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This chapter examines how the everyday interactions that are fostered with the circulation of debt impact the socioeconomic order in which they operate. Employing the theoretical framework of “circuits of commerce,” scholars have examined how social relations and economic activities intertwine, are negotiated and transformed through the circulation of debt. The focus of such studies has been on the motives of actors, such as the desire for relationship-making, and structural conditions, like the inaccessibility of formal institution, that necessitate the emergence of debt-centered circuits of commerce (Hampton, 2003; Heslop, 2016; James, 2014). However, such circuits also have broader impacts and affect socially pervasive moral evaluations and work cultures (Ho, 2009; Zelizer, 2011). Building on these findings, I examine commission-based alliances among showroom owners and tour guides in Agra’s tourism market to understand how “bad debt” between them shapes Agra’s local tourism economy.

This chapter is based on ethnographic research conducted in 2012–2013 with Agra’s tourism entrepreneurs, like showroom owners, tour guides, and convincers.

Entrepreneurs’ everyday practices around the circulation of debt impact how tourism in Agra is perceived and conducted. Although debt is initiated to mitigate uncertainty of getting clientele, its circulation exacerbates that very uncertainty.

This chapter contributes to the theory of economic practice, highlighting how economic actors, through their everyday practices, shape the macro-structure of the economic system in which they operate.

It is imperative to offer a new perspective of Entrepreneurial Growth Intention (EGI) that draws directly upon the capability approach. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of capabilities in the context of EGI in the floriculture industry in Sri Lanka.

The study was exploratory and is mainly qualitative in nature. In-depth interviews were carried out with the owners of farms who possess experience in floriculture commercial cultivation in Sri Lanka.

The results emerged that there are different perspectives among farm owners regarding EGI. Drawing attention on the stories of our participants and making a three-phase analysis, we identified 31 key actions denoted by the farm owners. This work then suggests that the seven capabilities might be fruitfully framed around EGI.

As the results stress the role of capabilities in the formation of an entrepreneur's growth intention is vital. Therefore, more targeted measures should be drawn to build fair and supportive facilities to obtain advanced knowledge, to familiarise with the emergence of technology and to attain professional services specifically in financial literacy.

The question of what factors influence EGI at the farm level is still largely unexplored as less is known about the effect of capabilities on EGI. The study expands the current debates on EGI and institutional environment, which allows the mapping out of capability development.

One of the case writers worked as a student in the summer of 2018 in EnoLight, which provided the inspiration for the case. The first author is not tied to the company and provides an unbiased perspective. The information presented in the case and the quotes were sourced from an interview with Farzad Moghiman in the Fall of 2018, email and phone follow-up with him, and information the second author remembered from his time at EnoLight, which was approved later by Farzad. Supplementary information was obtained from online sources, as cited in the case.

Farzad Moghiman, president of EnoLight, has a vision to revolutionize the use of light and bring it to the forefront of artistic designs. The company was founded in late 2016. Over a year was spent developing the business plan, finding additional partners, establishing the company as a limited partnership, finding and negotiating with suppliers and beta-testing its products. It is now time for Farzad to start selling as his funds, which were his lifetime savings, is running out. He knew the first decision to make was the target market. Identifying the first segment to target would help him select the distribution channel and other marketing plan elements.

The main objective of this case is to segment the market and identify the most attractive segment to target. This case offers an opportunity for students to segment both consumer and business markets and experience the significant impact of selecting the target market on other marketing mix elements. Furthermore, students are exposed to the difficulties of a start-up environment, resource constraints and a lack of market credibility – bearing these factors in mind while generating realistic alternatives. This case can be used in an introductory marketing course.

1. Apply segmentation variables to segment both business and consumer markets and understand how segmentation and targeting impact other marketing decisions.2. Evaluate different customer segments to select the target market.3. Develop the best positioning strategy for a new startup company.4. Recommend an segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) plan that meets the company’s financial objective.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the motivations that lie behind the choice of the “temporary store” as a marketing tool, with particular reference to the fashion sector in Italy. In the UK and the USA, the more usual terminology is “pop‐up store”.

The study adopts a qualitative approach, in the form of case studies of two fashion brands using temporary stores in Italy. Data were collected by in‐depth interviews with senior representatives of the two firms, backed by available documentary evidence and observation. Similarities and differences between the two sets of findings were identified and analysed, and conclusions drawn.

This exploratory study points to the need for further investigation, but its findings provide researchers and practitioners with new information about the use of the temporary store as a marketing tool, and the managerial implications. Though still in its infancy in Italy, it is becoming increasingly common elsewhere, especially in the form of “pop‐up stores” in the USA and the UK.

The study provides interesting and relevant information for marketing planners considering the use of temporary stores, in the fashion sector in Italy but also more widely.

The temporary store has been studied from an exploratory perspective, not simply described, as is the case in of the rather limited material available in the specialist media. Therefore, the study makes a significant contribution to the body of knowledge in the field.

The purpose of this paper is to frame the guidelines for brand building for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and evaluate the role of the entrepreneur in the brand management process.

A qualitative study comprising in-depth interviews of 20 Indian MSME entrepreneurs who had experience with brand-building was conducted. The entrepreneurs were probed regarding the brand management process and their role in the brand-building efforts in their organization. The guidelines that emerged from the study were compared and contrasted with those proposed in Krake’s model, and a new model for brand-building is proposed.

The improvised new model highlights the importance of “name of the brand”, “managing finance simultaneously” and “exit strategy” as important factors for the creation of a successful brand, amongst other factors revealed in extant literature. The interviews also reveal that an MSME headed by a passionate entrepreneur who accommodates professional expertise witnesses a greater chance of success.

