This article was downloaded by: [University of Otago]

On: 23 July 2015, At: 05:13

Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered
office: 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG

Journal of Strategic Marketing

Publication details, including instructions for authors and
subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjsm20

The influence of entrepreneurial

marketing processes and
entrepreneurial self-efficacy on
community vulnerability, risk, and
resilience
a b c
Morgan P. Miles , Gemma K. Lewis , Adrienne Hall-Phillips , Sussie
d e c
C. Morrish , Audrey Gilmore & Chickery J. Kasouf
a
University of Tennessee at Martin, Martin, TN, USA
b
University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS, Australia
c
Click for updates Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA
d
University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
e
University of Ulster, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry BT52 1SA, UK
Published online: 28 Apr 2015.

To cite this article: Morgan P. Miles, Gemma K. Lewis, Adrienne Hall-Phillips, Sussie C. Morrish,
Audrey Gilmore & Chickery J. Kasouf (2015): The influence of entrepreneurial marketing processes
and entrepreneurial self-efficacy on community vulnerability, risk, and resilience, Journal of
Strategic Marketing, DOI: 10.1080/0965254X.2015.1035038

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0965254X.2015.1035038

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the
“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,
our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to
the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions
and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,
and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content
should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources
of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,
proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or
howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising
out of the use of the Content.
 This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any
substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,
systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &
Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-
and-conditions
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 05:13 23 July 2015
 Journal of Strategic Marketing, 2015
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0965254X.2015.1035038

The influence of entrepreneurial marketing processes and

entrepreneurial self-efficacy on community vulnerability, risk, and
resilience
Morgan P. Milesa*, Gemma K. Lewisb, Adrienne Hall-Phillipsc, Sussie C. Morrishd,
Audrey Gilmoree and Chickery J. Kasoufc
a
University of Tennessee at Martin, Martin, TN, USA; bUniversity of Tasmania, Launceston,
TAS, Australia; cWorcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA; dUniversity of Canterbury,
Christchurch, New Zealand; eUniversity of Ulster, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry BT52 1SA, UK
(Received 11 September 2014; accepted 28 January 2015)
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 05:13 23 July 2015

This paper uses the 2010/2011 Christchurch earthquake and re-development efforts as
an exemplar to explore how entrepreneurial marketing processes combined with
entrepreneurial self-efficacy can be leveraged to help a community reduce its
vulnerability to natural disasters and enhance its resilience. Manyena’s (Manyena, S. B.
(2006). The concept of resilience revisited. Disasters, 30, 433– 450; Manyena, S. B.
(2012). Disaster and development paradigms: Too close for comfort? Development
Policy Review, 30, 327– 345) vulnerability –resilience theory is used as the conceptual
framework to delineate the prophylactic benefits of building a community’s
entrepreneurial marketing process capabilities and the notion of entrepreneurial self-
efficacy as defensive mechanisms to mitigate the effect of disasters. This work has
resulted in an augmented disaster risk equation that considers: (1) the risk that a natural
disaster poses on a community (as a function of the vulnerability of the community’s
tangible assets); (2) the hazard potential of the disaster; and (3) the resilience of its
social and economic systems. This paper develops a measure of the symbiotic
interrelationship of a community’s entrepreneurial marketing process capabilities and
community-level entrepreneurial self-efficacy to illustrate how leveraging the
entrepreneurial, marketing, social, and engineering educational resources of a
community can create a less vulnerable and more resilient community. In doing so, the
paper develops a set of research propositions to guide future research and policy.
Keywords: entrepreneurial marketing processes; entrepreneurial self-efficacy;
community vulnerability; risk; resilience

The Canterbury earthquake sequence began on 4 September 2010 at 4:35 a.m. when an Mw
7.1 earthquake struck . . . The first earthquake, commonly known as the Darfield earthquake,
caused an estimated NZ $4-5 billion of damage . . . A major Mw 6.3 aftershock occurred on
22 February 2011, claiming 185 lives and destroying a large number of buildings in the
Christchurch Central Business District (CBD) . . . the estimated cost of recovery and
reconstruction could reach NZ $40 billion . . . equivalent to around 19% of New Zealand’s
GDP . . . (Stevenson et al., 2014, pp. 555– 556)

Introduction
This paper explores the role of community entrepreneurial marketing process (EMP)
capabilities in the context of a natural disaster event. Unfortunately, the number of people
globally affected by natural disaster is increasing, as are the social, economic, and

*Corresponding author. Email: mmiles6@utm.edu

q 2015 Taylor & Francis

 2 M.P. Miles et al.

environmental costs (Baker, 2009). Entrepreneurial marketing (EM) thought has been
largely shaped by the notion of how small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) use
marketing in crisis situations that arise from economic, regulatory, or competitive shocks
(e.g., Carson, 1985; Hill, Nancarrow, & Wright, 2002; Tyebjee, Bruno, & McIntyre,
1983). These crises often ‘trigger’ businesses to employ entrepreneurial process
throughout the marketing function (Schindehutte, Morris, & Kuratko, 2000). While
Carson (1985) and others have investigated how SMEs leverage EMPs in economic crisis,
there is a lack of work applying EM in natural disaster crisis such as earthquakes,
hurricanes, tsunamis, or fires and how doing so could contribute to reducing a
community’s vulnerability and increasing its resilience.
Economic crises tend to have the greatest impact on a community’s human, social, and
financial capital stocks as illustrated in Table 1. A natural disaster’s impact on a
community’s capital is dramatically different from that of an economic crisis due to the
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 05:13 23 July 2015

Table 1. The different impacts of economic crisis and natural disasters on communities using the
Emery and Flora’s (2006) community capital framework.

