Utilizing entrepreneurs’ cultural capital as marketing strategies in the restaurant industry

Abstract: Immigrant entrepreneurs who get involved in the restaurant industry face different challenges to promote their restaurants and attract new customers. However, immigrant entrepreneurs’ cultural capital is an important asset that can be exploited to overcome these challenges. This paper seeks to identify and explore what is the cultural capital that immigrant entrepreneurs use as marketing strategies in the restaurant industry. It also describes the marketing acculturation process that their marketing strategies have gone through along the start-up and development phases of their restaurants. This study is based on four case studies of four restaurants located in Lund and Gotland (Sweden) using a qualitative approach through first-hand interviews and direct observation. The data analysis consists on case analysis and between-case analysis methods to gain an in- depth analysis of every restaurant and identify similar patterns in the cases, respectively. The research’s findings show that the main cultural capital used by immigrant entrepreneurs as marketing strategies is knowledge of the product, cultural values, and the entrepreneurs’ network through word-of-mouth. Moreover, social media and service marketing were identified as essential marketing strategies since they can incorporate all cultural capital including knowledge of the product, network, family, cultural values, and employment of co- immigrants. Additionally, the entrepreneurs from the case studies went through an acculturation process that consisted on learning the market culture and adapting their marketing strategies. The study suggests that the geographical context should be extended to gain a broader perspective of entrepreneurs from different immigrant backgrounds located in other cities. Moreover, the methodology of this research can be used as a process to explore additional cultural capital that immigrant entrepreneurs can count on. Likewise, immigrant entrepreneurs might use the research’s findings to identify their own cultural capital and the acculturation process to maximize their marketing strategies. Keywords: immigrant entrepreneurs, cultural capital, marketing strategies, marketing acculturation.