In spite of the growing importance of SMEs, scant attention has been paid to the issue of branding in SMEs. This study contributes to the literature on branding and small business research by examining and advancing the brand-building guidelines developed by Krake. It further looks at the role of the entrepreneur in the entire process of brand building in the increasingly evolving Indian market.

What is your company's customer retention rate? How many customers are price defectors? Have you identified barriers that prevent customers from switching to a competitor? In this article, the author outlines a game plan to increase customer retention.

Retail networks present new challenges in the business-to-business (B2B) collaboration between technology-based spinoffs and traditional businesses. This study aims to explore a public–private partnership (PPP) that leverages advanced digital technologies via spinoffs to tackle the key challenge of showrooming that retail shops are facing. Showrooming is the phenomenon in which shoppers go to the physical stores to gather in-depth product information, and later on, decide to buy the product from online retail competitors.

This research draws on a longitudinal qualitative study of a social context in which digital entrepreneurs are embedded. The empirical setting is a retail network in Italy, Germany and Finland with a particular focus on the process in which a PPP delivers innovation via spinoffs in the context of brick and mortar shops (B&M). The research design enables an understanding of the complexity of the phenomenon from a business and a social perspective.

New technology to tackle showrooming enables the creation of substantial hybrid value in retail partnerships. Spinoffs are key actors in leveraging digital technologies to create value faster and more tailored compared with large software companies. Spinoff entrepreneurs leverage on specific technologies (e.g. virtual reality and artificial intelligence) available inside organizations’ network (i.e. PPPs). Spinoffs are found to be a fundamental actor in the process of dealing with showrooming because of their time to market. Large software companies usually are not interested in approaching B&M shops because of the high operational costs of product customization for B&M shops.

Managers could use the success factors of the spinoffs in helping their B&M shops to improve both shopper experience and salesperson performance. For managers of B2B retail network, the results are useful towards increasing the involvement of shoppers while they are visiting physical stores, and it also improves salesperson performance. It also leads to the observation that cross-selling is one of the most effective responses to the phenomenon of showrooming. As practical implications for policymakers, the current research supports the view that PPPs should support the creation of spinoffs as a result of longitudinal innovation projects.

Retail technologies leveraged from a PPP and commercialized by spinoffs are powerful tools to enable a better quality of salespeople’s life in the working place. At the same time, these new technologies help shop owners increase the retention rates, conversion rates and reduce short-term loss, increasing the likelihood of B&M shops to survive in the condition of extreme competition caused by the showrooming phenomenon.

This research proposes a model of hybrid value creation from networks in digital retail. The model indicates that PPPs create spinoffs to explore showrooming and deliver substantial hybrid value (i.e. business and social) for physical retail shops, mainly because it influences the companies’ growth, employee performance and customer satisfaction. This model expands the field of B2B marketing by identifying factors that enable spinoff creation from retail networks and proposes success factors and research propositions in retail networks.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the phenomenon of “showrooming” in which shoppers use mobile devices in retail stores to check prices and other data on products that they then may buy online.

We conducted depth interviews with 50 consumers, 13 small retailers, and 6 large retailers.

We identified four distinct behavioral groups of customers and six strategies small retailers are currently using or could use to address the potential problems showrooming can create. We also identified a new type of reference pricing.

This research provides a guide researchers can use in further work on showrooming. The research consists of depth interviews. It is possible that other types of retailers may have developed other strategies not identified here or that a larger number of non-student participants would have identified other categories, though differences between students and non-students in our sample were not noteworthy.

This chapter provides a practical guide to small retailers as to how they can deal with the growing practice of showrooming, helping them to choose strategic responses based on the types of consumers they serve.

This is one of the first papers to be published in an academic journal on the value of showrooming. It provides a typology of consumers grouped by their behavior, that is, how and why they engage or don’t engage in showrooming. This can help academic researchers in future research as well as managers of small retail businesses. We also identified a new, third type of reference pricing.

After three years in business together, Des Carpenter and Kees Schaddelee had a decision to make – should they double the size of their location, based on the opportunities and competitive threats they perceived? The startup phase took longer than expected and access to distribution channels was more difficult than expected. Nonetheless, the business gained traction with online sales that proved the concept of custom-made counters using EnvironiteTM technology was viable. As they prepared to expand the business, the owner-managers needed to decide on a growth strategy that would let them leverage their strengths. In analyzing their successes so far, they needed to evaluate their business model including their product line, target markets, marketing strategy (including the pricing strategy, product lines, and channels of distribution) and operations.

Data were collected through interviews with business owners and a review of company documents, production processes and the company website.

This case exercise will suit strategy and entrepreneurship students at both the senior undergraduate level and graduate level. The case discussion will ask students to consider operations, supply chain management, marketing and other issues, all through the lens of a holistic vision for the company. This case may be taught as an example of a growth strategy or a business model in a capstone business strategy course or higher level entrepreneurship course. It is appropriate for both undergraduate seniors and graduate students.

This case may be taught as an example of a growth strategy or a business model in a capstone business strategy course or higher-level entrepreneurship course. The case may be used to help students understand external and internal analysis, identifying the sources of value creation and competitive advantage, and creating an appropriate strategy for growth. It provides a rich context to discuss and apply the following conceptual tools: the application of a value chain analysis and the application of a business model canvas (key partners, key activities, key resources, value propositions, customer relationships, distribution channels, customer segments, cost structure and revenue streams). The case may also be used to reinforce the applications of growth phases in a young firm that are part of the entrepreneurial setting, for example, value proposition, ideal customer, revenue streams and key performance indicators.