Impact on
community
capitala Economic crisis Natural disaster
Natural Gradual decline due to environmental Immediate and dramatic decline due to
degradation that may arise from poverty the disaster event(s)
Cultural Gradual decline due to the erosion of Immediate and dramatic decline due to
financial support and a potential regional the priorities of saving and rebuilding
decline in population human lives
Human May encourage increase in skills and Ambiguous – in the short term
education, but also may cause migration to immediate decline – lives destroyed,
regions not impacted by the crises due to outmigration to regions not
impacted by the crises –
However, human capital may increase
over time due to the rebuilding efforts
of the community
Social Ambiguous – crime and corruption can Ambiguous – social capital can
increase – level of trust and social bonds increase as the community renews and
may decline, but the community may also creates stronger social networks to
come together toward a common goal of help in both the immediate disaster
renewal. relief efforts, and the ultimate
rebuilding of the community
Political Potential for short-term increase, but will Potential for short term increase, but
decline over time as the stock of human and will decline over time unless the region
financial capitals decline is able to maintain its importance as a
national or regional priority
Financial Immediate decline, with opportunity to Immediate decline, with opportunity to
rebound rapidly when the economic rebound rapidly due to the injection of
situation changes government financial relief, external
donations, insurance settlements, and
new capital investments due to the
rebuilding efforts
Built Gradual decline due to insufficient funds Immediate and dramatic decline, with
available to maintain the built environment the potential for tremendous renewal
and revitalization of the built
environment
a
Adapted from Emery and Flora (2006).
 Journal of Strategic Marketing 3

rapid destruction of human lives, built and natural capital resources, sometimes causing a
community to spiral downward toward a less viable future (Emery & Flora, 2006).

Purpose
The purpose of the present study is to explore how a community’s EMP capabilities
combined with entrepreneurial self-efficacy can influence its ability to be both less
vulnerable to natural disasters and more resilient in recovery. This paper contributes to
theory and policy by applying the theoretical model developed by Manyena (2006, 2012)
to capture the impact of EMP and ESE on community disaster recovery and renewal using
Emery and Flora’s (2006) community capital framework. This includes the vulnerability
of the community’s built and natural capital, the hazard of the natural disaster on the
community as reflected by the probability and magnitude of a disaster, and the ability of
the community’s social, political, and financial capital to resiliently respond to the
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 05:13 23 July 2015

disaster. By augmenting Manyena’s (2012) disaster risk equation to explicitly incorporate

resilience, this paper explores how EMP, when combined with ESE within a community,
can trigger both a prophylactic and remedial response to natural disaster using the case of
the Christchurch earthquakes as an exemplar.

Vulnerability – resilience theory (VRT)

Vulnerability and hazard can be conceptualized as the key risks of a natural disaster to a
community, while resilience is its defense mechanism. A natural disaster is viewed as a
hazardous and fleeting event that disrupts normal routine (Davies, as cited in Baker, 2009,
p. 115). The standard policy response emphasizes the need to get the community back to
‘normal’ (Baker, 2009, p. 115). Yet, this typical policy response to ‘re-set to normal’
ignores the renewal opportunities that a disaster can offer a community to reinvigorate and
renew itself.
In context of the 2010/2011 Christchurch earthquakes that destroyed businesses,
homes, and lives, the community could have been made less vulnerable to the damage if
the buildings had been more appropriately engineered to withstand the physical damage
from quakes, and the city’s infrastructure had been planned based on its (previously
unknown) proximity to a fault line. Fortunately, the SME community benefited from the
University of Canterbury’s education and outreach programs in business, science,
technology, and engineering that leveraged formal and informal education, management
training and development, and university/community social networks to enhance
community EM capabilities and self-efficacy.
In line with the work of Miles and Chang (2006), the businesses impacted by the
Christchurch earthquakes are considered part of a larger regional community, all of whom
are connected into one economic and social system. As such, the decisions made by
businesses impact a community’s resilience and are therefore critical to post-disaster
recovery. This paper proposes that by proactively creating EMP capabilities and
entrepreneurial self-efficacy, businesses may contribute to reducing the community’s
vulnerability, by innovatively creating a built infrastructure that is more resilient to a
natural disaster. Likewise, these same EMPs when combined with ESE enhance
community resilience by assisting entrepreneurs to recognize that disasters offer
opportunities to renew, revitalize, and reinvigorate their businesses leveraging social,
political, human, and financial capital.
 4 M.P. Miles et al.

