Independent café entrepreneurships in Klang Valley, Malaysia – Challenges and critical factors for success: Does family matter?

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Research Paper

Independent café entrepreneurships in Klang Valley, Malaysia – Challenges and critical factors for success: Does family matter? Sanghyeop Lee a, Kai-Sean Lee d, Bee-Lia Chua b, Heesup Han c,n a

Centre for Tourism, Hospitality and Culinary Management, Sunway University, No. 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, 47500 Selangor, Malaysia Department of Food Service and Management, Faculty of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia c College of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Sejong University, 98 Gunja-Dong, Gwanjin-Gu, Seoul 143–747, South Korea d School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration, College of Human Sciences,Oklahoma State University, 210 Human Sciences-West, Stillwater, OK 740786173, United States b

art ic l e i nf o

a b s t r a c t

Article history: Received 21 November 2015 Received in revised form 7 May 2016 Accepted 24 May 2016

This article investigates the challenges of Klang Valley's independent cafés at the entry stage, while also identifying their shared critical factors for success and their common practices. A total of five exemplar cases and two coffee industry experts were sampled in a two-phase qualitative approach. A list of eight challenges were identified and thematic analysis was used to find four critical success factors essential to survive past the entry stage: (1) concept vs. strategies; (2) an extended notion of location selection; (3) building foundations; and (4) family factors and family life-cycle management. By understanding the critical success factors of the exemplar cafés, foodservice entrepreneurs can gain insights on how these factors could be incorporated into their business strategies to survive the entry stage. Moreover, by investigating Klang Valley’s café culture, this study broadens the understanding of Klang Valley's destination characteristics, and provides practical and realistic implications that contribute to the development of Klang Valley through cultural and culinary tourism initiatives. & 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Independent café Entry stage EntrEprEnEurship Family factors Coffee industry

1. Introduction Tourism has an immense economic impact on national incomes worldwide, which has led various tourism organizations to develop new tourism products to attract tourists. In light of this, food and beverages, which have long been viewed as an important factor affecting tourists’ overall experiences during their travels (Henderson, 2009; Horng, Liu, Chou, & Tsai, 2012), may also serve as a major destination attraction feature (Boniface, 2003). Moreover, food and beverages are an essential sector of the tourism industry, leading governments to invest immense marketing efforts in attempting to develop their destination's potential to attract culinary tourists (Ignatov, & Smith, 2006). Food-and-beverage-related tourism is becoming a significant segment of tourism that triggers a range of entrepreneurial activities, rather than being just a niche tourism product. Malaysia’ is globally renowned for its dynamic and diverse restaurant industry. This ranges from franchise restaurants to family restaurants, ethnic restaurants, fine-dining restaurants, n

Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (S. Lee), [email protected] (K.-S. Lee), [email protected] (B.-L. Chua), [email protected] (H. Han).

hawker stalls and many other types of food establishment. Among the vast range of restaurant establishments that Malaysia has to offer, there has been a significant increase in independent café entrepreneurships, especially in Klang Valley. These cafés stand out from franchise cafés in that they carry their own identity and make decisions independently, unlike franchise cafés where decisions are made according to their franchisor's system (Camillo, Connolly, & Kim, 2008). The remarkably low entry barriers to the restaurant industry encourage new café entrepreneurs to enter the industry without substantial experience or expertise. Previous studies have shown how competitive and turbulent the restaurant business can be, which causes restaurants to close within the first two to three years of operations (Khanfar, Loudon, & Mujtaba, 2010; Leiper, & Stear, 2009). Additionally, the possibility of restaurant failures is extremely high at the entry stage, as studies have reported that 25% of new entrants fail within the first year of operations (Parsa, Self, Njite, & King, 2005). Family firms have, moreover, seen tremendous growth in various industry sectors, especially the restaurant industry. These firms play an indispensable role in increasing economic productivity in many emerging, developing and developed economies (Aldrich, & Cliff, 2003). Several studies have already noted that these family-owned and managed firms have significant economic

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2016.05.002 2212-571X/& 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Lee, S., et al. Independent café entrepreneurships in Klang Valley, Malaysia – Challenges and critical factors for success: Does family matter? Journal of Destination Marketing & Management (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2016.05.002i

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impacts worldwide (Ifera, 2003; La Porta, Lopez-de‐Silanes & Shleifer, 1999). Moreover, past studies have also demonstrated that entrepreneurial start-ups bring significant economic growth and development (Birch, 1979; Schumpeter, 1934). Indeed, local governments and policy makers are increasingly acknowledging the importance of entrepreneurial activities as a valuable economic resource (Brännback, Carsrud, & Kiviluoto, 2014). Carsrud, and Cucculelli (2014) have stated that these family-managed firms are, however, often neglected by these same government and policymakers, even though they play pivotal roles in initiating new entrepreneurial ventures. In addition, although the relationship between family factors and entrepreneurship have often been studied (Hoffmann, Junge, & Malchow-Møller, 2015; Laspita, Breugst, Heblich, & Patzelt, 2012; Lentz, & Laband, 1990), there are still limited studies regarding how family factors affect foodservice entreprises, thus prompting this study to include family factors as a research question. Instead of focusing the setting on restaurants as a whole, this study focuses only on independent cafés. These independent cafés are also widely known as ‘artisan coffee shops’ or ‘third-wave coffee shops’, which are defined as a new movement of coffee shops that prepare coffee beverages with a fusion of artistry and science (Baccellieri, 2006). Moreover, this study utilizes the term ‘café’ instead of ‘coffee shop’ because ‘coffee shop’ in Malaysia can easily be mistaken for local kopitiams, which are traditional coffee shops that offer coffee products brewed and strained from a coffee sock (Lai, 2010). In addition, the term ‘independent café’ is stipulated to be an independently owned foodservice outlet that specifically offers: (1) espresso-based beverages, (2) desserts, and (3) a selection of appetizers and main courses. On top of that, this study stipulates in its sampling that independent cafés are deemed to be successful if they have surpassed the entry stage, which has been specified as independently owned cafés operating for a minimum of two years. This study was conducted qualitatively and comprised two phases: the first comprising multiple case studies and the second two separate interviews with Malaysian coffee industry experts. The overall design aimed to explore the challenges and critical success factors of successful independent cafés in Klang Valley at the entry stage. Previous studies have already identified the critical success factors of generic independent restaurants (Camillo et al., 2008; Mandabach, Siddiqui, Blanch, & VanLeeuwen, 2011; Parsa et al., 2005). There are, however, no studies that focus on independent cafés and the entry stage, which is considered the most vulnerable stage of the business life cycle. This research is thus intended to help new entrants and their respective investors to become more aware of the challenges for a new entrant. The following research questions were thus addressed: (1) What are the challenges for new independent café entrepreneurs during the entry stage? (2) What are the critical success factors for independent café entrepreneurship during the entry stage? (3) How do family factors and the stages of the family life cycle affect independent café entrepreneurs’ business performance during the entry stage?

