Marketing strategies of ethnic minority businesses in the UK

Altınay, Levent; Altinay, Eser

doi:10.1080/02642060802187967

Cited by 26 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Ethnic minority enterprises have been characterised as having limited financial resources (Bates and Robb, 2013). Hence it is important for them to acquire and leverage a wide range of other resources, which they must adapt to their needs (Altinay and Altinay, 2008). It is this centrality of resource mustering and mobilisation that makes entrepreneurial marketing, with its focus on resources (Hills and Hultman, 2013), an apposite lens for the consideration of ethnic minority businesses.…”

Section: Marketing and Ethnic Entrepreneurshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In some cases this was due to lack of opportunity and for others, particularly those from outside Europe, lack of recognition of their qualifications. Education has also been found to influence the approach to marketing adopted by ethnic minority entrepreneurs, with those with more education adopting more of a relationship and strategic approach to marketing, 9 including analysing the wider socio-economic forces on their ventures (Altinay and Altinay, 2008).…”

Section: Human Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(Altinay and Altinay, 2008;Sepulveda et al, 2011). Limited capitalisation restricts the sectors that such entrepreneurs can enter to those with low entry barriers, where competition is likely to be most severe.…”

Section: Financial Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whilst many studies have considered ethnic minority entrepreneurship, fewer have considered the important topic of marketing in such businesses, (e.g. Altinay and Altinay, 2008;Basu, 2011;Jamal, 2005; which given the importance of marketing is a significant omission for both practitioners and academe. In particular, we are unaware of other studies that have applied an entrepreneurial marketing lens despite its unique consideration of limited resources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Entrepreneurial marketing in online businesses

Anwar

Daniel

2016

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PurposeMany countries are seeing unprecedented levels of migration, raising questions about the economic contribution of individuals that settle in host countries. We explore the operation of online businesses by ethnic minority entrepreneurs. We apply an entrepreneurial marketing lens to explore how such entrepreneurs draw on the resources to market their businesses. We also consider if online businesses offer such entrepreneurs the opportunity to break out of the highly competitive sectors with which they are traditionally associated. Design/methodology/approachKey informant interviews are undertaken with 22 entrepreneurs operating online businesses in the UK and augmented by complementary sources of data such as their web sites and press coverage. FindingsUse of an entrepreneurial marketing perspective demonstrates that marketing in such businesses is not haphazard or chaotic. Rather it reflects the emergent and flexible use of resources. The affordances of online businesses appear to offer opportunities for break out, but the reliance on incremental experimentation and copying others results in highly homogeneous approaches to marketing. We also provide empirical evidence of the link between visa status and entrepreneurial choices. Originality/valueDespite the popularity of online businesses, previous studies have not explored them as an opportunity for ethnic minority entrepreneurs. Our study moves the 2 consideration of break out from market-entry to the ongoing marketing activities that sustain a business. It also demonstrates how the domains of ethnic minority entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial marketing can be brought together via a focus on resources. Finally, it enriches entrepreneurial marketing by evidencing connections with notions of effectuation and entrepreneur-venture fit.

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Section: Marketing and Ethnic Entrepreneurshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Human Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Financial Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Entrepreneurial marketing in online businesses

Anwar

Daniel

2016

QMR

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“…Compared to the market sectors traditionally associated with ethnic groups (Altinay and Altinay, 2008;Altinay, 2010), the majority of the informants had entered sectors, which whilst highly competitive, are growth sectors, such as web hosting, e-marketing and business services, and therefore offer the opportunities for reasonable revenues. The extremely low operating costs of online home-based businesses helped ensure that the informants could retain a significant proportion of these revenues as profits, resulting in the financial rewards described by some of the informants.…”

Section: Economic: Market Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnic entrepreneurs and online home-based businesses: an exploratory study

Anwar

Daniel

2017

J Glob Entrepr Res

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This exploratory, qualitative study considers how online home-based businesses offer opportunities for ethnic entrepreneurs to 'break out' of traditional highly competitive and low margin sectors. Previous studies have found a positive association between ethnic minorities' high levels of entrepreneurship and home computer use in ethnic groups. Despite these associations, previous studies have overlooked the particular opportunities offered by home-based online businesses to ethnic entrepreneurs. The study adopts mixed embeddedness as a theoretical lens to guide interviews with 22 ethnic entrepreneurs who have started online home-based businesses in the UK. We find online home-based businesses offer ethnic entrepreneurs novel opportunities to draw on their ethnic advantages and address the constraints they face. The unique affordances of this type of business allow entrepreneurs to develop the necessary IT skills by self-learning and experimentation and to sub-contract more difficult or time consuming aspects to others. The findings also show that, consistent with the theory of mixed embeddedness, whilst the entrepreneurs are influenced by social, economic and institutional forces, online businesses allow them to exert their own agency and provide opportunities to uniquely shape these forces.

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