This study conceptualizes vulnerability and resilience as key defense mechanisms

within a community’s social and economic system. Baker (2009, pp. 117– 118) notes that
vulnerability and risk are ‘conceptually distinct . . . risk is quantifiable susceptibility to
harm’ while ‘vulnerability is the materialization of risk [or] . . . the loss of security’. Baker,
Hunt, and Rittenburg (2007) add to this definition by conceptualizing vulnerability as a
shared experience.
Vulnerability is the inability of a system to ‘resist the force, stress or shock resulting
from a natural hazard’ (Manyena, 2006, p. 445). A system’s vulnerability is minimized by
elegant engineering, prudent regulations, and rational public policy (Smith & O’Keefe,
1996). In contrast to vulnerability, resilience is the ability of the system to respond to a
disaster (Manyena, 2006). However, rather than merely ‘bounce back’, resilient
communities ‘bounce forward’ and ‘move on’ from the crisis (Manyena, 2006). Thus,
resilience is a function of human capital, community resources, individual and community
ability to adapt, and institutional capabilities (Manyena, 2006) that can be realized through
a community-wide sense of ESE and EMP capabilities.
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 05:13 23 July 2015

Manyena (2006) suggests that it is useful to view vulnerability and resilience as

fundamentally different dimensions that determine the ability of a system to recover from
a natural disaster. Recently, Manyena (2012) proposed a disaster risk paradigm suggesting
the notion that disaster risk ¼ hazard £ vulnerability.
This equation has three functions: (1) it defines the risk that a community is exposed to
from a specific natural disaster, such as an earthquake, fire, or tsunami; (2) it accounts for
the probability and magnitude of the natural disaster using the term hazard; and (3) it
accounts for the community’s ability to resist the physical forces that result from the
disaster with the term vulnerability. Although Manyena’s (2012) equation provides a
useful conceptualization of the intersection between these two phenomena (hazards
and vulnerability), it fails to capture how a community’s human, social, political,
financial, natural, cultural, and built capital stocks allow the community to cope with the
consequences of the disaster, or account for what Manyena (2006) termed resilience.
Since the 2010/2011 earthquake, the SME community of Christchurch has shown a
capacity to be very resilient. This is consistent with work by Lee, Florida, and Acs
(2004) who found that a community’s stock of human capital is associated with its
ability to be innovative and entrepreneurial, which enhances a region’s resilience. This
resilience is likely to be linked to the proximity of an institution like the University
of Canterbury, and, in particular, its innovative engineering and business faculties.
The importance of a university in creating these capabilities is noted by Florida
(1999, p. 93):
Since we are moving towards a knowledge-based economy, the university looms as a much
larger source of economic raw material than in the past.
The Christchurch community has intentionally created a knowledge infrastructure,
through the University’s business and engineering engagement initiatives, similar to that
proposed by Florida (1999). The importance of the community creating capabilities for
regional economic growth, entrepreneurship, and competitive advantage has also been
advocated by scholars such as Leitner (1990) and Porter (1995). Access to formal business
and technical education has had a tremendously positive effect on the Christchurch
business community’s level of EMP and ESE, by creating an ability and requisite self-
efficacy to exploit the challenges and renewal opportunities that the disaster offered. The
outcome of this is that Christchurch is emerging to be what Morrish describes as an
‘entrepreneurial utopia’ (Anonymous, 2014, p. 4).
 Journal of Strategic Marketing 5

In this study, an augmented version of Manyena’s (2012) VRT disaster risk equation is
proposed to better capture the resilience dimension. This augmented disaster risk
equation is:

RISKdisaster ¼ f ðvulnerability; hazard; resilienceÞ

Vulnerability: the physical assets and infrastructural dimensions of the system that
underlie its ability to resist the physical forces that result from the disaster.
Hazard: the combination of the probability and magnitude of the disaster occurring.
Resilience: the human, community, social, and institutional dimensions of the system
that underlie its ability to cope with and respond to the disaster, and potentially renew,
revitalize, and reinvigorate the economic and social systems to be more effective and
efficient in serving the community’s needs.
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 05:13 23 July 2015

This augmented RISKdisaster equation explicitly takes into account both the physical
and social coping mechanisms of a community as well as the probability and magnitude of
the disaster, and distinguishes between the two more manageable variables of the
RISKdisaster equation vulnerability and resilience and the unmanageable variable hazard.
This framework can be used to delineate the vulnerability and resilience of businesses,
especially how SMEs are affected by specific natural disasters (i.e., earthquake), and
explore how EM in situations of crisis can enable a community’s business system to
recover or even revitalize itself and inform the first two research propositions:
P1: The ability of a business community to recover from a natural disaster is a function
of the hazard of the disaster negatively mediated by its level of vulnerability.
P2: The ability of a business community to recover from a natural disaster is a function
of the hazard of the disaster positively mediated by its level of resilience.

Entrepreneurial marketing processes

Morris, Schindehutte, and LaForge (2002, p. 5) suggest that EM is ‘the proactive
identification and exploitation of opportunities for acquiring and retaining profitable
customers through innovative approaches to risk management, resource leveraging, and
value creation’. This conceptualization of EM has been augmented recently by many,
including Morrish (2009), Morrish, Miles, and Deacon (2010), and Miles, Gilmore,
Harrigan, and Lewis (2014). Most saliently, Miles et al. (2014) suggest that the renewal
attributes of EMP can be a temporal-strategic phenomenon that arises when needed, such
as in the case of a natural disaster.
EM has also been applied in public sector and non-profit contexts, and at different
levels of analysis including at the community/city level. For example, Stokes (2002)
applied EM to public schools, while Jessop (1998) leverages EM as a conceptual
framework to understand the entrepreneurial foundations of the economic competitiveness
of cities such as Dublin or Barcelona. Jessop (1998, p. 85) notes that:
From a structural viewpoint, an “entrepreneurial city” would be one which is so institutionally
and organizationally equipped that it offers a privileged strategic space for innovation . . .
Among such projects one can include measures to support entrepreneurs (e.g., venture capital,
subsidies, business parks, technology transfer mechanisms and technical assistance,
investment in knowledge production through public R&D or locally-oriented R&D
consortia, industry service centres, local and regional development funds, public procurement
policies, and so forth).
 6 M.P. Miles et al.

