European Journal of Social Sciences

ISSN 1450-2267 Vol.26 No.3 (2011), pp. 340-357

© EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2011
http://www.europeanjournalofsocialsciences.com

Entrepreneurial Marketing-The Interface between

Marketing and Entrepreneurship: A Qualitative
Research on Boutique Hotels

Hulya Kurgun
Asst. Prof. Izmir Vocational School
Department of Economics and Administrative Programs
Dokuz Eylul University, Buca-İzmir, Turkey
E-mail: hulya.kurgun@deu.edu.tr
Tel: 00 90 232 4400707/204

Demet Bagiran
PhD Candidate in Department of Tourism Management
Graduate School of Social Sciences
Dokuz Eylul University, Buca-İzmir, Turkey
E-mail: dbagiran@yahoo.com

Emir Ozeren
Research Assistant, PhD Candidate in Department of Business Administration
Graduate School of Social Sciences
Dokuz Eylul University, Buca-İzmir, Turkey
E-mail: emir.ozeren@deu.edu.tr

Begum Maral
PhD Candidate in Department of Business Administration
Graduate School of Social Sciences
Dokuz Eylul University, Buca-İzmir, Turkey
E-mail: begummaral@yahoo.com

Abstract
The aim of the study is to identify major dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing concept
in boutique hotels and determine to what extent current marketing approaches in boutique
hotels seem to be consistent with the entrepreneurial marketing approaches. The major
motivation of this research is stemmed from the fact that the empirical examination of the
notion of entrepreneurial marketing from the viewpoint of boutique hotels has received
scant attention in the relevant literature. The research was conducted with semi-structured
interview method in nine boutique hotels located in the province of Izmir in Turkey. Based
on seven dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing concept, a unique semi structured
interview form was designed. Data gathered in the interviews was analyzed via descriptive
analysis used in qualitative researches and evaluated and interpreted in terms of the seven
main dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing. Results of in-depth interviews pointed out
that entrepreneurial marketing concept which carries great importance for boutique hotels
has been well adopted and put into effective use by boutique hotels.

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Keywords: Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial marketing, boutique hotel

1. Introduction
Entrepreneurship, attributed with qualities such as creativity, flexibility, ability to find novel solutions,
opportunity recognition, proactiveness, value creation and risk taking in literature (Morris et. al., 2004;
Covin and Slevin 1991; Snow and Hrebiniak, 1980; Knight, 1997), is of critical significance,
especially, for small and medium scale enterprises. Entrepreneurial marketing, which lies in the
intersection between marketing and entrepreneurship and aims at making proactive use of opportunities
through innovative perspectives, can be considered a strong and flourishing alternative in boutique
hotel marketing activities. The concept of entrepreneurial marketing is described as unplanned, non-
linear and visionary (Morris et. al., 2002) marketing activities of the entrepreneur. In fact, such an
entrepreneurial perspective helps to enrich the marketing mix instead of diversifying it and leads to a
more entrepreneurial perception of its content. The qualities attributed to entrepreneurship in the
literature can also be found in entrepreneurial marketing activities which emerge through an
entrepreneurial perspective on traditional marketing.
Based on the research question of ‘Can entrepreneurial marketing be adopted in the tourism
sector?’ and considering the relevant findings that show entrepreneurial marketing as suitable to small
scale enterprises in the literature (Kocak, 2004; Geursen and Mulye, 2001; Morris et. al., 2002; Carson,
1995), the boutique hotels were examined. The ultimate aim of this study is to assess the applicability
of seven dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing (opportunity focus, proactiveness, innovativeness,
calculated risk taking, resource leveraging, customer intensity and value creation) in boutique hotels
and to identify the internalized applications which activate such marketing activities. In order to
achieve this aim we tried to determine to what extent the current marketing approaches show
convergence or divergence to the entrepreneurial marketing and attempted to identify the tools and
applications that boutique hotels pursued in adapting entrepreneurial marketing processes in their own
businesses. This study seeks to make a contribution to the understanding of the area of marketing in
boutique hotels in general and more specifically, entrepreneurial marketing in boutique hotels. The
originality of this study is stemmed from the fact that the notion of entrepreneurial marketing has not
been examined empirically from the viewpoint of boutique hotels. The major motivation of this
research is that entrepreneurial marketing in tourism sector and particularly in boutique hotel sector has
received no or little attention up to now.
This research undertook qualitative research method and exploratory research design since the
notion of entrepreneurial marketing in tourism and particularly boutique hotel sector is relatively new
and untouched issue so that the study seems to be a preliminary study for the subsequent researches in
this field. The semi-structured interview technique as the principle method in data gathering was
utilized. The semi structured interview form consisting of open-ended questions encompassing seven
dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing was constructed by the authors for this study considering the
relevant literature and previous research evidence.

2. Literature Review
2.1. The Concept of Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship refers to the pursuit of creative or novel solutions to challenges confronting the firm,
including the development or enhancement of products and services, as well as new administrative
techniques and technologies for performing organizational functions (Knight, 1997). Stevenson et al.
(1989) defined the entrepreneurship as “the process of creating value by bringing together a unique
package of resources to exploit an opportunity”. The process includes the set of activities necessary to
identify an opportunity, define a business concept, assess needed resources, acquire those resources,
and manages and harvests the venture (Morris et al., 2004).