2. Literature review The following section provides relevant literature regarding: (1) food and beverage tourism, (2) the café industry in Klang Valley, Malaysia, (3) business challenges for restaurants, (4) critical success factors for restaurants, (5) family factors and family involvement, and (6) the family life cycle and the organizational life cycle.

2.1. Food and beverage tourism Food and beverages can play a critical role in tourism development, representing a crucial tourism resource for destinations (Henderson, 2004; Sánchez-Cañizares, & López-Guzmán, 2012). Food-and-beverage-related tourism is known by many terms, including culinary tourism (Long, 1998), food tourism (Hall, & Mitchell, 2001), gastronomy tourism (Kivela, & Crotts, 2005), tasting tourism (Boniface, 2003) and restaurant tourism (Sparks, Bowen, & Klag, 2003). All of these share the sime motivational component of food, which initiates and influences destinationselection decisions. Even though food and beverage are not the initial reason why tourists choose a particular destination, it cannot be overlooked that eating and drinking are essential upon arriving at the destination (Lee, Scott, & Packer, 2014). This is emphasized by Fox (2007), who argues that a bland and indistinct gastronomic identity may prove detrimental to a destination's success. Several new sub-segments of gastronomic tourism revolving around the appreciation of beverages have also begun to receive scholarly attention. These include wine tourism (Brown, & Getz, 2005), tea tourism (Jolliffe, 2007) and beer tourism (Plummer, Telfer, Hashimoto, & Summers, 2005). Coffee tourism has also recently witnessed an increase in scholarly can generate (Anbalagan, & Lovelock, 2014; Jolliffe, 2010; Kleidas, & Jolliffe, 2010). As tourism carries a multiplier effect that generates business opportunities in the hospitality sector, tourist demand for the various gastronomic sub-segments can present valuable opportunities upon which interested practitioners may capitalize (Henderson, 2009). 2.2. The café industry in Klang Valley, Malaysia Malaysia's foodservice industry has witnessed vigorous development, as is evident from the growth of local and international businesses operating in the sector. A total of 9947 new foodservice businesses emerged within a short time span of 2006 to 2011 (Euromonitor International, 2012). Additionally, the nation has witnessed an increase in small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the service sector from 2013–2014, 7.4% of which was accounted for by foodservice establishments (SME Corporation Malaysia, 2014). This phenomenon is primarily caused by the increase of eating-out behaviors among the population of Klang Valley, Malaysia (Tan, 2010), as well as the increasing globalization of international restaurant brands through franchising (Olsen, & Zhao, 2001). The destination of Klang Valley (which is made up of several towns and cities, such as the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Shah Alam, Petaling Jaya, and many others), has been reported to be the most urbanized destination in Malaysia (Ali, & Abdullah, 2012). The urbanization of Klang Valley has greatly impacted the foodservice industry by increasing the population's tendency to eat out on a daily basis (Fatimah, Boo, Sambasivan, & Salleh, 2011). This has prompted many food operators, both legal (with valid licensing) and illegal (without valid licensing) to enter the industry to fight for these opportunities (Ali et al., 2012). The upsurge in independent café entrepreneurships in Klang Valley could be explained primarily by the increasing demand in high-quality coffee and modern environments, which have jointly transformed cafés to become routine leisure places. While the older generation might still prefer the traditional coffee shops (or kopitiams), the appreciation of coffee in modern cafes is expected to grow among the younger generation. Moreover, these cafés allow their patrons to display status and wealth, as dining in these establishments symbolizes a congruence between store image and customer self-image (Kang, Tang, Lee, & Bosselman, 2012). Furthermore,

Please cite this article as: Lee, S., et al. Independent café entrepreneurships in Klang Valley, Malaysia – Challenges and critical factors for success: Does family matter? Journal of Destination Marketing & Management (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2016.05.002i

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independent cafés are not restricted in their decision-making, as the entrepreneur possesses absolute authority, which is not the case with franchises (Camillo et al., 2008). They also act as locations for customers to meet friends, relax, and work alone (Kang et al., 2012), and as a result have established themselves as preferred locations for social activities. It is also important to consider the other types of café that Malaysia has to offer. These range from kopitiams (local coffee shops), which offer instant coffees, to international franchises that offer espresso-based coffee. Kopitiams are commonly familyowned micro-enterprises, made up of five employees or fewer and operating in an open-air environment (Foo, Bajuri, & Wong, 2013). On the one hand, they are firmly embedded in the historical and social narrative of migration and cultural diversity in Malaysia, which in turn reflect the culture of the local community (Lai, 2010). On the other hand, international franchises have had a significant impact on the industry due to their greater resource accessibility, corporate support, training programs, well-established brand names, and customer loyalty (Camillo et al., 2008). The development of the foodservice industry, along with the growing trend toward independent cafés, thus creates opportunities that have attracted many aspiring entrepreneurs to venture into the market. 2.3. Business challenges for restaurants The restaurant business comes with its fair share of difficulties for entrepreneurs to face. The foremost challenge is to ensure food safety and hygiene. This is because the majority of small-scale foodservice establishments in Malaysia do not operate in indoor establishments; indeed, it is noted that customers tend to hold different perceptions of food safety and hygiene based on whether they are indoor or open-air establishments (Fatimah et al., 2011). Moreover, studies conducted in both East and West Malaysia have indicated that good knowledge of food safety amongst Malaysian food handlers may not necessarily contribute to good food-handling practices (Abdul-Mutalib et al., 2012; Lim, Chye, Sulaiman, Suki, & Lee, 2016). Staffing issues and high turnover rates are perpetual challenges that firms in the hospitality industry have to face, especially those in the foodservice industry (Sunley, 2006). This is mainly due to the unpleasant working conditions of the industry (Ghiselli, La Lopa, & Bai, 2001). A study of independent restaurants revealed that high employee turnover rates are caused by employees’ unrealistic expectations and inability to cope with foodservice operation pressures (Alonso, & O’Neill, 2009). On top of that, the foodservice industry's continuing difficulties in employee retention exist chiefly because the majority of employees are young and are not seeking a career in the service industry (Pratten, 2003). This problem is noted among Malaysian hotel restaurants: a study indicated that employees who are less exposed to the service industry have a greater tendency to leave their jobs (Abdullah et al., 2009). The upsurge of international franchisees entering urbanized locations in Klang Valley, such as Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya and Subang Jaya, has raised the level of competition faced by local independent establishments. Moreover, competition in Klang Valley is further increased by the growing number of illegal food operators that are able to function without valid licenses due to the lack of legal enforcement from the local authorities concerned (Ali et al., 2012). In essence, the restaurant industry is turbulent and beset with intense rivalry, which compels establishments to enhance their service marketing mixes to try to gain a competitive edge. The intangible and heterogeneous nature of the restaurant industry also brings forth unsolvable challenges, which prevents the