This paper contends that a community can create both EMP capabilities and a community-
wide notion of ESE to foster economic and social resilience.

The vulnerability –resilience theory and its relationship with entrepreneurial

marketing processes
To date there have been no studies on the role of EM and vulnerability or/and resilience;
and very limited work in either marketing (see, for example, Baker, 2009; Baker, Hunt, &
Rittenburg, 2007; Hill, 2005) or entrepreneurship (see Chamlee-Wright & Storr, 2010).
Nonetheless, researchers have offered frameworks for understanding community
resilience after a disaster. For example, Cutter et al. (2008) suggest a framework they
term ‘disaster resilience of place model’. Chang and Shinozuka (2004) address resilience
by proposing improved measures of technical, organizational, economic, and societal
dimensions. Others have offered frameworks that involve community partnerships at the
public and private level including the impact of supply chains and infrastructure (i.e.,
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 05:13 23 July 2015

Stewart, Kolluru, & Smith, 2009; Svensson, 2000), the impact of risk, coping, and sense of
community (i.e., Paton & Johnston, 2001), and dealing with resilience within a framework
of forms of community capital (Mayunga, 2007). Likewise, Marshall and Schrank (2014)
propose a small business disaster recovery framework and consider resilience as an
important step in business recovery, one that is key to adaptability and the reduction of
negative consequences (or vulnerability) in future disaster situations.
Reducing a community’s vulnerability is of interest to policy-makers who are
concerned with the social and economic well-being of a community (Baker, 2009).
Natural disasters bring destruction to a community’s physical, social, and commercial
systems; often crippling a community’s retail, manufacturing, and commercial sectors and
reducing the community’s stocks of infrastructure and resources; but allowing for the
opportunity to revitalize the community. The community’s vulnerability (its ability to
resist the physical forces resulting from a natural hazard) coupled with the disaster event is
the antecedent of destruction, disrupting the community’s social and economic activities
including capital formation, supply chains, and demand (Zhang, Lindell, & Prater 2009).
Baker (2009) argues that the concepts of vulnerability and resilience and their potential
impact on economic systems provide justification for the importance of examining
disasters and recovery from a marketing and public policy perspective. EMPs are
advantage-seeking, exchange-creating processes that proactively leverage the organiz-
ation’s resources to exploit the value creation opportunities of innovation, customer
intensity and risk (Miles & Darroch, 2006). This conceptualization is further supported by
the work of Morrish (2009) and Morrish, Miles, and Deacon (2010) that suggest EM as an
effectual, entrepreneur –centric, advantage-seeking process that proactively leverages the
organization’s resources to exploit the value creation opportunities of innovation,
customer intensity, and risk. In post-disaster settings, consumer markets provide access to
resources, thus allowing disaster survivors to recover (Baker, 2009). Furthermore, EMP
can be used to innovatively and proactively engage with these consumers, such as
providing products that mitigate the hazards consumers face.

The entrepreneurial marketing process/entrepreneurial self-efficacy index

Kasouf, Morrish, and Miles (2013a) propose that EMP capabilities can be enhanced
through formal and informal education, management training and development programs,
work experience, and community/social networks. These antecedents of EMP capabilities
 Journal of Strategic Marketing 7

can be intentionally created and strengthened within a community to build what Kasouf,
Morrish, and Miles (2013b) term actual EMP capabilities (similar to Jessop’s (1998)
support measures such as technology transfer programs, public R&D, and local risk
capital). Likewise, a community’s entrepreneurial self-efficacy (C-ESE) can be enhanced
through developing entrepreneurial experience within the community (e.g., Jessop’s
(1998) suggestion of creating entrepreneurial management development centers). McGee,
Peterson, Mueller, and Sequeira’s (2009) dimensions of ESE, adapted to a community
level, suggest that as a community gains more entrepreneurial experience, it becomes
more confident in its ability to discover opportunities arising from the disaster, plan to
exploit these opportunities, marshal resources, and implement a strategy to renew,
revitalize, and/or reinvigorate the businesses through EMP.
The C-ESE model, originally proposed by Kasouf et al. (2013b) as an entrepreneur-level
construct, has been adapted as a community-level analysis for the present study. Figure 1
illustrates this through the interaction between a community’s level of EMP capabilities and
ESE, hereon referred to as the EMP/C-ESE index. The EMP/C-ESE index is used to begin to
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 05:13 23 July 2015

explore why some communities are able to recover and thrive after a catastrophic disaster,
such as Chicago after the Great Fire of 1871 where Rozario (2010, W.1) noted that:
The official account . . . encouraging readers to look beyond the destruction to the bigger and
better metropolis that would rise from the ruins. And, indeed, Chicago became the fastest
growing city in the Western Hemisphere over the next two decades, staging the colossal
World’s Fair in 1893 . . . the history of disasters had taught many Americans to equate
progress with economic development and to view destruction as an essential mechanism for
achieving that progress.
Communities, such as Chicago of the 1870s and Christchurch of 2011, had the social
and human capital capabilities of EMPs and the confidence embedded in a high ESE to

