Entrepreneurial marketing practices and rural wine producers’ performance: The moderating role of competitive intensity in an immediate post crisis period

This study unpacks the relationship between engaging in entrepreneurial marketing practices and firm performance under the moderating role of competitive intensity, in an immediate post-crisis (COVID-19) period. Following 20 field interviews, the model testing stage featured survey responses from owner-managers of 306 small, rural wine producers across multiple regions in the United States. Underpinned by a relational, stakeholder perspective of resource-based theory, alongside an outside-in lens, unique insights revealed that in aggregate terms, entrepreneurial marketing activities were positively and significantly associated with firm performance, while competitive intensity yielded a non-significant moderating effect. Importantly, a post-hoc test revealed that only certain dimensions of the multi-faceted entrepreneurial marketing construct were significantly associated with firm performance, whereby, competitive intensity played different moderating roles (exhibiting varying interaction effects). Implications arise for practitioners building resilience after an environmental shock, whereby, they are likely to need to pivot strategies while facing new degrees of competitive intensity.