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The consensus in the strategic management and entrepreneurship literature offers three
underlying dimensions of the organizational predisposition to entrepreneurial management processes:
innovativeness (that is introducing novel goods, services, or technology, and to develop new markets),
risk taking (that is making reasonable decisions when faced with environmental uncertainties,
systematically mitigating risk factors) and proactiveness (that is seeking novel ways both to bring an
entrepreneurial concept to fruition) (Miller and Friesen, 1982; Covin and Slevin, 1989; Miller, 1983;
Morris and Paul, 1987; Covin and Slevin, 1991; Miles and Arnold, 1991; Morris et. al..,1993; Caruana
et. al., 1998; Barringer and Bluedorn, 1999). In the competitive environment of the increasingly global
economy, innovation and proactiveness can be the vehicles for firm survival and ultimate success
(Covin and Slevin, 1991). These sub constructs, taken together, have often been used to define the
general construct of firm entrepreneurial orientation or entrepreneurship (Covin, 1991; Miller, 1983).
These dimensions combine to indicate the extent to which a given organization is entrepreneurial.
According to Miller (1983), an entrepreneurial firm is “one that engages in product-market innovation,
undertakes somewhat risky ventures, and is first to come up with proactive innovations”.
Entrepreneurship is a fundamental posture, instrumentally important to strategic innovation,
particularly under shifting conditions in the firm's external environment, and is applicable to any firm,
regardless of its size and type (Knight, 1997).
Miles and Arnold (1991) found that entrepreneurial orientation is positively correlated to
marketing orientation. Atuahene-Gima and Ko’s (2001) study explore an interactive relationship
between market orientation and entrepreneurship and they specify a linear moderating effect of
entrepreneurship on the market orientation–business performance relationship. This notion of business
being able to adopt multiple orientations allows future researchers to conceptualize the relationship
between entrepreneurial and market orientation not in terms of an either/or but as complementary traits
that may synergistically help a firm achieve success. When explaining the interface of marketing and
entrepreneurship, Schindehutte et. al. (2008) pointed out the need for firms to simultaneously adopt
both entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation. Yet, these orientations are not substituted but
complementary to each other. In case a firm employs both orientations at the same time, these
orientations create synergy and contribute to the firm’s success (Miles and Darroch, 2008). In a similar
vein, George and Zahra (2002) mentioned that in a mutual interaction entrepreneurial and marketing
orientations contribute to a firm’s performance.

2.2. The Relationship between Marketing and Entrepreneurship

Recently, in marketing literature there has been an evident trend that addresses the traditional
marketing approach from an entrepreneurial perspective and reveals itself in the interface of marketing
and entrepreneurship (Morris and Paul, 1987; Miles and Arnold, 1991; Jaworski and Kohli, 1993;
Yükselen et. al., 2008). When examining the definitions of marketing proposed by American
Marketing Association (AMA) in 2004 and 2007 respectively, it can be seen that American Marketing
Association (AMA) draws attention to the fact that the relationship between marketing and
entrepreneurship is gradually gaining importance (Yükselen et. al., 2008). The definition made by
AMA in 2007 discussed the marketing activities as providing long term value with changing products
and services rather than considering narrowly as a short-term benefit for the stakeholders or
organization (AMA, 2010). Likewise, Miles and Darroch (2006) indicated that entrepreneurial
marketing process augments marketing’s customer focus with the understanding that the firm must
proactively seek out opportunities to innovatively and efficiently create superior value propositions for
current and future customers and their stakeholders.
“Entrepreneurial marketing” seems to be a concept which so far has been hard to grasp. Hills
and Hultman (2006) indicated that entrepreneurial marketing concept can be explained by using
traditional marketing concepts and words, but can never be completely understood without including
aspects of entrepreneurship theory and therefore they specify that a fruitful way of understanding the
subject is to regard entrepreneurial marketing as an interface between marketing and entrepreneurship.
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Morris et al. (2004) asserted that an examination of the marketing–entrepreneurship interface suggests
two major subject areas for investigation. The first of these can be referred to the role of marketing in
entrepreneurship. This aspect of the interface is concerned with the application of marketing tools,
concepts, and theory in supporting new venture creation and small business growth (Morris et al.,
2004). The second dimension of the interface can be referred to the role of entrepreneurship in
marketing. It represents an exploration of ways in which entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviors can be
applied to the development of marketing programs (Morris et al., 2004). Collinson and Shaw (2001)
expressed in their study that, "marketing" and "entrepreneurship" have three key areas of interface.
Both subjects are change-focused, opportunistic in nature and innovative in their approach to
management (Collinson and Shaw, 2001). Similarly Carson et al. (1995), perceive the central focus of
the interface as being change.