• High EMP • High EMP

capabilities / Low capabilites / High
C-ESE C-ESE

High EMP/C-ESE Index

Medium EMP/C-ESE -Most Resilient
index -Modest level of Community -using
Resilience, Lost EMP to renew,
opportunity for social revitalize and
and economic renewal reinvigorate the
community

Low EMP/C-ESE index- Medium EMP/C-ESE

Lowest Level of index -Modest level of
Community Resilience Resilience, Community
at risk of engaging in
EMP initiatives without
sufficient capabiliites
• Low EMP • Low EMP
capabilities / Low capabilities / High
C-ESE C-ESE

Figure 1. The EMP/C-ESE index: a measure of the relationship between actual community EMP
capabilities and the level of community entrepreneurial self-efficacy (C-ESE).
 8 M.P. Miles et al.

pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. As Figure 1 illustrates, these communities are likely

to have lower levels of vulnerability and a higher ability to be resilient in recovery, and
therefore often emerge as much more vibrant communities post disaster. Yet this renewal,
revitalization, and reinvigoration of the community typically only occur when businesses
and policy-makers perceive the ‘disaster as an opportunity’ to rebuild a better and more
efficient and/or equitable community (Rose, 2011, p. 99).
Communities with low levels of both EMP capabilities and C-ESE have neither the
skills nor the confidence to be resilient during disaster recovery, and are not likely to adapt
the measures needed to reduce vulnerability (lower left quadrant of Figure 1). For
example, Rozario (2010) speculated that Haiti would need tremendous assistance to
recover from its 2010 quake.
Communities that have developed EMP capabilities but not C-ESE are less likely to be
willing to take the risks to renew, revitalize, and reinvigorate their businesses during
recovery (top left quadrant of Figure 1). This lack of resilience may result in a lost
opportunity for social and economic renewal primarily. For example, 9/11 was not seen as
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 05:13 23 July 2015

an immediate opportunity for renewal in New York due to the attack’s damage on
community identity and self-efficacy (equating to low C-ESE), even though New York has
tremendous EMP capabilities.
Communities that are at the greatest risk during recovery are those with low EMP
capabilities, but unrealistically high levels of ESE (bottom right quadrant of Figure 1).
These communities do not have the requisite EMP capabilities, but, due to a community-
wide perspective of self-confidence, may start many new initiatives that fail and
ameliorate resilience. Hurricane Katrina’s disastrous impact on New Orleans in 2005 is an
example, where EMP capabilities were lacking; resulting in a very slow and still
incomplete recovery.

The entrepreneurial marketing process/entrepreneurial self-efficacy

index and vulnerability
Despite the widespread damage suffered by businesses in the central business district
(CBD), preliminary research reports that in excess of 95% of businesses in the Canterbury
region remained in operation following the seismic events of 22 February 2011 (Stevenson
et al., 2011). Parker and Steenkamp (2012) report that the 2010/2011 quakes affected the
Christchurch and broader New Zealand business communities in three main ways: (1)
destruction of physical assets such as buildings and equipment, diminishing the
effectiveness and efficiency of business; (2) damage to infrastructure, diminishing the
ability to engage in business; and (3) destruction of business-to-business and business-to-
consumer demand due to changes in markets, diminishing the ability to survive or prosper.
Even in the face of significant economic and physical challenges, some businesses,
particularly those in the hospitality sector, thrived in the period following the quake by
being entrepreneurial and innovative.
A natural disaster disrupts the market in radical ways, but in doing so creates
opportunities for renewal, revitalization, and reinvigoration of the community’s social and
economic systems. EMPs are useful in reducing vulnerability, developing viable solutions
for the consumer, the community, and the business owner through innovation, but to be
effective must be coupled with ESE. Discovery of new knowledge is a source of
innovation that illustrates how EMPs can minimize vulnerability (see Drucker, 1985). For
example, the new knowledge that has been developed in structural engineering suggests
that innovative and appropriate structural engineering designs are safe in the most
 Journal of Strategic Marketing 9

catastrophic events (Clarke, 2014). This suggests that EMP-driven innovations in design
of properly built or re-developed cities can reduce the community’s vulnerability to
natural disaster, but to be effective must be matched with a high level of C-ESE to be
willing to accept these innovations. This leads to the following proposition, as illustrated
in Figure 2:
P3: Business communities that have a high EMP/C-ESE index are most likely to enjoy
relatively low levels of vulnerability.

