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This study systematically explores the literature on global niche market strategies within the fashion industry to allow the mapping of niche practices and examine the benefits, success factors and characteristics of a niche strategy. Additionally, it identifies data gaps and necessitates a detailed examination to uncover areas with inadequate information.

This study utilized the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA 2020) method for systematic review and included 70 studies to analyze their findings.

This systematic literature review pinpoints niche strategies shaping the future of the fashion industry while developing sectors of the textile and apparel industry, fashion technology, fashion retail business, fashion media and communication, luxury fashion, sustainable fashion, adaptive clothing and transgender fashion within the fashion supply chain. A niche market strategy utilizes both pull and push marketing in the fashion industry. Scholarly literature commonly underscores the understanding of the consumer as a pivotal factor in the success of fashion niche market strategy.

This review offers a comprehensive overview of fashion niche strategy practices, aiming to inspire fashion industry professionals. It also serves as a guide for fashion industry professionals, summarizing best practices across various fashion industry sectors to help develop effective niche strategy competencies for firms.

This review thoroughly analyzes niche strategy implementation in the fashion industry, presenting an important resource for individuals new to this sector. It highlights the significance of niche strategies in improving the comprehension of emerging participants in the fashion business.

This study aims to delve into the lived experiences, challenges and visions of women entrepreneurs in Jordan, placing a magnifying glass on those spearheading or co-pioneering start-ups. It aims to understand the myriad factors that influence their entrepreneurial journey, from motivation to the future of their niche.

Adopting a qualitative lens, this study is anchored in semi-structured interviews encompassing 20 Jordanian women entrepreneurs. Following this, thematic analysis was deployed to dissect and categorize the garnered insights into ten salient themes.

The study reveals that personal experiences and challenges are pivotal in directing these women towards niche markets, aligning with the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Tools such as digital instruments, customer feedback and innovative strategies like storytelling and augmented reality are integral to their entrepreneurial success, resonating with the resource-based view (RBV). Additionally, challenges like cultural barriers and infrastructural limitations are navigated through adaptive strategies, reflecting the resilience inherent in these entrepreneurs. Networking, mentorship, embracing technological advancements and implementing sustainable practices are highlighted as crucial elements underpinned by the social identity theory (SIT).

Contrary to the extant body of research, this study provides new insights into the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in Jordan, highlighting the practical relevance of theories like TPB, RBV and SIT for both policymakers and the start-up community in niche markets.

This paper aims to study whether international niche market leaders (INMLs) gained their leading position as early mover or diligent follower, and assess whether they leveraged hard or soft forms of technological, supply pre-emption and customer lock-in advantage mechanisms.

Empirical material stems from qualitative and quantitative data on a sample of 20 niche companies from the Basque Country (Spain) that operate in business to business markets.

The sample predominantly followed an early entrant strategy and applied soft measures to reach niche market leadership.

Findings imply that early entering fosters conquering leadership in niche markets, that pioneer advantage is easier to sustain in niches than in mainstream markets, and that soft measures are more effective in niche markets than in larger markets. A limitation to our findings is that they follow from explorative research on a sample of firms from a reduced geographic setting.

Hidden champions and INMLs can be important sources of technological progress and economic value for the localities that host them. Therefore, despite their traditional low profile and the fact that they are not always the largest firms around, policymakers may want to pay more attention to this type of companies.

Tot he best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to research entry timing and its outcome for market leadership with regard to niche players or hidden champions-type of firms. It introduces an original taxonomy to operationalize and distinguish between hard and soft measures to leverage advantage mechanisms related to market entry timing.

Construction enterprises increase their competitive advantage by joining the project ecosystem, but the dual nature of the enterprise’s niche has attracted attention, and existing research has gaps in understanding niche and ecosystem governance issues. This study aims to promote ecosystem compliance governance by exploring the impact of the niche of the key role of construction enterprises on compliance behavior.

First, the study proposes a model on the impact of the enterprise's niche on its compliance behavior and the mediating role of the enterprise's perception of sanctions and the moderating role of a shared vision for compliance of ecological partners within these relationships. Second, we used 205 samples, who were Chinese contractors with international construction project experience through a questionnaire survey. Third, the study conducted a hierarchical regression to test the hypothesis.