2.3. Entrepreneurial Marketing

Morris et al. (2002) defined the term “entrepreneurial marketing” as “the proactive identification and
exploitation of opportunities for acquiring and retaining profitable customers through innovative
approaches to risk management, resource leveraging and value creation”. The distinguishing feature
of this new interpretation, which is essentially a market-oriented inside-out perspective, could be the
development of the specific competencies of the firm by entrepreneurial action with a view to serving
future customers' latent demand for products that do not yet exist. This can be called as "the
entrepreneurial marketing concept” (Duus, 1997). According to Bjerke and Hultman’s (2002)
description, “entrepreneurial marketing is the marketing of small firms growing through
entrepreneurship.” Carson and Cromie (1989) contended that an entrepreneurial orientated firm that
seeks opportunity is likely to exhibit a market development orientation and that both are related to the
overall organizational culture, the personality of the owner/manager/entrepreneur and the environment
that the small firm finds itself in. Combining the AMA definition of marketing and the definitions of
entrepreneurship, Kraus et al. (2009) proposed a new definition of entrepreneurial marketing:
“Entrepreneurial marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes
for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing
customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders, and
that is characterized by innovativeness, risk-taking, proactiveness, and may be
performed without resources currently controlled.”
Now it is becoming apparent that marketing in SMEs is fundamentally different and more
successful in SMEs than in large firms (Carson and Gilmore, 2000; Hills and Hultman, 2006). This is
partly because marketing implementation can be more important to success than planning and strategy
(Hills and Hultman, 2006). Bjerke and Hultman (2002) stated that “not all small firms are
entrepreneurial, but will need entrepreneurship in order to grow and such growth can be leveraged
from the small firm’s advantage in marketing”. Decision making in smaller firms is often ad-hoc and
they are able to act on opportunities and implement strategies faster than larger firms could (Morrish
and Deacon, 2009).
Kotler (2003) identified entrepreneurial marketing based upon how marketing practices
becomes more formalized. Three stages of marketing practice are identified as organizations grow.
Entrepreneurial marketing is related to the first development phase where the level of entrepreneurship
is high and the degree of formalization of marketing practices is low. Later and in a more mature stage
(second and third stage), marketing practices become formulated marketing. Kotler (2003) indicates:
“As small companies achieve success, they inevitably move toward more formulated marketing”.
Morris et al. (2002) developed seven core dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing:
Proactiveness, calculated risk-taking, innovativeness, opportunity focus, resource leveraging,
costumer intensity, and value creation. These dimensions distinguish entrepreneurial marketing from
traditional marketing (Hills et al., 2008). First five dimensions are entrepreneurial orientation

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dimensions and last two are marketing orientation dimensions (Kocak, 2004). The differences between
traditional marketing and entrepreneurial marketing are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Comparison of Conventional Marketing and Entrepreneurial Marketing

Conventional marketing Entrepreneurial marketing

Customer-orientated: Market-driven, product
development follows; an essentially reactive
Marketing Concept
stance with respect to the external
environment.
Reactive and adaptive approach to current
market situation with incremental
Market Approach
innovation; marketing strives to follow
customers.
Context Established, relatively stable markets
Focus Point Efficient management of the marketing mix
Risk Perspective Risk minimization in marketing actions
Marketing supports new product/service
New Product/Service development activities of Research &
Development Development and other functional areas of
the firm,
Marketing as a functional silo; marketing
Marketing Overview
facilitates transactions and market control.
Coordinator of marketing mix; builder of the
brand; promotion and customer
Marketer’s Role
communication receive the greatest amount
of attention from marketers.
Customer’s Role External source of intelligence and feedback
Efficient use of existing resources, scarcity
Resource Management mentality; zero-sum game perspective on
resources.
Articulated, assumed, expressed by
Customer Needs
customers through survey research
Heavy dependency on survey research;
Market Intelligence
Formalized research and intelligence systems
Top-down segmentation, targeting, and
Strategy
positioning
Methods The marketing mix;
Four/Seven P's
Resource: Morris et al., 2004; Morris et al., 2002; Stokes, 2000a.
Innovation oriented: Idea-driven, intuitive
assessment of market needs; the firm
attempts to influence or redefine aspects of
the external environment.
Proactive approach, leading the customer
with dynamic innovation
Envisioned, emerging and fragmented
markets with high levels of turbulence and
creating new markets.
New value creation for the customer through
relationships, alliances, resource
management approaches, and the marketing
mix.
Marketing as vehicle for calculated risk-
taking; emphasis on findings ways to
mitigate, stage or share risks
Marketing is the home of the entrepreneurial
process in the organization.
Marketing is the home of innovation;
customer is co-active producer.
Marketing as a cross-disciplinary and inter-
functional pursuit; marketing facilitates
speed, change, adaptability, agility.
Internal and external change agent
Active participant in firm’s marketing
decision process, defining product, price,
distribution and communications
Leveraging, creative use of the resources of
others; doing more with less; actions are not
constrained by resources currently controlled
Unarticulated, discovered, identified through
lead users
Sceptical use of conventional market
research; employment of alternative
methods; informal networking and
information gathering
Bottom-up targeting of customers and other
influence groups
Interactive marketing methods;
Word-of-mouth marketing

2.4. Boutique Hotels and Entrepreneurial Marketing

The emergence of the boutique hotel concept is credited to Ian Schrager’s founding of the Morgans
Hotel in New York in 1984 (Albazzaz et. al., 2010, The Independent, 2006). There seems to be no
formal and certain definition of boutique hotel in the literature (Van Hartesvelt, 2006; Lim and Endean,
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2009; Albazzaz et. al., 2003). In their studies attempting at developing a definition for boutique hotels,
researchers have tried to identify some common characteristics in boutique hotels. For example,
PricewaterhouseCoopers (2005) identified boutique hotel characteristics in terms of scale of the
enterprise (small scale enterprises), a high level of customized services, reflecting the personality and
style of the owner, designer or entrepreneur, rooms with quality technological utilities, and unique
design. Caterer Search (2005) used size, design and physical location as defining characteristics. In
Rowe (2003)’s study, boutique hotels were defined in terms of the theme, design reflecting the location
of the hotel or the history of the region and a feeling of intimacy in personalized services. McIntosh
and Siggs (2005) identified five defining characteristics which are uniqueness, personalized services,
making guests feeling their home, high quality standards and value creation. Albazzaz et. al. (2003)
defined boutique hotels as enterprises with a thematic, notable design offering warmth and intimacy,
relatively a smaller number of rooms and aim to capture the target market of 20-55 years old who make
up the high socio-economic market group. Teo et. al. (1998) identified the common characteristics of
boutique hotels as their small size, low staff-to-guest ratio which enables them to provide personalized
service and attention. Romania et al. (2009) defined boutique hotel as a small hotel which hires its
luxurious and well equipped rooms to guests for a short-term.
The 43rd article of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s “Regulation for the
Certification and Characterization of Tourism Facilities” dated, 2005, states that boutique hotels are
hotels; with at least ten rooms which meet the requirements of the relevant regulation; that are unique
in terms of their structural properties, architectural designs, decoration and used materials; that employ
personnel who have a high standard of quality in terms of management and service, are experienced or
educated in their field of work; that provide individual service (Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture
and Tourism, 2010).
Several definitions of boutique hotels in the literature outlined above point out that boutique
hotels can be evaluated as innovative, value oriented and customer oriented small scale enterprises. On
the other side, there is considerable research evidence that suggests that the notion of entrepreneurial
marketing seems to be appropriate and applicable for small scale enterprises (Kocak, 2004; Geursen
and Mulye, 2001; Morris et. al., 2002; Carson, 1995). Since boutique hotels are small sized enterprises
and have distinct characteristics, marketing in boutique hotels can be considered to be relevant to and
consistent with the scope and nature of entrepreneurial marketing also defined as SMEs marketing.