The entrepreneurial marketing process/entrepreneurial self-efficacy

index and resilience
Figure 2 operationalizes the VRT model for creating business community resilience
through EMP and ESE. Communities with high levels of EMP/C-ESE also increase
resilience through the ability to leverage effectual logic to create, pursue, and exploit
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 05:13 23 July 2015

opportunities that increase resilience and enhance the potential to reinvigorate the
community during recovery. In Christchurch, earthquake-caused destruction resulted in a
massive rebuilding effort, with many transient emergency and construction workers.
Disasters, as an unexpected occurrence, result in demographic changes and incongruities
(see Drucker, 1985) forcing the development of new business models (see Morrish,
Masselot, & Meriluoto, 2014).
A high EMP/C-ESE index enhances community resilience by having both the
capabilities and confidence to actualize ideas into new strategy, products, and business.
For example, in post-quake Christchurch, entrepreneurial ideas are often based on
necessity, such as how the Dux-de-Lux restaurant leveraged the quake as an opportunity
for strategic renewal resulting in a more effective business model. After the quakes, Dux-
de-Lux shifted their business model from a single hospitality venue specializing in
vegetarian meals, into two new businesses: Dux-Dine and Dux-Live. This enabled the
business to recover from the disaster by effectually leveraging its resources, but still
continue with their traditions of fine food and live music in a reinvigorated manner. The
owners used their EMP capabilities to forge new relationships and alliances with other
entertainment venues, such as the Bedford Bar, in order to exploit demand-driven
opportunities.

Figure 2. The relationship between disaster hazard and business community recovery, as mediated
by the EMP/C-ESE index.
 10 M.P. Miles et al.

Because the Christchurch earthquake shut down many businesses, there was excess
consumer demand for products and services, particularly bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and
cafes. Prior to the quake, Christchurch had over 2000 food and drink establishments. After
the quake, around 370 cafes and restaurants that were located in the CBD were forced to
close. By February 2012, only 31 of these businesses had relocated and reopened in nearby
suburbs (Dally, 2012). Due to the high attrition rate, the businesses that did survive found
themselves with a surplus of new customers that they could potentially attract and satisfy,
thereby exploiting a new market opportunity (Turner, 2012). Natural disasters force a new
means –ends relationship to be created. For example, post-quake some other Christchurch
entrepreneurs used EMPs such as resource leveraging, effectual logic, and innovation to
convert shipping containers that carried emergency supplies into a new type of shop –
‘container stores’ transforming retailers with the ability to operate from a ‘physical store’
(Meier, 2014).
These container stores were also adapted by innovative marketers in the hospitality
industry who rebuilt their bars and restaurants using a transportable structure that allowed
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 05:13 23 July 2015

for the firm to adapt to the rapidly changing post-quake market conditions. For example,
the Bean Scene, prior to the earthquake, was an established café, located in Christchurch’s
CBD serving coffee to a market of business professionals. Post-quake, the cafe went from
being located in a corporate office building to being housed in re-configured shipping
containers. One of their first locations was opposite a newly created business center, which
enabled the business to survive by serving a new market of corporate clientele with new
products to more fully exploit the emerging market opportunities.
The Carlton Country Club also leveraged EMPs and ESE to not only recover, but also
transform the business and renew their position in the market. The original Carlton
Country Club building located in the CBD suffered major damage and was subsequently
demolished. The owner had an existing mobile venue that he had planned to use for
another purpose. However, post-quake he had a vacant site in Christchurch where there
was increased demand for pubs and restaurants. His response was to put these means to
another use. The Carlton Country Club was one of the first businesses in Christchurch
(post-quake) to erect a temporary structure. In addition, a new market segment of younger
consumers was targeted through an aggressive social media marketing campaign to
communicate to a wider audience.
Another business to gain resilience and renew itself by leveraging both EMPs and ESE
was Goodbye Blue Monday. Prior to February 2011, this bar was considered a ‘homely’
establishment, popular among Christchurch locals and tourists. Post-quake, the owners
completely reoriented their strategy and adopted a new business model to capitalize on the
demand for places to socialize. Key to their marketing strategy was customer intensity and
their ability to proactively change their product offerings so customers were never bored.
The renamed and repositioned Smash-Palace also took the risk of leveraging a bus to be a
‘mobile’ bar in vacant car parks, thereby creating a new value proposition and
demonstrating a willingness to push the regulatory boundaries and disrupt a market.
Examples such as these demonstrate the ability of a community to exploit EMPs and
‘bounce forward’ during recovery rather than ‘bounce back’ to what they were pre-disaster
and thereby renewing, revitalizing and reinvigorating their community and its social and
economic systems. This leads to the final two propositions of this paper:

P4: Business communities that have a high EMP/C-ESE index are most likely to enjoy
high levels of resilience.
 Journal of Strategic Marketing 11

P5: The ability of a business community to renew and revitalize itself after a natural
disaster is a function of the hazard of the disaster negatively mediated by its resilience.