The results show that construction enterprises with a wider niche or with a higher degree of niche overlap are more inclined to performance compliance. Enterprises' perception of sanctions plays a part in mediating the enterprise's niche and compliance behavior. The relationship between enterprises' perception of sanctions and compliance behavior can be moderated by the shared vision for compliance of ecological partners. Given a low compliance shared vision of ecological partners, the impact of enterprise perception of sanctions on compliance behavior is positively stronger.

The findings provide valuable evidence upon which ecosystem governance needs to focus and leverage the role of key members, using the advantageous resources of key members as a fulcrum to leverage a larger governance scope. Construction enterprises should keep improving their niche and the shared vision for partners' compliance to promote the evolution and upgrading of cooperation to an ecosystem model that creates greater value.

This study provides new insights for future compliance governance in the project ecosystem by introducing the concept of niche and answering whether construction enterprises with a higher niche in the project ecosystem are more willing to implement compliance behavior.

The purpose of this article is twofold. First, this study characterises the current state of the bio-packaging market's development. Second, it identifies key factors influencing and possible scenarios of the bio-packaging market transition to increase the market share of compostable packaging.

The results of 29 in-depth interviews (IDIs) with representatives of the key groups of bio-packaging supply chains' (SCs') stakeholders were the input for the consideration of the research problem.

The main economic, legal, social and technological enablers and barriers to the bio-packaging regime transition are recognised, and their impact at the market level is explained. The authors recognised the hybrid transition scenario towards an increase in the market share of compostable packaging related to the three traditional pathways of transformation, reconfiguration and technological substitution.

This study contributes to a better understanding of the socio-technical system theory by examining interdependencies between landscape (external environment), market regime (bio-packaging market) and niche innovations (compostable packaging) as well as system transition pathways. The findings and conclusions on bio-packaging market developments can be important lessons learnt to be applied in different countries due to the same current development stage of the compostable packaging lifecycle worldwide.

The principal objective of the study is to analyze the influence of ethnicity, culture and collective intelligence in entrepreneurial creativity, innovation and marketing of artisanal beer in Mexico.

The qualitative data have been gathered by conducting four workshops with twelve respondents in each workshop across four states of Mexico comprising Mexico City, Puebla, Queretaro and Guadalajara. These workshops were held for four hours during the pre-lunch period over the weekends, which was participated by a mix of entrepreneurs and consumers.

Artisanal entrepreneurship is driven by the culture, ethnicity, collective intelligence and frugal innovations. Ethnic products generate patriotic feeling and consumption for a social cause to encourage artisans at the grassroots with the local tags. Results also indicate that social media and crowd cognition play an important role in developing creative artisanal beer.

This study is founded on the theoretical maxims of social learning theory (SCT), social cognitive theory and theory of creativity. The contextual interpretation of SCT explains the socialization of concepts by modelling emotions and behavior to derive structural experiences as observed in artisanal entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurs can develop brand emotions, boost anthropomorphic feelings and inculcate the sense of nationalism among consumers to market ethnic brands and develop social consciousness towards consumption of “Made in Mexico” products.

Artisanal beer face major challenge of customer outreach by enhancing the brand proximity and ethnic values. Ethnic products hold a strong image in niche market and need to be stimulated by the experience sharing through social media and community interactions.

This research study significantly contributes to the existing literature on ethnic entrepreneurship and creativity using innovative research approach.

This paper aims to explore how traditional industries revert the trend of decline in sales through rebranding by analyzing the extended case study of the fountain pen industry.

This study analyzes the marketing in case study of the fountain pen industry through two coordinates – symbolizing status and branding nostalgia. The division of analyses in these categories is supplanted by data, such as linear regression to analyze changes in product characteristics.

This study finds that the rebranding of the fountain pen in multiple fitting images – status symbol, object of nostalgia and something scarce and unique – is successful in capturing consumer demand, shaping consumer perceptions and help the mature industry locate as well as enter a niche market.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first one to explore the business development of traditional industry as a case study of fountain pens from the perspective of marketing and consumer behavior.