3. Methodology of the Research

3.1. Research Design
The aim of the study is to assess the applicability of seven dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing
(opportunity focus, proactiveness, innovativeness, calculated risk taking, resource leveraging, customer
intensity and value creation) in boutique hotels and identify the internalized applications which activate
such marketing activities.
In order to achieve this aim, the study adopts a qualitative research method and the research
design is both an exploratory and descriptive. As Gegez points out (2005) that exploratory research
design which aims at identifying a problem and its aspects is used more widely in qualitative research
methods. Exploratory research design gains importance when previous research on a certain topic is
limited. This study employs exploratory design since the notion of entrepreneurial marketing in
tourism and specifically boutique hotel sector is relatively new and untouched issue so that the study
seems to be a preliminary study for the subsequent researches in this field. Further, researches in the
entrepreneurial marketing literature point out that it would be more appropriate for the issue to be
handled in a qualitative aspect (Stokes, 2000b; Martin, 2009; Hill and Wright, 2000; Carson and
Coviello, 1996; Moriarty et. al., 2008).
The study employs semi-structured interview as the principle method in data gathering, and
also makes use of booklets collected from participant enterprises and their websites as secondary
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sources. Based on the aforementioned dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing prevailing in the

literature, a unique semi structured interview form has been designed in line with current qualitative
and quantitative researches in this field (Kocak, 2004; Miles and Darroch, 2006; Jogaratnam and Tse,
2004; Fiş and Çetindamar, 2007). The questionnaire consists of 16 open-ended questions which cover
the seven dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing (innovativeness, risk taking, proactiveness,
customer intensity, opportunity focus, value creation and resource leveraging), pointed out by Morris
et. al. (2002), and a general question regarding the new trends in the boutique hotel sector and several
demographic questions.

3.2. Sampling
Due to constraints on time and funds, the research was limited to boutique hotels located in central
Izmir and its provinces. The list of interviewed enterprises was selected based on official records of the
Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism Izmir Directorate. A total of 22 enterprises in and around
Izmir with a Private or Boutique hotel certificate were identified in the list of certified tourism
enterprises in Izmir Culture and Tourism Directorate’s records. However, a field work showed that 10
out of 22 enterprises in the list had not started operating yet. Thus, the 12 boutique hotel enterprises
with a certificate of Tourism Enterprise and Tourism Investment constituted the population of this
research. As all the enterprises that form the population of the research was large enough to be
considered accessible, we tried to access each of the 12 boutique hotel enterprises through a full
sampling method. The boutique hotels’ general managers and other executive managers who accepted
to participate to this study were interviewed face to face in person. Of the 12 boutique hotels, the nine
of them accepted the interview. Therefore, the access ratio to the whole population was found to be 9
out of 12 (which makes up 75% of the entire population). Sound recorders were used and the
interviews lasted approximately from 45 - 90 minutes.

3.3. Methods of Data Analysis

Data in this study was analyzed via descriptive analysis used in qualitative researches. In the initial
stages of data analysis, the qualitative data obtained from the interviews was transcribed from sound
recorders to a written sheet. In the second phase, we analyzed the respondents’ statements
interpretatively considering their current marketing approaches and applications and thus, to what
extent these approaches show convergence or divergence to the entrepreneurial marketing approach
was determined. The quotations selected from interview records and evaluations with regard to
research findings are presented in the following section by categorizing the seven dimensions of
entrepreneurial marketing.

4. Results and Discussion

In light of the demographic features of these 9 enterprises, one is a domestic chain, 8 are independent
enterprises. Also, 2 are summer resorts and 7 are city hotels. The number of rooms of boutique hotels
ranges between 24 and 84. The average occupancy rate is annually 60-85% in city hotels and 70-80%
in summer resorts during the high season. The number of employees is 10 - 80 employees depending
on the size of the enterprise. When domestic and foreign tourist ratios are considered, 70-80% of
tourists are domestic, whereas 20-30% of them are foreigners. The interviewees all of whom are
university graduates consist of 7 female and 2 male executives.
Data gathered in the interviews was evaluated and interpreted in terms of the seven main
dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing and are presented below with referring to literature.

