Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The city of Malmö, Sweden supports numerous local, small food and beverage manufacturers. This study uses the Malmö local food community and Malmö’s three active craft coffee roasteries as a case to examine the role of social capital in building economic resilience for small food and beverage brands in a market where global multinational corporations also compete. The theories of cultural embeddedness and relational work are employed to analyze and explain the research findings, which show that external cultural alignment can create a structure for community support and economic resilience, while relational work can meliorate market culture misalignment. Incorporating both external cultural alignment and relational work into business strategy is a active step that small food and beverage manufacturers can employ to succeed.