The study explores the evolution of Indian domestic electronics manufacturing post-economic reforms and also investigates the lack of natural growth stages among Indian start-up/SME electronics manufactures.

The theoretical framework is inspired by Dawar and Frost's survival strategy theory that local companies may follow to overcome competitive threats from MNCs. The study adopts a qualitative methodology, more precisely, a phenomenological approach to walking through policy/regulatory reforms amid market distortions, technological gaps and colonial mindset from the perspective of Indian domestic electronics manufacturers. The study has adopted Gioia method of data analysis to inductively suggest a few research propositions.

The phenomenological approach revealed eight essential structure (essence) narratives to explore the complex issue that plague the industry: make in India, made in India, preferential market access strategy, equitable market access strategy, blue ocean strategy, competitive positioning strategy, technical capability and importance of policy/regulatory arbitrage.

The situation of Indian electronics manufacturing units is comparable to the bonsai tree situation, where natural evolution in business stages does not exist; they are born and die as start-ups/MSMEs. The study advocates for equitable market access by removing market distortions. The long-term solution may lie in making available locally manufactured products as a dependable alternative to the imported products or produced locally by MNC OEMs in terms of cost, quality, technology, volume, after-sale service and integrated supply chain.

While the favorable FDI policies, digital India and make-in India initiatives have strengthened domestic electronics production, it is yet to significantly impact India's position in global trade, including manufacturing and exports.

After completion of the case study, students will be able to enumerate the unique characteristics of business-to-business (B2B) versus business-to-consumer marketing, explore strategic positioning and how niche marketing can create a competitive advantage, deduce the significance of core values in corporate culture and decision-making, explore innovative partnership and talent acquisition models, infer the role of educational marketing in sectors where clients are not fully aware of their needs and apply strategic decision-making to balance short- and long-term goals in terms of profitability and growth.

This case study tells the story of BarkB2B, a boutique marketing firm specialized exclusively in B2B marketing. Founded in Egypt in 2018, BarkB2B focused on creating long-lasting partnerships with clients in industries such as IT, logistics, construction and renewable energy. The case explores the critical aspects of BarkB2B’s business model and offers a comprehensive view of real-world challenges and opportunities in the B2B marketing landscape. It helps learners understand strategic positioning, core values in decision-making, innovative partnership-based business models, the role of educational marketing and the complexities associated with growth. It concludes by highlighting the dilemma faced by BarkB2B’s founder and managing director Naela Sakr as she reflects on the challenge of maintaining the company’s positioning while achieving greater profitability and growth.

The case study is intended for undergraduate and graduate students in marketing, strategic marketing, consumer behavior and entrepreneurship courses. It is also beneficial for marketing professionals, entrepreneurs, corporate training and executive education programs.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

This paper aims to shed new light on the contextual embeddedness of intersectional entrepreneurs, i.e. entrepreneurs situated at the intersection of multiple marginalized diversity attributes, beyond simply business strategies and decisions. Taking an emic perspective on everyday practices as intersectional entrepreneurs, it uncovers neglected dimensions of the contextuality of intersectional discriminations.

The study presents qualitative data analysis results of in-depth narrative interviews with six intersectional entrepreneurs, all LGBTIQA* entrepreneurs with further diversity dimensions. It provides an emic view of intersectional entrepreneurs, in their everyday lives and the contexts, in which they develop their businesses.

Intersectional entrepreneurs face different burdens induced by social structures along the entrepreneurial process. While access to the niche market is more difficult and they lack community support, their realization of intersectional discrimination is crucial for the development of business strategies. Simultaneously, intersectional entrepreneurs use their specific diversity attributes to develop their business, yet this proximity of their identity and the business contents has severe consequences for their mental state. Intersectional entrepreneurs adjust to the balance of opportunity and vulnerability.

As intersectional entrepreneurs are barred from conventional institutional support and also have limited access to resources from their respective social networks, there is an urgency to provide specific support for such entrepreneurs.