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4.1. Innovativeness
Regarding the innovativeness dimension in entrepreneurial marketing, Davis et. al. (1991) pointed out
that entrepreneurship plays an important role not only in products and services but also in finding
creative and unique solutions including developing new technologies that will serve executive methods
and organizational functions. Miles and Darroch (2006) expressed the role of entrepreneurial
marketing’s innovativeness dimension in creating superior value.
In this study, the following open ended questions were asked to respondents to measure
innovativeness dimension of entrepreneurial marketing:
In the last few years, can you please explain us with a concrete example of how
you managed and responded to the new trends in the marketplace? (Adapted from
Jogaratnam and Tse, 2004)
Do you show continuous effort to innovate your products and services? During
the past three years can you please give us an example of such innovations? (Adapted
from Jogaratnam and Tse, 2004)
What is your hotel’s planned innovations (in terms of product, service,
technology, investment, new markets) for the upcoming three or five years period?
(Adapted from Kocak, 2004)
Which products, services or technology do you change in order to create
competitive advantage? How frequent? Will you please give us an example about it?
(Adapted from Jogaratnam and Tse, 2004)
Can you please define the major dynamics of competition in boutique hotel
sector? What kind of strategies do you pursue in order to struggle with competition?
The respondents expressed parallel ideas regarding innovativeness to those in the literature. It
has been stated by participants that all the boutique hotels in this research have made innovations
within the last 3 months or one year. Therefore, they regularly visit tourism fairs in Turkey or abroad in
order to make innovations or adaptations. For instance; a respondent hotel manager stated that:
“We are constantly making observations by attending tourism fairs. Besides, as
the managers of this hotel we accommodate in other boutique and five star hotels and
observe their practices. We then apply those observations to our own hotel in the form
of adaptations rather than imitation.”
In making innovations, information received from agencies, customer relationship management
systems and online sales systems are taken into account. Furthermore, participant hotels pay close
attention to technological developments and their possible contributions to hotel services. For instance;
a respondent hotel manager stated that:
“We are constantly following innovations especially technological innovations.
Changes in products and services are being made in accordance with customer
feedback.”
The innovations which had already been performed by the participant boutique hotels in the last
3 years can be summarized as follows:
“replacing carpets or wallpapers with more trendy ones, building saunas in
rooms, embroidering their repeat guests’ names on towels, offering navigation system
services, installing lifts to parking lots which would allow customers to park their
vehicles on their floor, and designing and offering rooms in different colours.”
The effectiveness of innovativeness on competition is considered relevant to sustainability.
Covin and Slevin (1991) pointed out that innovation is of great importance for success in business and
competitiveness. Martin (2009) emphasized that entrepreneurial marketing culture promotes new
product concepts. On the other hand, Morris et. al. (2004) indicated that the notion of continuous
innovation involves the ability to maintain a flow of new ideas. Such references in the literature point
to sustainability of innovation.

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In line with the references in the literature, despite the many recent innovations they have made,
the respondents emphasized the necessity for a proactive investigation into the dynamic structure of the
market taking into consideration future innovations. In this context, the innovations which are planning
to be performed by the participant boutique hotels in the next 3-5 years can be summarized as follows:
“organizing jazz or oldies nights, cultural activities for staff’s self-improvement,
building suites, actively participating in online sales networks, having a driving force in
the league of non-governmental organizations and media and public institutions,
building thermal pools and concept bars, founding children’s clubs, creating new
customer profiles (hunting tourism, foreign tourists, etc.), creating a brand, opening
new hotels in various destinations (with different qualifications but turning the hotels
into a chain by providing the same service quality and brand assurance), and alike.”

4.2. Proactiveness
Leading and pioneering the market in terms of creating new products and adopting and offering new
technologies bring dynamism to marketing approaches of businesses. Morris et. al. (2004) pointed to
the balance that should come between leading and adapting to changes in innovation activities. Morris
et. al. (2002) emphasise the importance of leading customers by making dynamic changes.
In this study, the following open ended questions were asked to respondents to measure
proactive dimension of entrepreneurial marketing:
Do you define yourself as “pioneer” in terms of new product development,
technology implementation and offering new products to the market? If so, could you
please explain your pioneering role and activities in the market with a concrete
example? (Adapted from Kocak, 2004, Jogaratnam and Tse, 2004, Fiş and Çetindamar,
2007)
Could you please share with us a specific case that explains how you manage to
evaluate the opportunities in the marketplace prior your competitors with a proactive
approach?
Consistent with Morris et al. (2002; 2004) studies, all of the interviewed boutique hotels
mentioned that they try to maintain a dynamic manner in order to be a leader in offering products and
services. In this context, the activities which are implemented proactively by the participant boutique
hotels might be seen as follows:
“building a bar theatre, creating a totem hotel image, creating a social
atmosphere that will bring together artists and customers staying in the hotel,
organizing socio-cultural activities to help the staff with their self-improvement and
develop their customer perception (attending an artist’s show together, etc.), green
marketing (using electronic appliances that run on less energy, creating info-spots for
informing customers of chemicals, etc.), offering home-cooked meals in the garden,
using special air-conditioning brands (using less energy, quiet, air cleaning and
producing less particles), and installing automated CRM systems, etc.”
Miles and Darroch (2006) expressed the importance of meeting new needs and fully
understanding customers’ future latent needs in increasing competitiveness. Morris et. al. (2004)
underlined the importance of change by considering entrepreneurial marketing as an integral
understanding of a period of time abundant with environmental changes. Furthermore, Knight (1997)
stated that entrepreneurial activities provide tools for extending corporate skills, harmonizing with or
getting an edge over competitors. These aforementioned references in the literature also exhibit the
ways in which the dynamism and proactiveness of entrepreneurial marketing affect the changes in
products and services in terms of maintaining competitiveness. Similar to what the literature suggested,
respondents mentioned that they have felt the need to change their products and services within the last
3 months to one year. This need can be observed as a result of rapid changes both in competitors'
activities and market conditions. For instance; a respondent hotel manager stated that:
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“We never compete based on price but we do compete based on service

differentiation. Innovation, employing qualified employee and low personnel turnover
rate are the key to competition dynamics in the boutique hotel sector.”