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establishments concerned from achieving faultless service delivery during customers’ dining experiences (Gursoy, McCleary, & Lepsito, 2007). There is also ever-greater emphasis on green practices, as past studies have pointed out the growth in the number of customers who are willing to pay premium prices at restaurants that implement them (DiPietro, Cao, & Partlow, 2013; Hu, Parsa, & Self, 2010). The primary challenge of product-related issues has, perhaps surprisingly. been less explored. Chan, Hassan, and Boo (2014), for example, indicate that Malaysian chain restaurants face the constant challenge of delivering food and beverages that have the sensory qualities needed to create satisfying customer dining experiences (Namkung, & Jang, 2007). 2.4. Critical success factors for restaurants Restaurant business failures are commonly associated with the lack of specification in determining target markets, location, poor advertising and promotional activities, under-capitalization and poor financial control (Kwansa, & Parsa, 1990). The low entry barriers associated with the industry have also caused restaurants to have a high tendency to fail, as they allow new entrants to penetrate the industry without sufficient skills, experience or capital (English, 1996). Parsa et al. (2005) identified several success factors for generic restaurants, which include the importance of having a well-defined concept, extensive planning prior to expansions, clarification of the target market, the entrepreneur's knowledge, family support, location and competition awareness. This corresponds to the significance of strategic choices, such as location, documented business plans, positioning, concept definition, target market, differentiation strategies, as well as adaption to the external environment (Kotler, Bowen, & Makens, 1999). Moreover, Camillo et al. (2008) extended the list of success factors by including the importance of restaurant owners to achieve work-life-balance, identify loyal patrons, emphasize cost management instead of revenue management, possess culinary and hospitality academic backgrounds, as well as possess the ability to harness creative emotions and avoid destructive emotions. In contrast, Agarwal, and Dahm (2015) argued that relevant hospitality academic backgrounds are less important; instead, they suggest the importance of documented business plans and industry experience. Moreover, the sensory qualities of menu items are also identified as essential to the success of restaurants (Chan et al., 2014; Namkung et al., 2007). Knowledge of the existing competition is also key, especially regarding independent restaurants as they are highly inventive in meeting the needs of their target markets (Hemmington, & King, 2000). Moreover, organizational resources and capabilities are also considered to be vital success factors (Barney, 1991). These include valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable resources and capabilities. The critical success factors associated with different restaurant genres differ vastly. Farrish's (2010) study demonstrates that successful barbeque restaurants involve an entirely different set of critical success factors, namely regional differences between the styles of barbeque cooking, barbeque equipment used, complementary beverages offered, participation in culinary competitions, awards won and complementary side dishes. Furthermore, Kang et al. (2012) suggest that it is vital for coffee shop entrepreneurs to acknowledge the importance of repeat customers, who are more likely to revisit an outlet due to the functional attributes it possesses. These include high-quality coffee and interesting food menus, as well as outstanding interior décor and design. Hence, these studies show that success factors of different restaurant genrestend to be distinct from one another.

Please cite this article as: Lee, S., et al. Independent café entrepreneurships in Klang Valley, Malaysia – Challenges and critical factors for success: Does family matter? Journal of Destination Marketing & Management (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2016.05.002i

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2.5. Family factors and family involvement Family factors and family involvement also contribute to determining the success or failure of a restaurant. Lack of family support has been found to be the main driver that determines the decision to leave the restaurant business. Not only that, past studies have shown that most successful restaurant entrepreneurs were either single, divorced or were able to effectively manage the balance between work and family, whereas unsuccessful entrepreneurs showed a lack of commitment to the business due to their reluctance to sacrifice time with the family (Parsa et al., 2005). Research also indicated that restaurants with more family members involved in their operations are more likely to fail compared to restaurants with less family involvement (Camillo et al., 2008). In contrast, one study identified that family issues or involvement do not necessarily lead to restaurant business failure. This is because if family issues are the main reasons that cause restaurants to close down, it is also a factor that determines their success (Mandabach et al., 2011). However, none of these past studies have evaluated the impact of family factors at the entry stage, which is considered to be the most turbulent stage of the business life cycle. Many independent cafés can be classified as SMEs, which are indigenously owned businesses with 250 employees or less (De Búrca, Fletcher, & Brown, 2004). It is common for independent cafés to have high family involvement, especially in the restaurant industry (Camillo et al., 2008). SMEs tend to be limitateds in their business growth by high family involvement because this leads to a propensity to adopt conservative growth behaviors, resulting in an inability to exploit their growth potential (Hamelin, 2013). Furthermore, family-owned businesses are likely to have inferior resources to non-family-owned businesses because family members’ knowledge, skills and attributes tend to be low compared to the professionals that non-family businesses tend to employ (Bertrand, Johnson, Samphantharak, & Schoar, 2008). In addition, several scholars have stated that family-owned businesses tend to be less innovative than non-family-owned businesses (Bertrand, & Schoar, 2006; Block, 2012; Block, Miller, Jaskiewicz, & Spiegel, 2013). It is vital to note that enterprises which begin as an entrepreneurial vision of an individual often end up becoming family businesses (Carsrud et al., 2014). Therefore, the leadership qualities of the family members can become a key success factor for survival in the later stages of the business (Aldrich et al., 2003; Cucculelli, 2013). 2.6. The family life cycle and the organizational life cycle The family life cycle represents how people advance to the next stage of life through personal relationships (Carter, & McGoldrick, 2005). The stages include young, single, in a relationship, married without children, married with children, married with adolescents, launching children into adulthood, single parents and others. Each stage is specific to an individual and each provides that individual with different life concerns. In relation to Parsa et al.’s (2005) findings, the family life cycle affects firms’ advancement in the organizational life cycle. The organizational life cycle refers to the phases of the growth and advancement process of an organization (Talebi, 2007). The life cycle consists of four stages, which are introductory/entry, growth, mature and decline (Levitt, 1965) As an organization advances through the life cycle, the organization engages in organizational learning, whereby an organization increases their level of knowledge and adds this to their bundle of capabilities (Enz, Canina, & Palacios-marques, 2013). Although much emphasis has been placed on how businesses should approach the mature stage in order to avoid the following stage of decline, there are as of yet

no studies that focus on the entry stage. In the restaurant industry, many businesses fail to surpass the first stage of the life cycle (Camillo et al., 2008). This is because new foodservice establishments have limited competencies in marketing concepts and managing restaurant operations, as they are unprepared for the commitments of the restaurant industry (Walkup, 2002). Furthermore, foodservice businesses take on significant responsibilities towards stakeholders and are often in substantial debt in the entry stage, causing 60% of restaurants to close down during the first three years (Parsa et al., 2005).