Conclusion
This paper advances EM theory and informs public policy by developing a conceptual
model and propositions, which illustrate how communities can revitalize their businesses
after a natural disaster using Christchurch as an exemplar. The impact of a natural disaster
on a community is typically much different than that of an economic crisis. A natural
disaster destroys human lives and the community’s natural and physical resources as well
as the financial and social capital that are diminished in an economic crisis. Communities
facing hazard from natural disaster can leverage EMP capabilities provided there is a
substantial level of C-ESE. These community assets can build strong human and social
capital in the form of the EMP/C-ESE index, which enables a community to better manage
two elements of the augmented VRT RISKdisaster Equation (vulnerability and resilience).
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 05:13 23 July 2015

Post-quake, there was substantial goodwill in Christchurch; the community was keen
to see their city prosper and businesses that did commit to reopening and rebuilding were
well supported. Furthermore, the university and government were there to help
entrepreneurs gain capabilities, resources, and self-efficacy (Anonymous, 2014). The
shared experience of surviving the quake and having to utilize their combined skills,
resources, and knowledge to rebuild resulted in the enhancement of both social and human
capital. The surviving and emerging businesses took risks; formed new relationships; and
leveraged resources in order to overcome economic, regulatory, and physical challenges
and re-enter the market. SMEs responded to the changing environment by reshaping their
product –service offering and targeting new customer segments. Post-quake consumer
demand for new products and offerings was strong. Given the destruction caused by the
quake, many CBD businesses had to relocate away from the disaster zone in order to
reopen, recover, and target new customers, thus creating new opportunities. Reopening in
temporary structures proved to be one coping mechanism, but this restricted what the
business could offer. In response, many seized the opportunity to launch a novel product
offering and/or form collaborative partnerships with complementary SMEs to provide a
value-added service. Despite the risk of another earthquake, the businesses that did re-
open demonstrated an ability and commitment to resist the force, stress, or shock and
move on from the crisis.
This paper has presented a framework representing the symbiotic interrelationship of
EMPs and entrepreneurial self-efficacy to illustrate that the leveraging of entrepreneurial,
marketing, social and engineering education resources of a community can create a less
vulnerable and more resilient community. Future researchers might investigate how other
business communities have been affected by natural disasters and to what extent the
propositions and framework of this paper are generalizable. In the case of Christchurch
and its surviving businesses, human and social capital created momentum within the
community and stimulated the symbiotic relationship between the business community’s
level of EMP and C-ESE, resulting in a spirit of resilience within the community. This
certainly contributed to Christchurch’s SME community’s ability to overcome challenges
and increase their resilience, ultimately renewing the city itself. Christchurch is
experiencing the same success that Emery and Flora (2006, p. 28) reported from another
crisis impact community, where ‘spiralling-up caused by building on existing assets
including expanding human capital, not only in the skills and knowledge but also in how
the people see themselves as part of the community’.
 12 M.P. Miles et al.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

References
Anonymous. (2014). National Business Review – NZ Property Investor. August 26, 4.
Baker, S. M. (2009). Vulnerability and resilience in natural disasters: A marketing and public policy
perspective. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 28, 114– 123.
Baker, S. M., Hunt, D. M., & Rittenburg, T. L. (2007). Consumer vulnerability as a shared
experience: Tornado recovery process in Wright, Wyoming. Journal of Public Policy and
Marketing, 26, 6 –19.
Carson, D. J. (1985). The evolution of marketing in small firms. European Journal of Marketing, 19,
7 – 16.
Chamlee-Wright, E., & Storr, V. H. (2010). The role of social entrepreneurship in post-Katrina
community recovery. International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development, 2,
149– 164.
Chang, S. E., & Shinozuka, M. (2004). Measuring improvements in disaster resilience of
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 05:13 23 July 2015

communities. Earthquake Spectra, 20, 739– 755.

Clarke, S. (2014). AuzBizAsia, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, first broadcast August 16.
Cutter, S. L., Barnes, L., Berry, M., Burton, C., Evans, E., Tate, E., & Webb, J. (2008). A place-based
model for understanding community resilience to natural disasters. Global Environmental
Change, 18, 598– 606.
Dally, J. (2012). Speed-dining Chch’s new eating style: Book ahead, eat quickly, prepare to pay.
Retrieved August 24, 2014, from http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/christchurch-life/eat-and-
drink/7710168/Speed-dining-Chchs-new-eating-style
Drucker, P. F. (1985). The discipline of innovation. Harvard Business Review, 63, 67 – 73.
Emery, M., & Flora, C. (2006). Spiraling-up: Mapping community transformation with community
capitals framework. Community Development, 37, 19 – 35.
Florida, R. (1999). The role of the university: Leveraging talent, not technology. Issues in Science
and Technology, 15, 67 – 73.
Hill, J., Nancarrow, C., & Wright, L. T. (2002). Lifecycles and crisis points in SMEs: A case
approach. Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 20, 361– 369.
Hill, R. (2005). Do the poor deserve less than surfers? An essay for the special issue on vulnerable
consumers. Journal of Macromarketing, 25, 215– 218.
Jessop, B. (1998). The narrative of enterprise and the enterprise of narrative: Place marketing and the
entrepreneurial city. The Entrepreneurial City: Geographies of Politics, Regime and
Representation, 77 – 99.
Kasouf, C. J., Morrish, S., & Miles, M. P. (2013a). The interrelationships between entrepreneurial
experience, explanatory style, effectuation and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. In Z. Sethna,
R. Jones, & P. Harrigan (Eds.), Entrepreneurial marketing: A global perspective (pp. 23 – 43).
Bingley: Emerald.
Kasouf, C. J., Morrish, S. C., & Miles, M. P. (2013b). The moderating role of explanatory style
between experience and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. International Entrepreneurship and
Management Journal, doi:10.1007/s11365-013-0275-2. First published online 17 August 2013.
Lee, S. Y., Florida, R., & Acs, Z. (2004). Creativity and entrepreneurship: A regional analysis of new
firm formation. Regional Studies, 38, 879–891.
Leitner, H. (1990). Cities in pursuit of economic growth: The local state as entrepreneur. Political
Geography Quarterly, 9, 146– 170.
Manyena, S. B. (2006). The concept of resilience revisited. Disasters, 30, 433– 450.
Manyena, S. B. (2012). Disaster and development paradigms: Too close for comfort? Development
Policy Review, 30, 327– 345.
Marshall, M. I., & Schrank, H. L. (2014). Small business disaster recovery: A research framework.
Natural Hazards, 72, 597– 616.
Mayunga, J. S. (2007). Understanding and applying the concept of community disaster resilience:
A capital-based approach. Summer Academy for Social Vulnerability and Resilience Building,
1 – 16.
McGee, J. E., Peterson, M., Mueller, S. L., & Sequeira, J. M. (2009). Entrepreneurial self-efficacy:
Refining the measure. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 33, 965– 988.
 Journal of Strategic Marketing 13