4.3. Opportunity Focus

Regarding opportunity focus, Christensen (1997) indicated that enterprises with an entrepreneurial
marketing perspective have a better awareness in filtering and evaluating opportunities in line with
their current strategies and position in the marketplace. Such enterprises go beyond their existing
strategies and seek for new opportunities. Morris et. al. (2004) emphasized the importance of
proactively locating and making use of opportunities.
In this study, the following open ended questions were asked to respondents to measure
opportunity focus dimension of entrepreneurial marketing:
How are the opportunities selected by your boutique hotel? (Adapted from Miles
and Darroch, 2006)
What kind of activities does your boutique hotel pursue in order to identify
opportunities in the marketplace? Would you please give us some examples regarding
the opportunities that you have determined and exploited previously? (Adapted from
Miles and Darroch, 2006)
The boutique hotel respondents stated that they all made an effort to identify opportunities in
the marketplace with the following statements:
“We organize social tours (such as visiting sector fairs and making projections
in terms of sectoral developments), analyze the market and watch our competitors'
advertisements closely, visit special concept fairs (yachting, surfing, etc.), explore into
markets like health tourism for prospective investments and look for new concepts and
improvable elements in order to get the best possible benefit of architectural design
with the most efficient and effective usage of human resources.”
Furthermore, the interviewees gave the following examples with regards to how they exploited
the opportunities in the marketplace:
“We are trying to create a more artistic and cultural hotel concept that appeals
to artists, making a market-oriented hotel of love image, drawing the attention of the
market with a modern and highly technological design, having an artist work on
interior design, and creating a new atmosphere with original paintings and sculptures.”
In a similar vein, another respondent hotel manager stated that:
“There are only one big hotel and any other smaller hotels in this region. There
is not any boutique hotel providing its customers five star comfort with such capacity in
this town. Our hotel was founded to fill this gap. I think that we saw and evaluated this
opportunity in the right manner.”

4.4. Resource Leveraging

In the context of resource leveraging, Miles and Darroch (2006) underline the necessity of making use
not only of the external opportunities but also of the ones within hotel resources internally. Hills et. al.
(2008) suggest that enterprises with entrepreneurial marketing perspective turn to adaptable strategies
with a smaller budget. Morris et. al. (2004) state that entrepreneurial marketing professionals at
existing situations are not limited to resources that are controlled or already at their service. In this
study, the following open ended question was asked to respondents to measure resource leveraging
dimension of entrepreneurial marketing:
Is the main determinant of identifying and exploiting an opportunity limited to
your current resources or do you tend to move towards external financing or
outsourcing not to miss the opportunity? (Adapted from Kocak, 2004)

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Consistent with the literature, respondents mentioned that they usually made use of limited
resources. For instance, a hotel manager stated as follows:
“Depending on the situation we both use insourcing and outsourcing. We make
decision considering our current situation and potential benefits of this decision.”
Another respondent hotel manager asserted that:
“We make use of alternative outside resources such as getting a loan (depending
on investor’s verdict) or renting out rooms by bartering or in return for advertisement.”
In terms of resource leveraging, interviewees stated that investor’s decisions posed a significant
limit and investments with a lower budget aiming at applicable changes were realized. Respondents
expressed that in finding creative and developmental solutions to internal resource utilization they paid
special attention to self-improvement of their staff which would have a direct effect on their service
quality.

4.5. Calculated Risk Taking

In entrepreneurial marketing, Miller (1983) suggested that taking risky ventures into account and being
pioneering in discovering proactive innovations are important qualities, whereas Morris et. al. (2002)
emphasized the making use of opportunities through risk management. Enterprises adopting an
entrepreneurial marketing approach take into consideration the rational and measurable risks
(Venkataraman,1997; Shane and Venkataraman, 2000). In this study, the following open ended
question was asked to respondents to measure calculated risk taking dimension of entrepreneurial
marketing:
What is your hotel’s risk taking approach in new business ventures? (Adapted
from Kocak, 2004; Miles and Darroch, 2006; Jogaratnam and Tse, 2004; Fiş and
Çetindamar, 2007)
The majority of respondents mentioned that they acted entrepreneurially in risk taking and took
calculable and predictable risks in their investment decisions parallel to the literature explained above.
For instance, a respondent hotel manager asserted the following statement with regards to risk taking
approach.
“I do not take so much risk for the area that I thought I would not earn so much.
I think that an investor can take a risk with his/her partner by minimizing the risk.”
On the other hand, another respondent stated that:
“We do assume a risk. I can take any risk as soon as I recognize it as a form of
opportunity even if there is a chance of making a mistake at the end. There is a bold
attitude towards risk taking in my hotel.”
Respondents also asserted that the condition for being successful in innovativeness, customer
intensity, proactiveness and opportunity focus was closely linked to risk taking propensity of an
entrepreneur. On the other hand, they emphasized that the risk taking approach should be handled with
a calculable balance between entrepreneur perspective and level of risk.

