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The impact of Covid-19 on struggling ethnic minority entrepreneurs' business strategy: the case of Bangladeshi curry houses in the United Kingdom

The impact of Covid-19 on struggling ethnic minority entrepreneurs' business strategy: the case of Bangladeshi curry houses in the United Kingdom

Razzak, B M, Idris, Bochra, Hasan, Rahaman, Saridakis, George and Hansen, Jared M. (2023) The impact of Covid-19 on struggling ethnic minority entrepreneurs' business strategy: the case of Bangladeshi curry houses in the United Kingdom. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior and Research. pp. 1-30. ISSN 1355-2554 (doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-05-2021-0389)

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Abstract

Purpose – This paper outlines ways in which struggling ethnic minority entrepreneurial service ventures and their owners might respond to unforeseen economic and social shocks. Interviews with owners of Bangladeshi Curry Houses in the United Kingdom—whom historically have lower performance rates compared to other ethnic minority businesses in the country— reveal that the entrepreneurs’ response strategies undertaken to survive and remain in the business despite the challenges faced from operating in a turbulence environment.
Design/Method/Approach – The authors conducted depth phone interviews with owners of Bangladeshi Curry Houses in London during January and February of 2021. The Gioia methodology was applied to the interview scripts to identify which crisis themes exist.
Findings – Despite no advanced educational training, Bangladeshi owners have applied all of the different crisis management techniques present in larger companies: retrenchment,
persevering, innovation, and exit. Although the results show that government schemes aimed at helping small businesses have contributed significantly to their survival, concerns regarding
the post-health crisis situation remain challenging and threatening for their growth and survivability.
Originality/Value – The results indicates that the ethnic minority owned SMEs are less likely to plan for the future operations; furthermore, they tend not to have formulated a strategy for
dealing with an external shock hence affecting and threatening their performance and competitiveness in the marketplace.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Covid-19; ethnic minority firms; adaptive resilience strategies
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD61 Risk Management
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group: Faculty of Business
Faculty of Business > Department of Human Resources & Organisational Behaviour
Last Modified: 17 Jul 2023 07:52
URI: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/43175

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