Conceptualizing Entrepreneurial Marketing in Iran's Hotel Industry; a qualitative approach

This paper tries to identify the dimensions and indicators of entrepreneurial marketing in the hotel industry by establishing a link between three areas of marketing, entrepreneurship and the hotel industry. The research method is a qualitative exploratory method. To gather data, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 senior hotel managers in Tehran to discover the dimensions and indicators of entrepreneurial marketing in the hotel industry. The results of the interviews showed that the dimensions of the entrepreneurial marketing comprised 62 indicators and eleven dimensions of “risk management,” “innovativeness,” “proactiveness,” “customer orientation,” “competitor orientation,” “opportunity orientation,” “pioneerism,” “networking,” “being updated,” “supply and participation” and “value creation.” The review and critique comparison of the result in manufacturing, retail, food and information technology industry indicated that the dimensions and indicators of the concept of entrepreneurial marketing in the hotel industry were different from non-tourism and hospitality businesses.