Leveraging entrepreneurial marketing processes to ameliorate the liability of poorness: The case of smallholders and SMEs in developing economies

This study explores how entrepreneurial marketing can reduce the liability of poorness by enhancing the performance of smallholder agribusinesses in developing economies. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) analyzed surveys from a judgment sample of 190 Vietnamese SME tea producers. Entrepreneurial marketing processes, including innovation, customer-linking, and reputational advantage, were positively related to cost advantage for the SME tea producers but not with differentiation advantage. This implies that SME agribusinesses in developing economies should focus on their cost-based advantage and leverage their customer-linking capacity to create premium-priced offerings. This could be enabled by participating in capacity-building opportunities such as Vietnam's One Commune One Product branding program. The OCOP program offers the opportunity to shift SME agribusiness from a substance orientation toward a more positive entrepreneurial mindset and develop entrepreneurial capabilities to facilitate a more prosperous future.