Exploratory study of ethnic entrepreneurs from Sri Lanka: how they enhance customer trust and loyalty in the UK

Small-medium enterprises (SME) play a vital role in any economy. Over 90% of the UK job market and employment relies on the jobs generated by these SMEs. The recent pandemic situation in the UK has demonstrated governmental concern and support for these businesses. Thus, entrepreneurship can be regarded as the driver of these SMEs. Among them, ethnic minority entrepreneurship also plays a significant part of the UK economy. Nevertheless, Sri Lankan ethnic entrepreneurs in the UK and their characteristics have rarely been mentioned in the UK literature. Recently, scholars have turned their attention to ethnic minority ventures to study the intangible resources, such as customer service skills. However, current ethnic minority entrepreneurship research in the UK relating to understanding customer trust and loyalty practices is a relatively under-researched area. Therefore, this research attempts to address the empirical (Sri Lankan) and theoretical gap (customer trust and loyalty practices in the ethnic minority entrepreneurship) found in the literature. The study employed an inductive qualitative inquiry with multiple cases focused on ethnic minority entrepreneurs in the retail (grocery) context. Unstructured in-depth interviews with field notes have been used for data collection, and a thematic technique adopted for coding/analysis of the data. The findings suggested that ethnic culture plays a vital role in shaping their entering into the business, success perception and access to entrepreneurial resources (e.g. human, financial and labour capital). Importantly, findings also revealed that Sri Lankan entrepreneurs are enhancing customer trust and loyalty in multiple ways. First, they focus on a customer-centric approach/ service to increase customer satisfaction. Second, they tend to develop a good business reputation over time by managing/practising business ethics. Lastly, thesis findings also argue that their culture may have influenced them to maintain their business reputation by practising good business ethics. Both theoretical and empirical contributions are highlighted and the implications of this research study for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers are discussed. In addition, the research limitations and future research paths are mentioned.