Title: Relationship marketing and entrepreneurship: South Asian businesses in the UK

Authors: Tahir Rashid

Addresses: Leeds Metropolitan University, Tourism, Hospitality and Events School, Leslie Silver International Faculty, Civic Quarter, Leeds LS1 3HE, UK

Abstract: A great deal has been written about Relationship Marketing (RM) from different perspectives in the last 20 years. This literature includes the perspective of service marketing, business-to-business marketing, consumer marketing, international marketing and the perspectives of various ethnic groups such as Chinese, European, North and South American people. One ethnic group which has been largely ignored in business academic research is the South Asian businesses. This paper is an attempt to fill in this gap in the literature on relationship marketing. It examines South Asian businesses in the UK from the perspectives of relationship marketing and entrepreneurship with a particular reference to the researchers own personal experience of the UK clothing industry. The paper begins by discussing the background of South Asian businesses in the UK, followed by a discussion on the concepts of relationship marketing and its application to South Asian businesses. The paper argues that the success of most South Asian businesses can be partly contributed to relationship marketing.

Keywords: relationship marketing; entrepreneurship; South Asian businesses; clothing industry; garment industry; apparel industry; UK; United Kingdom; trust; commitment; social bonding; experience; empathy; customer satisfaction; SMEs; small business.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2006.009284

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2006 Vol.3 No.3/4, pp.417 - 426

Published online: 15 Mar 2006 *

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