3. Methodology 3.1. Research design This study implemented a qualitative approach comprising two phases: the first involving a multiple-case study approach and the second two separate interviews with Malaysian coffee industry experts. The initial multiple case study phase aimed to collect information from five successful independent café entrepreneurs to uncover the critical success factors for such businesses at the entry stage. The second phase collected perspectives from two local café industry experts to gain a macro perspective of Malaysia's café industry. 3.2. Multiple case study method A multiple case study approach was employed to obtain an indepth appreciation of the research topic in its natural context. This involved studying several cases sequentially in order to develop a wider scope of appreciation of the phenomenon at hand (Crowe et al., 2011). A ‘case’ may be identified as any individual(s), event (s), or activity(s) relevant to topic of interest (Creswell, 2012). This research utilized five independent cafés as cases to identify their critical success factors at the entry stage. By doing so, the research benefited from a broad sample of different independent cafés, which aided it in its attempt to identify their similar and contrasting traits. Five participants were interviewed, and each participant was selected purposefully to meet the criteria of the research. Qualified participants were stipulated to be independent café entrepreneurs who had been operating for a minimum of two years. The twoyear criterion was to ensure that the selected café businesses had already passed through the entry stage. Furthermore, entrepreneurs were specifically selected as participants, as they are key decision makers in the execution of business strategies. Cafés that failed to meet the qualification criteria were eliminated from this study. Table 1 provides a brief description of the five cases. Interviews were used as the main source of data. This benefited the overall research as it permitted the researcher to obtain exclusive experiences, emotions and historical information from the participants. A total of 23 interview questions were formulated using Parsa et al.'s (2005) model of restaurant viability and other relevant literature, with stipulations relating the questions specifically to the entry stage. Each interview session took approximately one hour to complete and took place in the settings familiar to the entrepreneurs, which were their respective café establishments. This allowed the researcher to observe the overall concept of the establishment, customer volume during operations and other occurrences that presented during operations. The sample of five participants was determined due to the occurrence of data saturation, which is an indication of data completeness, whereby other participants failed to produce new information and their responses simply resembled repetitions from previous interviews (Bowen, 2008; Miles, & Huberman, 1994). This suggests

Please cite this article as: Lee, S., et al. Independent café entrepreneurships in Klang Valley, Malaysia – Challenges and critical factors for success: Does family matter? Journal of Destination Marketing & Management (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2016.05.002i

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Table 1 List of exemplar independent cafés and brief description. Cases

Brief description

Café A Neighbourhood café situated in a secluded area, hidden from high traffic volume; Niche-focused and specialises in offering quality specialty coffee to its market; Does not offer related food and beverage experience; Expansion plans during entry stage were abundant but none eventuated due to staffing limitations. Café B Siblings-owned ‘quirky’ café entered into a location that lacked traffic volume at first but has shown tremendous growth over the entry stage; Possessed no prior industry experience; Credited its success past entry stage to its employees; Expansions eventuated in the fourth year of operations, aided by the experience gained over the stage of entry. Café C Neighbourhood café that has struggled with its identity throughout the entry stage; Possessed no culinary/hospitality/business industry background; Focused heavily 0n building core competencies by backward integration by establishing a coffee-bean roasting department and a central kitchen; Successfully expanded to its second outlet in the third year of operations. Café D Siblings-owned café; Niche-focused and specialises in offering quality specialty coffee to its market; Possessed nine years of café management experience prior to the opening of the respective café; Experienced a failure of a foodservice outlet; Backward integration into a coffee bean roasting department; Currently seeking the right moment to expand. Café E Siblings-owned café establishment that has suffered from identity drift during entry stage; Believed that prompt action plans contributed to its survival through the entry stage; Possessed no prior industry experience; Expanded to its second outlet in the second year of operations; Currently owns four separate independent cafés after four years of operation.

that greater quantity of data collection does not necessarily dictate the overall quality of the study (Marshall, Cardon, Poddar, & Fontenot, 2013). 3.3. Interviews with industry experts The second phase involved two interviews with two coffee industry experts in Malaysia. The two respondents acted as deviant cases, which provided informative industrial insights from a distinctly neutral perspective (Crowe et al., 2011). The purpose of the second phase was to understand a macro perspective of the café industry's characteristics and challenges. Findings from this phase acted as enrichment to the overall study, as they helped provide information regarding the industry's life cycle, current and future trends, as well as other external factors that pose opportunities and threats to independent café entrepreneurs. Interview questionnaires were designed purposefully to understand the café industry in a broader perspective, which included open-ended questions that covered the evolution of the café industry in Malaysia, as well as their personal list of critical success factors for independent cafés. The interview sessions took approximately 45 minutes each to complete. as such, the overall research design not only investigates the critical success factors of independent cafés but it also aids in understanding the café industry in Malaysia. The profiles of both industry experts (IE-1 & IE-2) are listed in Table 2. 3.4. Data collection and analysis Data from both phases were collected from June to July of 2015 and included two instruments: a demographic survey and interviews. The demographic survey was a necessity to gain basic information of the respective café entrepreneurs and industry experts (Creswell, 2008). This section includes information regarding age, gender, ethnicity, education level, relationship status and number of years working in the restaurant industry. The second instrument utilized face-to-face interviews, which were semi-

structured. This allowed essential topics and issues to be covered by a predetermined set of question outlines, while still allowing the researcher to possess the flexibility and freedom to ask additional queries to further clarify the participants’ responses. Lastly, follow-up interviews were scheduled in late-August 2015 to allow all analyzed and interpreted data to be reviewed by the participants. The follow-up interview proved to be essential to the overall research, as it corrected misinterpreted data, while receiving new and insightful information (Creswell, 2008). The collected data were then subjected to a process of thematic content analysis. Relevant data were first listed in bullet-point form and then manually coded by using the four stages suggested by Boyatzis (1998). This involves: (1) recognizing and identifying that a theme is forming; (2) identify that the codes are reliable and consistent to the relevant data; (3) performing of coding procedure; and (4) interpreting the coded information.

