Dr Christina O'Connor, Lecturer in Marketing at the School of Business at Maynooth University and her colleagues from Queens University Professor Geoff Simmons and Grace Carson, have published an exciting piece of work in the Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development. This research explores how market intelligence is shown to be crucial in the development of small business marketing capabilities and in the implementation of more formalized marketing strategies that allow small businesses to create value for customers and improve their performance. However, the level to which market intelligence is utilized and marketing capabilities are developed is found to be considerably influenced by the small business owner-manager and firm learning. The researchers believe that it is imperative that small businesses acknowledge the practical benefits of market intelligence and harness these advantages accordingly. However, owner-managers must be motivated to encourage the development of more formalized marketing capabilities and act incisively upon the information derived from market intelligence. This conceptual work is based upon the insight gleaned through a four year project undertaken in Northern Ireland with small agri-food and drink producers and dunnhumby data. To check out the full publication, please see https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JSBED-12-2019-0394/full/html