Creativity as co-evolution: entrepreneurial marketing in transitional hospitality markets

Purpose This study aims to examine creativity in entrepreneurial marketing (EM) through a duality lens, integrating the entrepreneur and dynamic environment to understand how creative EM behaviours form in uncertain settings, addressing gaps in prior entrepreneur-focused research. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach was used, drawing on in-depth interviews with 38 owners/managers of small independent hotels in Hanoi, Vietnam – a transitional market in the hospitality sector. Data were analysed using Gioia methodology (Gioia et al., 2013) to identify themes on environmental factors and creative responses. Findings The dynamic environment exerts enabling (complex business networks, market heterogeneity) and constraining (fluctuating demand, severe competition, extreme seasonality) roles. Entrepreneurs respond creatively via alternative market seeking, service differentiation, partner selection and personalised value creation. Most of these responses reproduce existing local practices, although one hotel’s early use of TripAdvisor was later copied by other hotels. Originality/value This research advances EM theory by applying a duality perspective and conceptualising creativity as the reciprocal interplay between entrepreneurs and dynamic environments. Drawing on Vietnam’s hospitality sector, we show how entrepreneurs exercise agency as their EM practices reproduce and occasionally change, the rules and resources of their local market.