4.6. Customer Intensity

A perspective on entrepreneurial marketing with a focus on customer needs show that Miles and
Darroch (2006) findings which point out that the necessity to proactively search for opportunities
increase the customer intensity in entrepreneurial marketing are of great importance. A distinctive
point in this interpretation is that an enterprise with entrepreneurial activities can develop specific
competencies through an understanding that will serve future customers’ latent demands for non-
existing products. In this study, the following open ended questions were asked to respondents to
measure customer intensity dimension of entrepreneurial marketing:
Do you think that your quests’ needs and wants are of top priority for your
boutique hotel?Is your hotel able to determine successfully the changes in quests’

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expectations? How can you benefit such data in your hotel? (Adapted from Kocak,
2004).
Does your boutique hotel measure customer satisfaction? How and how
frequent? Does your hotel manage to use these customer satisfaction results efficiently
in improving your business processes? (Adapted from Kocak, 2004)
Do you still maintain your communication with guests even if they leave your
hotel? Could you please give us a few examples regarding the activities that your hotel
has adopted for this purpose? (Adapted from Kocak, 2004)
The respondents explained that they were customer oriented and reinforced their customer
focus with a proactive perspective. In order to gather data for customer intensity, boutique hotels make
use of questionnaires, CRM system outputs, face-to-face interviews, customer demands on the web
sites, trends at tourism fairs and innovations made by competitors. Based on these sources of data,
boutique hotels carry out customer oriented practices and try to create and offer new services and
products, improve existing ones, and design new staff training sessions. For instance, a respondent
hotel manager stated that:
“Customer demands and needs are of crucial importance for us. We follow these
demands and needs via both surveys and face to face communication. Customer
thoughts enable us to realize the innovations.”
Another respondent asserted that:
“General manager and guest relations are constantly receiving feedback from
our guests in every contact point with customers such as breakfast room, pool side and
so on. Besides, customer surveys are utilized for this purpose.”
Respondents also indicated that they constantly measured customer satisfaction with
questionnaires, face-to-face interviews and data collected via internet. Under the light of customer
satisfaction measurements, boutique hotels offer novelties such as fast track check-in and check-out
processes (express check-out, etc.), and making new floor or room arrangements according to customer
needs. The customer satisfaction feedback obtained by the boutique hotels is also used in decision
making for new investments (such as building saunas in rooms, building a Turkish bath in hotels, etc.).
For instance, a respondent hotel manager expressed that:
“We measure customer satisfaction via surveys. Our customer satisfaction ratio
is 98% which is greater than the ideal level (90-92%). The rest 2% is related to the lack
of sauna, fitness and Turkish bath in our hotel.”
From a communicative perspective on entrepreneurial marketing, Hill and Wright (2000)’s
finding that the role of personal contact and communication networks on small and medium scale
enterprises in characterizing marketing tendencies is crucial. In a similar vein, respondents indicated
that they got in touch with customers constantly and employed various methods in order to maintain
their communication network up-to-date and strong. Among their methods are as follows:
“sending e-mails on special occasions, making phone calls at certain intervals
(calling the customers when they do not visit the hotel for a long time), accompanying
the customer to his/her next destination after he/she leaves the hotel (offering a lunch
box to the airport, calling him/her when he/she reaches destination and calling him/her
again after a certain while), and establishing a data-based communication with the
customer (that is a respondent hotel manager stated that: I called my customer when he
was in China. He asked me whether to bring a present from China. I know that he has a
keen interest to take photos so that I responded him as follows: Could you please take a
picture of the sunset and bring it to me while coming to the hotel? He actually did it.)”

4.7. Value Creation

Another important aspect of entrepreneurial marketing is value creation for customers. Kraus et. al.
(2009) pointed out the need for enterprises to form an organizational structure characterized by
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innovativeness, risk taking and proactiveness in order to create, communicate and offer value for
customers. Kotler (2003) proposes that there are two main ways of value creation. First, it is to increase
the benefits of value offerings for customers. Second, it is to decrease the costs of acquisition, use and
distribution of the product and services offered by the enterprise to the customers. In this study, the
following open ended questions were asked to respondents to measure value creation dimension of
entrepreneurial marketing:
What do you do in general to create value for your current and/or new
customers? (Adapted from Kocak, 2004)
Do you cooperate with other hotels in your sector in order to create value for
your customers? Could you please give us a concrete example about this? (Adapted
from Kocak, 2004)
Do you measure the perceived value of your customers regarding your hotel’s
services?
Accordingly, interviewees stated that:
“We are designing the rooms in line with our customers’ needs following 50
stays at the hotel.”
“We are trying to create value with memorable events for our customer after
they leave the hotel. For instance, we prepare surprises such as inviting a famous actor
to spend time with our quests.”
“We are cooperating with other hotels in order to meet our customers’ needs
that our hotel is not able to respond. For instance, we don’t have sauna service in our
hotel so we are directing our customers to the sister hotel.”
“We offer services for our customers that enable them to continue with their
daily habits.”
“We grow and offer organic fruits and vegetables and make wine from our own
grapes.”
Respondents also indicated that they measured customers’ perception of the values created,
adding that such measures, however, and come with certain limitations. While measuring the
perception of value created on the eyes of customers, boutique hotels take into consideration the
opinions of repeat quests and first time visitors and other customers coming to the hotel by suggestions
through word of mouth. Consistent with the literature, Stokes (2000b) stated that promotional activities
in entrepreneurial marketing that serve to extend customer base rely heavily on word of mouth
communication and customer recommendations. Furthermore, it can be seen that monitoring the
market via word of mouth communication, electronic interactive marketing and informal networks play
an important role in entrepreneurial marketing (Morrish and Deacon, 2009).

4.8. New Trends in Boutique Hotels

Change and flexibility are of crucial importance in entrepreneurial marketing. Hills and Hultman
(2006) emphasized the importance of the dynamic structure of the entrepreneurship and marketing
interface, the ability to adapt to rapid changes in external environments and flexibility. Lim and
Endean (2009) stated that the success of boutique hotels can be attributed to the great interest in fine
arts and culture and customers' expectations are beginning to change that they are now looking for
purchasing a complete diverse experience instead of a room to spend the night.
Under the subheading of innovativeness discussed earlier, it was explained how the interviewed
boutique hotels have managed and responded to the recent trends in the marketplace. Apart from that,
the following question was asked to respondents in order to have greater insights regarding their views
on recent trends in boutique hotel sector:
What do you think generally about the recent trends that are likely to emerge in
the boutique hotel sector?