Meier, C. (2014). Coffee truck business fills niche. Retrieved August 24, 2014, from http://www.
stuff.co.nz/business/money/9964042/Coffee-truck-business-fills-niche
Miles, M. P., & Darroch, J. (2006). Large firms, entrepreneurial marketing and the cycle of
competitive advantage. European Journal of Marketing, 40, 485– 501.
Miles, M. P., Gilmore, A., Harrigan, P., Lewis, G., & Sethna, Z. (2014). Exploring entrepreneurial
marketing. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 23, 94 – 111. doi:10.1080/0965254X.2014.914069
Miles, S. B., & Chang, S. E. (2006). Modeling community recovery from earthquakes. Earthquake
Spectra, 22, 439– 458.
Morris, M. H., Schindehutte, M., & LaForge, R. W. (2002). Entrepreneurial marketing: A construct
for integrating emerging entrepreneurship and marketing perspectives. Journal of Marketing
Theory and Practice, 10, 1 – 19.
Morrish, S. (2009). Portfolio entrepreneurs: An effectuation approach to multiple venture
development. Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, 11, 32 – 48.
Morrish, S., Masselot, A., & Meriluoto, L. (2014, July 29 – 31). Beyond decriminalisation: An
entrepreneurial look at the business of sex work in New Zealand. Global research symposium on
marketing and entrepreneurship, Santa Cruz, CA.
Morrish, S., Miles, M. P., & Deacon, J. (2010). Entrepreneurial marketing in SMEs: An exploratory
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 05:13 23 July 2015

case study. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 18, 303– 316.

Parker, M., & Steenkamp, D. (2012). The economic impact of the Canterbury earthquakes. Reserve
Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, 75, 13 – 25.
Paton, D., & Johnston, D. (2001). Disasters and communities: Vulnerability, resilience and
preparedness. Disaster Prevention and Management, 10, 270– 277.
Porter, M. E. (1995). The competitive advantage of the inner city. Harvard Business Review, 73,
55 – 72.
Rose, A. (2011). Resilience and sustainability in the face of disasters. Environmental Innovation and
Societal Transitions, 1, 96 –100.
Rozario, K. (2010). Essay: Rising from the ruins. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition, 16 January,
W.1.
Schindehutte, M., Morris, M. H., & Kuratko, D. F. (2000). Triggering events, corporate
entrepreneurship and the marketing function. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 8,
18 – 30.
Smith, N., & O’Keefe, P. (1996). Geography, max and the concept of nature. In J. Agnew,
D. N. Livingstone, & A. Rogers (Eds.), Human geography: An essential anthology
(pp. 283– 295). Oxford: Blackwell.
Stevenson, J. R., Chang-Richards, Y., Conradson, D., Wilkinson, S., Vargo, J., Seville, E., &
Brunsdon, D. (2014). Organizational networks and recovery following the Canterbury
earthquakes. Earthquake Spectra, 30, 555– 575.
Stevenson, J., Vargo, J., Seville, E., Kachali, H., McNaughton, A., & Powell, F. (2011). The recovery
of Canterbury’s organisations: A comparative analysis of the 4 September 2010, 22 February
and 13 June 2011 Earthquakes. Retrieved from http://www.resorgs.org.nz/
Stewart, G. T., Kolluru, R., & Smith, M. (2009). Leveraging public-private partnerships to improve
community resilience in times of disaster. International Journal of Physical Distribution of
Logistics Management, 39, 343– 364.
Stokes, D. (2002). Entrepreneurial marketing in the public sector: The lessons of head-teachers as
entrepreneurs. Journal of Marketing Management, 18, 397– 413.
Svensson, G. (2000). A conceptual framework for the analysis of vulnerability in supply chains.
International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, 30, 731– 750.
Turner, A. (2012). 540 Restaurants now open in Chch: People appreciate having something new.
Retrieved August 24, 2014, from http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/christchurch-life/eat-and-
drink/8058830/540-restaurants-now-open-in-Chch
Tyebjee, T. T., Bruno, A. V., & McIntyre, S. H. (1983). Growing ventures can anticipate marketing
stages. Harvard Business Review, 61, 62 –66.
Zhang, Y., Lindell, M. K., & Prater, C. S. (2009). Vulnerability of community businesses to
environmental disasters. Disasters, 33, 38– 57.