An empirical study investigating the implementation of the marketing excellence in small food enterprises

Purpose This study extends the theoretical understanding of how marketing excellence practices (MEPs) influence “Organizational-Success” in the resource-constrained environment of small food enterprises (SFEs) compared to large food enterprises (LFEs). This research has three main aims: (1) Identification of key marketing constructs and a hypothesized model from literature, (2) validation of the constructs then integrating them in a structural equation model (SEM) in the context of SFEs. (3) Propose a novel framework for MEP implementation, tailored for SFEs. Design/methodology/approach A bibliographic graph network was developed to decipher the importance of key research themes of the food sector, highlighting the limited penetration in the SFEs. A survey questionnaire was designed to collect the sample, which includes respondents from a varied range of, work experience, education levels, job positions and meal types. The respondents of the questionnaire were hotel cooks, waiters, and cashiers with 1–10 years of experience. Six major constructs were identified- “Marketing4.0”, “Brand-Management”, “Culinary-Innovation”, “User-Engagement”, “Promotional-Strategies” and “Organizational-Success”. For the confirmation and effectiveness of the constructs, SEM was developed. Findings The conceptual model highlights different practical aspects of SFEs. It shows that “Marketing 4.0” directly influences an organization’s success, but it also works through “User-Engagement” and “Promotional-Strategies”. In other words, “Brand-Management”, “Marketing4.0”, and “Culinary-Innovation” alone don’t lead to “Organizational-Success” unless they are mediated by “Promotional-Strategies” and “User-Engagement”. This means these elements are dependent on each other. Therefore, implementing a well-structured approach – like MEP – is essential for achieving consistent success. Research limitations/implications The study impacts academia, lawmakers and SFE owners. This study validates key constructs of marketing excellence and proposes an SFE-specific structural model. Restaurant employees can develop a comprehensive marketing plan together to promote their brand and achieve goals. The practice of innovated culinary items in SFE is crucial to sustain, but requires curated “Promotional-Strategies”. SFEs may improve their marketing and communicate their mission using the insights. Originality/value This study employs qualitative and quantitative methodologies to demonstrate SFEs’ complete and pragmatic usage of marketing excellence. SEM confirms six main ME performance constructs and their empirical correlations in the proposed paradigm. The proposed framework addresses SFEs’ disorganized responses to formative constructs where ME theories are applied.