4. Findings and discussion 4.1. Challenges at the entry stage At the entry stage, all five entrepreneurs agreed that the local market lacked exposure to specialty coffee, making it difficult to introduce their products and offerings. This was due to the strong dominance of locally brewed coffee served in local kopitiams, as well as the spread of international café franchises that had already permeated throughout the industry. These franchises possess strong brand presence, detailed formalized procedures, established customer loyalty, corporate support and strong existing resources (Camillo et al., 2008), making it extremely difficult for entrepreneurs to gain market share at the entry stage. Four out of five entrepreneurs suffered from a lack of expertise and knowledge in their own product offerings at the entry stage, making them unable to express and deliver their products to the end-consumer. The lack of specialty coffee expertise is the root to

Table 2 List of industry experts and brief profile. Brief profile IE-1 Currently the managing director of a dynamic restaurant group; Well-known for expertise in developing and setting up coffee bar franchises; First introduced to Malaysia as a general manager to develop a franchised café; During that time, the franchise brand developed into one of the best cafés in Malaysia, winning multiple awards; A certified Master Barista and instructor with 18 years of industry experience across Australia, Europe and Asia.

IE-2 Currently the academic director of an industrial coffee training academy that delivers world-class coffee education; One of the very few global authorized trainers and certifiers of a system written and updated by the best minds in the global coffee industry; Bears a diverse collection of world-renowned coffee certifications; Conducts barista courses and coffee classes while also working as a Speaking Professional, Trainer and Human Resource Consultant.

Please cite this article as: Lee, S., et al. Independent café entrepreneurships in Klang Valley, Malaysia – Challenges and critical factors for success: Does family matter? Journal of Destination Marketing & Management (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2016.05.002i

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various other issues as well, such as the inability to train and develop staff, frequent customer complaints, increased cost from continual wastage and identity dilution. Of the five cases, only one had prior experience in the industry, which allowed a smooth transition into the restaurant entrepreneurial profession. The remaining four cases still managed, however, to survive past the entry stage, making positive returns. Such findings proved to be inconsistent to previous research (Camillo et al., 2008; Parsa et al., 2005), which stated that the lack of related hospitality and foodservice background was a major element of failure. Nevertheless, the journey through the entry stage without prior experience was by no means an effortless process, requiring constant anticipation of events. Offering specialty coffee was, and still is, relatively new to the industry, meaning that qualified staff, especially baristas, were often simply unavailable. This required each entrepreneur constantly to invest immense effort and resources into training and developing staff members. The development of the concept and identity was a perpetual struggle for three of the five cafés, which was due to low profitability and poor cash management provoking them to dilute the initial concept to meet the basic requirment of survival. Overall, after reviewing the five exemplar cases, a list of primary challenges at the entry stage were compiled and listed as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Difficulty in introducing specialty coffee to the local market Dominance of franchised café brands and local kopitiams Lack of expertise in specialty coffee Inexperienced in the food and beverage industry Difficulty in sourcing quality staff Poor location Low profitability Struggles with café identity

4.2. Critical success factor 1: Concept vs. strategies The first critical success factor thread found from the five exemplar cases was identified upon enquiring each of them to define their café business concept. As such concepts are formed from a matrix of ideas that constitute the identity of a restaurant business (Walker, 2011), it was not surprising to find that possessing a clear concept was considered to be a key factor that drives business success by all five entrepreneurs. Business concepts tend to evolve over time, especially at the entry stage. Indeed, in three of the cases the businesses began with infeasible ideas, leading to low revenue and returns that forced them to make major changes to the concept. This included alterations to menu offerings, the sourcing of coffee beans, service styles, interior designs and various other changes required to transmit a practical end concept to the customer. One of the entrepreneurs went to the extent of noting '... as you are losing money and facing debts, the concept has to be abandoned and all plans were dedicated to survival...' [Café E]. The respective entrepreneurs admitted that this was the result of inexperience in starting their first foodservice business. In contrast, past research has argued that having a sturdy, welldefined concept from the start plays the pivotal role in bringing success, and changing the concept would only lead to ‘mission drifts’ and a loss of focus (Parsa et al., 2005). Yet findings also suggest that if the initial concept fails to deliver, appropriate actions have to be taken to secure the survival of the business. This is because if the entrepreneur willfully sticks to an unprofitable concept, the continual draining of the remaining start-up capital could only result in failure (Churchill & Lewis, 1987). Additionally, scholars argue that a successful business concept justifies by the expansion of multiple storefronts shortly after the first start-up

(Cheng, Lin, Tu, & Wu, 2007, Churchill & Lewis, 1987). Yet the findings suggest that new entrepreneurs should constantly experiment with their creative business concept until a satisfactory end-concept is produced (Johanson, & Vahlne, 1977), suggesting that it is essential that the initial business concept has sufficient time to flourish at the start-up prior to further expansion. Only one of the five case businesses mentioned the importance of documented strategies and business plans, while the remaining four did not possess any preliminary strategic plan during the entry stage. Instead, these entrepreneurs followed their ‘gut feelings’ by continuously adjusting and adapting operational and managerial activities to achieve survival at the entry stage. Interestingly, one of the cases shared that the entrepreneurs’ presence at the outlet during operations is by far the best means of marketing. This is because it conveys the message of sincerity and seriousness that the respective entrepreneurs take towards their business. Promotional strategies were entirely organic for all five cases, as each entrepreneur believed that it was irrational to incur high expenses by investing in traditional advertising while the business was in its infancy. Instead, each case business depended entirely on positive word-of-mouth and utilized social media websites during the entry stage. The usage of social media creates an alternative medium for interacting with potential customers (Hanna, Rohm, & Crittenden, 2011; Hansen et al., 2010), especially in the restaurant industry (Kwok, & Yu, 2013). Additionally, findings showed that three cases operated their social media websites internally, while the remaining two outsourced their social media operations. This is because they believed that specialized contractors would possess more know-how in the specific field, as well as allowing the entrepreneurs to spend more time to focus on other business-related activities. The decision to delegate social media marketing to an external source proved to be sensible, as many users fail to fully exploit the full potential of social network sites (Hanna et al., 2011). Instead, many users utilize social media to attain personal needs, rather than the intended business goals. Thus, an outsourced operator can help to articulate the business’ focus from a neutral standpoint. Following on from this, both the entrepreneurs and the industry experts were questioned about their perceptions of which aspect (concept or strategy) plays a more important role in survival during the entry stage. Answers varied across both groups. An entrepreneur who believed that concept played a more critical role expressly stated that'. you don’t open [a café] because you have the strategies to put in place, you open because you have a concept and idea… strategies came along naturally to help [deliver] the concept...' [Café B]. The entrepreneur who stressed having a clear concept to which the entrepreneur was personally committed led to the entrepreneur putting in continual hard work and being dedicated to the business. The concept in this way harnesses the entrepreneur's beliefs and interest toward making the café a success, which commits the entrepreneur to determine the a strategic direction for the business to ensure its survival past the entry stage. On a different note, an entrepreneur who believed that strategies play a more essential role stated that '...concept is just an idea, you can change your concept overnight… [Instead] your strategies will always bring in your sales volume...' [Café E]. The logic behind this perspective is that although a well-defined concept is vital, without the appropriate strategies and action plans in place the survival of the business concept may be endangered during the entry stage. This entrepreneur's perspective reinforces the earlier discussion that a creative business concept may not be appropriate, which may be due to a number of reasons. If a concept fails to deliver, it is important to revitalize and change the concept before the business is eliminated from the competitive environment.

