and often manifested as a novel appearance. It originates from the short time of the establishment of the enterprise and in turn has been endowed with many positive characteristics by stakeholders. Nagy et al. (2014) first propose that AoNs comprise of seven dimensions, including the technology level, organizational age, reliability, usability, responsibility, organization elasticity and energy.
When start-ups make use ofAoNs, they only need to make use of the external image of the enterprise rather than substantive marketing activities to show all kinds of benefits that only new ventures own. All these characteristics, as well as the related positive associations and perceptions of customers, will contribute to growth of start-ups in their early stages. Meanwhile, unlike other types of legitimacy, cognitive legitimacy can be enhanced through knowledge development based on symbolic language, symbolic action and myth. The majority of SMEs often use symbolic information resources to create legitimacy because of their lack of resources and ability to conduct any substantive marketing actions. AoNs show potential customers a positive "stereotype" of new organizations. These impressions are just fit with the consumers ideal image of corporations. Therefore, they could increase customers’ perception of cognitive legitimacy of new ventures. In light of the characteristics of AoNs and the positive impacts of cognitive legitimacy on the marketing performances, three hypotheses are put forward: H1:AoNs could have positive influence on marketing performance of SMEs ; H2: AoNs could have positive influence on customers’ perception of cognitive legitimacy of SMEs ; H3: Customers’ perception of cognitive legitimacy plays a mediating role on the relationship between AoNs and marketing performance of SMEs.
Customer orientation usually doesn’t have a direct impact on the marketing performance of SMEs, but it can take indirect effects through various mediating mechanisms, such as innovation, product quality, etc. It is urgent for new ventures to gain legitimacy in order to show their stakeholders that they have the qualifications and abilities to participate in the market and ultimately get essential resources from stakeholders. Star-ups can conduct substantive marketing actions to satisfy the requirements of the external environment to achieve cognitive legitimacy. Through the implementation of customer orientation, new ventures can respond quickly and appropriately to customer needs, thus they can quickly obtain customers’ perception of cognitive legitimacy of new ventures, and ultimately lead to the improvement of customer satisfaction and the improvement of enterprise marketing performance. three hypotheses are put forward: H4: Customer orientation has a positive impact on the marketing performance of SMEs; H5:Customer orientation has a positive impact on customers’ perception of cognitive legitimacy; H6: Customers’ perception of cognitive legitimacy plays a mediating role between the relationship between customer orientation and the marketing performance of SMEs.
When competitors in the market are aggressive, they not only draw the attention of the target customers, but also enhance customers’ expectations for the excellent enterprises in the industry. Consequently, it becomes more difficult for start-ups to satisfy the potential customers. We propose two hypotheses: H7:The higher the market competition intensity is, the smaller the impact ofAoNs on customers’ perception of cognitive legitimacy is. H8:The higher the market competition intensity is, the smaller the impact of customer orientation on customers’ perception of cognitive legitimacy is.
Based on legitimacy theory from entrepreneurship research and marketing strategy theory from the marketing field, this study builds up an integrated theoretical framework on how to improve SMEs’ marketing performance from the perspective of the customer. The model is empirical tested by conducting a structural equation model and multi-level regression analysis based on the questionnaire survey data of 653 SMEs from online sample service. The results show that：(1) The marketing performance of SMEs could be improved by utilizing AoNs as well as conducting customer orientation, while AoNs have greater impacts than customer orientation. (2) Customers’ perception of cognitive legitimacy contributes greatly to the marketing performance of SMEs, and also mediates the relationship between AoNs and the marketing performance of SMEs, customer orientation and the marketing performance of SMEs. (3) Competitive intensity exerts a moderating effect on the relationship between AoNs and customers’ perception of cognitive legitimacy. When the competitive intensity is high, the role of AoNs on customers’ perception of cognitive legitimacy will become smaller, and the influences of customer orientation on customers’ perception of cognitive legitimacy will decrease, either.
This study enriches our understanding of the marketing performance of SMEs in China, and sheds light on theAoNs in the marketing research field. It provides a new perspective and direction for the new small and micro enterprises to improve and enhance their marketing performance practice. Chinese entrepreneurs are encouraged to make full use of their own advantages and should pay more attention to the cognitive legitimacy from the perspective of customers.

Key words: assets of newness, small and micro enterprise (SME), customer orientation, legitimacy perception, market competitive intensity