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Based on the respondents’ views, three new trends were identified in the boutique hotel sector
which is also consistent with the references in the literature. The trends are emotional trends (time
travel, getting to know the individual in detail, giving her/him new memories, raising awareness that
she/he is special, and offering individual-specific approaches), architectural design trends
(architectural awareness, original paintings, libraries, capturing customer’s mood in room designs,
offering different cultural experiences, using creative and striking fabrics and furniture), and flexibility
trends (ensuring that room designs are flexible to customers’ needs and services and physical
conditions can rapidly be adapted to customers' desires). In order to adapt to these new trends
aforementioned, the respondents asserted that they tried to blend interior design with chakra concepts,
made original architectural designs (building tunnels or cage-shaped entrances), offered tickets to
plays, textile products embroidered with customers' names, left personal welcome notes originally
signed by the general manager to the rooms, provided a private vehicle for transfers, offered free
beverages, provided in-hotel notebooks and Wi-Fi service, created a boutique menu for guests,
provided special lounges where hotel customers could welcome their guests, and arranged dance
workshops.
Under the light of the evidences of each dimension of entrepreneurial marketing mentioned in
greater details above, in general, it can be stated that entrepreneurial marketing is applicable and carries
great importance for boutique hotels which are mostly considered as small enterprises. By means of
entrepreneurial marketing, boutique hotels have the chance to increase their sales and customer
satisfaction thanks to service quality improvement. It can be said that boutique hotels with limited
budgets can realize effective marketing activities by means of entrepreneurial marketing approach.
Entrepreneurial marketing gives boutique hotels the chance to introduce their own values to
their customers. In order to increase their competitiveness, boutique hotels develop new activities and
practices such as visiting to trade fairs, creating memories, offering a sense of uniqueness, displaying
striking and unique design pieces, reflecting the spirit of customers, emotional contact in service
encounter, customized and tailor-made services, customized textiles, offering their own organic food,
green and user-friendly technological appliances, and creating an atmosphere for the customers to feel
at home pursuing their daily habits.
In line with the findings in the literature and of this study, entrepreneurial marketing has been
embraced and put into effective use by boutique hotels. Boutique hotels increase their competitiveness
by utilizing the seven dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing in unique and creative ways.
Furthermore, entrepreneurial marketing provides boutique hotels with new opportunities in
overcoming obstacles posed by certain limitations.
For a sustainable entrepreneurial marketing reflex and its promising application in boutique
hotels, not only the executives but also the hotel staff as a whole should take active part in promoting
innovativeness, creativity, proactiveness and value creation. Therefore, investing into staff’s self-
improvement which would help them contribute to the dimensions mentioned above seems to be
inevitable. Furthermore, it would be beneficial to internalize the best applications from other various
tourism enterprises by means of benchmarking and alike. It is important for boutique hotels with
limited budgets to turn to value creating designs (instead of ones going beyond their aims) and take
into consideration customer qualities and the nature of their services when choosing architectural and
technological designs in particular. Therefore, it would be useful to investigate into diverse cultures,
combining rare material designs with a remarkable display, and designing service areas with flexible
and changeable colours and shapes.

5. Conclusion
Based on the idea that entrepreneurial marketing is appropriate for small scale enterprises (Kocak,
2004; Geursen and Mulye, 2001, Morris et al., 2002), this study examines the use of entrepreneurial
marketing's seven dimensions (opportunity focus, proactiveness, innovativeness, risk taking, resource

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leveraging, customer intensity and value creation) in boutique hotels' marketing activities via in-depth
interviews. The fact that marketing has been influenced by entrepreneurial qualities, taken the shape of
entrepreneurial marketing and started to play an important role for small to medium scale enterprises
has turned boutique hotels an interesting field of research in marketing studies. Interview results
showed that the seven dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing were internalized and applied
effectively in marketing activities of boutique hotels with promising results.

6. Suggestions for Future Research

This study which was conducted in certified boutique hotel enterprises located in Izmir and its
proximity and carries importance in analyzing entrepreneurial marketing perspectives and applications
in boutique hotels has a leading quality for future studies to be conducted with extended samples and a
developed interview database. It should be kept in mind that the research findings of this study are
limited to boutique hotels operating in the city of Izmir. Thus, further researches should be conducted
in other regions and tourism destinations in order to confirm, contradict and generalize our results.
Sectoral differences should also be taken into account. Due to the varying nature of each sector or
industry, applying entrepreneurial marketing concept into different sectors might generate different
results compared to those in boutique hotel sector.
This paper can be seen as a pilot study for future researches in the field of entrepreneurial
marketing. Several suggestions might be raised for the researchers who would like to examine the
notion of entrepreneurial marketing both in quantitative and qualitative aspect.
Although several studies on entrepreneurial marketing exist (Kocak, 2004; Miles and Darroch,
2006) especially for manufacturing industry, there is actually no or limited empirical evidence
examining the notion of entrepreneurial marketing from the viewpoint of boutique hotels or tourism
industry in general. Therefore, this paper will pave the way for further researches regarding scale
development on entrepreneurial marketing. As the next step of this research developing an
entrepreneurial marketing scale designed specifically for tourism or boutique hotel sector can be
considered a prospective research issue that deserves to be investigated in theoretical and empirical
ground. On the other side, it might be beneficial for further researches in the area of entrepreneurial
marketing to examine the issue in qualitative aspect with the means of advanced qualitative techniques
such as content analysis and software packages (that is NVivo).

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