Please cite this article as: Lee, S., et al. Independent café entrepreneurships in Klang Valley, Malaysia – Challenges and critical factors for success: Does family matter? Journal of Destination Marketing & Management (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2016.05.002i

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4.3. Critical success factor 2: An extended notion of location selection

& Montgomery, 1998).

The second thread found location selection to be a factor contributing to business success past the entry stage. Although location is often regarded as an uncontrollable element in the competitive environment, thus making it an external factor (Kotler, 2013), the decision of the café’s location is often at the discretion of the café entrepreneur. Findings showed that all cases encountered difficulty in ite selection due to rising rental costs caused by the continuous appreciation of property prices. Nonetheless, important aspects of a good café site include parking availability, accessibility by employees and customers, sufficient traffic volume and the visibility of the café establishment (Robson, 2011; Walker, 2011). A positive relationship with the site's landlord is also deemed important (Robson, 2011). Furthermore, one of the entrepreneurs stated that it is more important that the chosen location possesses the right ‘vibe’ for the café business, thus referring back to the business concept of the café. In contrast, one of the case cafés was located in a secluded area, away from highvolumes of traffic. The site selection was determined by the ‘vibe’ that it possessed, and the entrepreneur concerned defended the site selection by stating '... if you are [targeting] niche, your location can be niche too ...' [Café A], suggesting that it was unnecessary to be contrained by traditional location-selection approaches. Although the location may not have been ideal, the café business still managed to overcome its disadvantages by attracting sufficient sales volume for their products, suggesting that serving good quality food and beverages can counter having a poor location. Additionally, in all five cases the ability to connect to the local community, especially the neighbourhood in which the café operates, could also be said to be a success factor at the entry stage. This suggests that effective public relations and understanding the local community can be of utmost importance (Robson, 2011). Moreover, one of entrepreneurs who suffered from poor location on entry reflected on the significance of selecting a location with a value-adding anchor tenant. Anchor tenants that are able to attract high footfall definitely provide an upper hand but this cannot happen if the anchor tenant is not sufficiently attractive. In this particular case, the entrepreneur assumed that being situated near several banks would benefit the café business with sufficient passing trade. However, the banks failed to attract potential customers to its doorstep. Instead, bank-goers consistently occupied the majority of parking spaces, causing high levels of traffic and making it difficult for actual customers to access the location. This suggests that high traffic volumes does not guarantee a large audience. Although the entrepreneur still managed to struggle past the entry stage, the site selection was said to be the entrepreneur's most regrettable mistake during the entry stage. Three entrepreneurs selected locations that did not have any anchor tenants upon entry and were not saturated with foodservice establishments. The main reasons they selected non-saturated locations were the strong threat of competition and high rental charges at premium locations. As an alternative, these entrepreneurs opted to try to develop their own locations, giving them the opportunity to pioneer new locations with their creative business concepts. Nevertheless, the task of persisting in such locations was not an easy one, as market uncertainties beset the site, making it difficult to accomplish borderline sales volume. However, survival through the entry stage allowed these case businesses to benefit from being at the forefront of an emerging geographical market, while also allowing them to establish firstmover advantages by pre-empting the emergence of profitable geographical spaces within their respective locations (Lieberman, & Montgomery, 1988). Nonetheless, appropriate investment in key resources and capabilities are extremely important in avoiding the loss of first-mover advantage (Barney, 1991; Enz, 2010; Lieberman,

4.4. Critical success factor 3: Building foundations

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The third success factor deriving from the findings was the ability to build foundations for future growth. All cases recognized the importance of identifying, exploiting and cultivating new resources to aid the growth of café business. Two had successfully managed to expand to their second outlet within the first two years of operations; one expanded during the third year, and the remaining two spent the stage of entry building strong foundations for future growth. All cases explained that expansion contributed to creating a solid platform for their journey through the entry stage. The first lesson learned is the importance of the human element. The cases explained that the capabilities, knowledge, skills and personalities of their human resources serve as critical success factors in the early growth of café businesses. This human capital provides intangible resources (Hall, 1992; Lado, & Wilson, 1994) that provide an enterprise with the strengths needed to implement its intended strategies. In contrast, one of the entrepreneurs who had yet to expand explained that the lack of competent employees was the main reason for its stagnant position. The entrepreneur continued by highlighting that if the staffing issue was not dealt with, further expansion plans could only lead to failure. Reinforcing this point, an industry expert stated that '... you can’t avoid the human element in the industry… this is a people industry after all' [IE-1], infering that the industry unavoidably relies upon human interactions (Hayes, & Ninemeier, 2009). Moreover, the importance of building a strong work culture in the café business was also identified as an important factor in early development, as it helps to ensure that everyone within the business is directed towards a common goal. All cases expressed that without a common goal shared among everyone, quality standards would be ambiguous and the café’s actual direction would drift away from that which is required. This finding suggests that a successful business requires effective transparency and communication at all levels of the firm. This highlights past findings on the extended notion of inseparability (Solnet, Kandampully, & Kralj, 2010), whereby hospitality firms need to exhibit effective integration of key organization functions, making them inseparable from one another (Schneider, 2004). Continuous cultivation of new resources and capabilities is also another identifiable and important foundation-building element. All cases suggested that continuous learning and development are keys that allow survival at the forefront of the industry. Interestingly, one of the entrepreneurs went the extra mile by bringing in foreign trainers to educate staff and managers about new techniques and know-how regarding specialty coffee, while another collaborated with other foodservice establishments to broaden their available competencies. Collaboration has proven to be an effective means of learning new competencies, as it allows one enterprise to acquire new technologies and skills from another (Hamel, Doz, & Prahalad, 1989). However, a different line of thought suggests that collaboration could instead endanger a business by leaking its core competencies to the partner. Nonetheless, collaborating with an indirect competitor can allow the café business to broaden the scope of its core competencies. Thus, strengthening a variety of skills and technologies that provide the business with unique features (Hamel, & Prahalad, 1990), could serve as an advantage for the café business seeking to expand in the subsequent stages of the life cycle. Alternative methods of new resources and capability cultivation included backward integration and establishing important functional departments. For example, one of the cases established a central kitchen, while two established departments specialized

Please cite this article as: Lee, S., et al. Independent café entrepreneurships in Klang Valley, Malaysia – Challenges and critical factors for success: Does family matter? Journal of Destination Marketing & Management (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2016.05.002i

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in coffee-bean roasting. Another established a functional department specialized in human resources, finance and procurement. These investments were intended to improve the fundamental groundings of their business and to help alleviate the barriers of future expansions. As suppliers provide critical components for café businesses to produce their end products (Hamel et al., 1990), the decision to move backwards up the supply chain helps loosen their dependency on specific suppliers (McIvor, 2009; Porter, 1985; Williamson, 1975). Doing so also helps to cultivate a new source of competence that can give the entrepreneur a greater degree of control over product quality, while also simultaneously exploiting new opportunities as a supplier. Another line of thought, however, suggests that the wider risks resulting from the integration process could serve as a threat to the overall business, as the newly diversified business would encounter new challenges beyond the scope of the original café business. Nonetheless, backward integration could prove valuable as a strategy if implemented by café businesses, as past research has shown that it can be an important factor for restaurant businesses to grow additional outlets (Sen, 1998). In summary, expansion-driven entrepreneurs who overly focus on expanding to multiple storefronts may emerge with an impressive portfolio of business units. However, without building the foundations needed to create a competitive advantage against other competitors (Barney, 1991; Wernerfelt, 1984), the café businesses would possess only a weak portfolio of competencies (Hamel et al., 1990), which may in turn jeopardize their future longevity. 4.5. Critical success factor 4: Family factors and family life cycle management The fourth success factor for entry-stage survival was found to be the ability to effectively manage family factors and taking the family life cycle into account.All five cases suggested that the entrepreneurs' ability to effectively manage their work and family lifestyles played a significant role in ensuring the persistence of their businesses during the entry stage. It also suggests that different stages of the respective entrepreneurs’ family life cycles had different effects on their business' development. Amongst the five interviewed entrepreneurs, four were unmarried and one was recently married but without children. Upon entry, all five entrepreneurs experienced difficulties coping with their family lives due to the demanding working conditions of the industry (Ghiselli et al., 2001). However, four of them emphasized that having supportive family members was the most important aspect to their success past the entry stage. The other explained that unsupportive family members, who doubted the business concept, discouraged their transition through the entry stage. Furthermore, family sacrifices were found to be inevitable in the process of becoming a café entrepreneur, which is consistent with various past studies where family background was found to be significant (Camillo et al., 2008; Parsa et al., 2005). Interestingly, the present study found that entrepreneurs coming from a business-owning family made the transition into the entrepreneurial world easier than those who did not. This is because their immediate family members were able to empathize with the sacrifices required during the entrepreneurial journey. These findings reinforced the suggestion that children of entrepreneurial parents would be more likely to become entrepreneurs themselves due to the human-capital advantages they inherited from their parents’ entrepreneurial experiences (Lentz & Laband, 1990; Dunn & Holtz-Eakin, 1996; Hout, & Rosen, 2000), inheritance of entrepreneurial preferences for becoming an entrepreneur (Hout et al., 2000; Nicolaou & Shane, 2009), and also possession of financial capital deriving from the parents’ entrepreneurial wealth (Dunn & Holtz-Eakin, 1996).

Three café businesses were sibling-owned, with high levels of family involvement throughout business operations. Although it was expected that high family involvement within a business would provoke a greater tendency for failure (Camillo et al., 2008), the findings suggest that this was not so, at least during the entry stage. All three entrepreneurs believed it to be a blessing to be able to share the difficulties and successes together with fellow immediate members, with the condition that their immediate family members share a common vision for the business with them. This suggests that family involvement does not necessarily result in business failure. Even though family involvement may be deemed to be a key reason causing restaurants to close down, it may equally play a determining role in their successes. On the one hand, the four of the five entrepreneurs who were unmarried believed that being at their particular stage of the family life cycle allowed them to survive past the stage of entry by being fully committed. On the other hand, the married café entrepreneur believed that being married had no effect on commitment levels, and that having a goal-sharing spouse was a plus point that led to the success at the entry stage. Meanwhile, all five entrepreneurs believed that getting married would have a limited effect on their commitment levels. However, they believe that the subsequent stage of the family life cycle – being married with children – would play a pivotal role. This finding suggests that not all transitions between stages affect commitment levels; rather only certain stages do, especially when the parenting of children is involved. Lastly, in relation to the previous success factor – building foundations – it is important that business entrepreneurs are strongly grounded so that they can proactively face the challenges that arise as different stages of the family life cycle area reached. This finding corresponds to an earlier study stating that the effective co-management of both family life cycle and the business life cycle can play an essential role in entrepreneurial successes in the foodservice industry (Parsa et al., 2005).

5. Conclusion and implications 5.1. Conclusion The results of this study provide an insight into the challenges and critical success factors for new-entry foodservice entrepreneurs. Moreover, this study also extended existing literature on critical success factors to a new segment of the restaurant industry in Malaysia: independent cafés. It is worth noting that the critical success factors identified here are unique not only to this particular segment but also to this particular stage of the business life cycle: the entry stage. By investigating the setting of Klang Valley’s independent cafés, this study has also identified meaningful information that has broadened our understanding of Klang Valley's characteristics and culture. This study has explicitly examined the entrepreneurial activities associated with the increasingly important food and beverage related tourism. In doing so it offers implications for both foodservice entrepreneurs and destination marketers, and these are discussed in the remainder of this section. 5.2. Theoretical implications From a theoretical standpoint, this study offers several contributions to existing literature. First, this study has extended earlier works regarding challenges and critical success factors of the independent restaurant business (Camillo et al., 2008; Parsa et al., 2005). The eight challenges and our critical success factors identified are unique to the specific segment of independent cafés

Please cite this article as: Lee, S., et al. Independent café entrepreneurships in Klang Valley, Malaysia – Challenges and critical factors for success: Does family matter? Journal of Destination Marketing & Management (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2016.05.002i

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in Klang Valley, as well as the particular stage of the business life cycle: the entry stage. This indicates that different restaurant genres have different genre-specific challenges and success factors, which is consistent with the findings of Farrish's (2010) study of barbeque restaurants. Second, this study has also extended several long-standing managerial theories to the independent café context. Adopting Lieberman et al.'s (1998) first-mover advantage strategy proved to be a significant success factor for several independent café entrepreneurial start-ups. In addition, the established work on core competencies (Hamel et al., 1990), collaboration strategies (Hamel et al., 1989) and resource-based view theory (Barney, 1991) were also applied and proved significant. The application of these theories helps further cement their places among the established theories of strategic management. Although they are more commonly investigated in settings involving large corporations, this study instead extended their reach to the segment of café entreprises. Third, this study has also helped close the gap in existing knowledge regarding Klang Valley's café culture. The challenges identified in this study highlight that independent cafés have faced great obstacles combating local kopitiams and international franchises. This study indicates that there are three distinctive players in Klang Valley's café industry and culture: (1) local kopitiams, (2) international franchises, and (3) the growing number of independent cafés. The increase in independent café entrepreneurial activities in Klang Valley indicates that the destination has shown signs of growing demand for higher-quality coffee and more hospitable environments (Opus, 2010). Combining these with the longstanding kopitiams, which are embedded in the local community (Lai, 2010), as well as the dominance of international franchises, Klang Valley is shown to be a destination of great café/ coffee culture development, involving immense diversity. 5.3. Managerial implications Bringing the elements of the paper together, this study provides a number of entrepreneurial and managerial implications. A total of 23 key features were captured by the four critical success factors, which may be implemented by new café entrepreneurs as well as managers. Table 3 provides a list of the features of successful independent cafés during the entry stage of the business cycle. Subsequently, the second critical success factor (i.e., an extended notion of location selection) consists of features 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13. Following that, the third critical success factor (i.e., building foundations) contains features 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20. Lastly, the fourth critical success factor (i.e., family factors and family life cycle management) includes features 21, 22, and 23. From an entrepreneurial and managerial standpoint, this study provideds valuable information for owners of new entry cafés and other foodservice businesses who are seeking to make improved decisions in the beginning stage of their entrepreneurial journey. Deriving from this study's first critical success factor (i.e. concept versus strategies), this study suggests a different emphasis on the business concept. Imperfections in concept development are inevitable, so entrepreneurs and managers need to accept this as a reality and allow the newly developed concept to flourish through continual trial and error prior to any expansion. Furthermore, entrepreneurs should be willing to re-think an impractical concept. No concept established during the entry stage is without potential flaws and some may prove unrealistic or unprofitable. This study suggests that entrepreneurs should take the necessary actions to shut down and reformulate failing concepts in order to avoid any further drain on their assets. The consumption of espresso-based beverages in Malaysia is becoming increasingly popular among the younger generation. Malaysians are starting to

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Table 3 List of success features of successful independent cafés at entry stage. Success Features at Entry Stage: Critical Success Factor 1: Concept versus. Strategies 1. Possess a distinctive, clear-cut business concept. 2. Understand that such concepts require patient development throughout the entry stage. 3. Recognise the importance of giving the business concept enough time to flourish within its own individual establishment before attempting duplications. 4. Have the bravery to take appropriate actions to reformulate an unfeasible concept. 5. Understand that entrepreneurs’ presence during café operations serve as an effective means of marketing. 6. Utilize social media websites and be willing to outsource social media operators. Critical Success Factor 2: An Extended Notion of Location Selection 7. Select locations that possess the fundamental aspects of parking availability, accessibility, traffic volume and visibility. 8. Establish good relationships with the location's landlord. 9. Select locations that reflect the café’s business concept. 10. Acknowledge that the disadvantages of having a non-prime locations can be overcome by good food and beverage quality. 11. Understand the importance of public relations and the ability to connect with the local community. 12. Select locations with value-adding anchor tenants. 13. Select upcoming locations to exploit the opportunity of establishing firstmover advantages. Critical Success Factor 3: Building Foundations 14. Identify and exploit available resources and capabilities 15. Acknowledge the importance of the human element in the café industry. 16. Build a strong work culture that directs all employees towards a common goal. 17. Cultivate new resources and capabilities through continuous learning. 18. Be willing to collaborate with competitors to cultivate new resources and capabilities needed for future growth. 19. Backward integrate and establish functional departments to alleviate barriers during the subsequent stage of the business life cycle. 20. Acknowledge the importance of building a portfolio of competencies, which derives from the café’s own resources and capabilities. Critical Success Factor 4: Family Factors and Family Life-Cycle Management 21. Manage work-life-balance and be prepared to make family sacrifices. 22. Understand the importance of building strong foundations to face the challenges that arise in the subsequent stages ofboth the busines and family life cycles. 23. Simultaneously manage the café business life cycle and family life cycle.

appreciate coffee and enjoy the lifestyle that comes along with coffee consumption. The café is a place that is not only centered on serving espresso-based beverages to customers, but is also a place where customers can socialize and unwind in a comfortable atmosphere (Kang et al., 2012). The second success factor (i.e. an extended notion of location selection) implies that a café location has to meet fundamental aspects of parking availability, accessibility, traffic volume and visibility (Robson, 2011). Cafés in close proximity to sites, such as retailers, restaurants and office complexes, are desirable. Location accessibility, such as availability of parking, and ease of access by public transport (e.g. light rapid transit, monorail, KTM komuter, taxi), is important to attract local and international tourists to Klang Valley. Apart from that, findings from this success factor denoted the importance of the human element in location selection. This study highlights the importance of establishing good relationships between the entrepreneur and landlord to negotiate better rental agreements or extend credit limits. More importantly, this success factor emphasizes the importance of selecting a location with a value-adding anchor tenant. This is because not all anchor tenants would aid the business and could instead bring unnecessary heavy traffic to the café location, which could drive

Please cite this article as: Lee, S., et al. Independent café entrepreneurships in Klang Valley, Malaysia – Challenges and critical factors for success: Does family matter? Journal of Destination Marketing & Management (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2016.05.002i

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away potential customers who would encounter difficulty accessing the café’s location. New entrants should thus focus on this finding and seek locations with anchor tenants that provide a significant advantage over others. The third success factor (i.e. building foundations) denotes the importance of new café start-ups to acquire and build strong resources and capabilities to combat the dangers not only of the entry stage but also the subsequent stages of the life cycle. These resources may derive from pre-empting premium locations, supplier relationships, moving up the experience curve, potential backward integration, collaboration with competitions, and more importantly, human resources. Valuable employees are increasingly hard to come by in the hospitality industry and the café industry in Klang Valley is not exempt from this issue. Entrepreneurs and managers at the entry stage should ensure that employee remunerations are on par with industry standards, punctually awarded and reasonable enough to enable a decent standard of living. Not only that, working conditions should also be improved, such as by installing safety measures throughout the workplace, well-ventilated and air-conditioned working environments, as well as promoting a non-hostile, friendly work culture. By doing so, valuable employees can be retained and the business may potentially achieve to become the employer of choice. Lastly, the fourth success factor (i.e. family factors and family life-cycle management) implies that family sacrifices are an inevitable feature of the entrepreneurial journey, and suggests that entrepreneurs effectively manage work-life balance. To reinforce the previous implication, it is recommended that entrepreneurs work relentlessly to cultivate the resources and capabilities required to face the challenges posed by both the family life cycle and business life cycle. Additionally, it is worth acknowledging that as entrepreneurs advance through the stages of the family life cycle, the employees associated with the café business advance through them as well. Hence, it is suggested that entrepreneurs address this issue to keep valuable and experienced employees attached to their businesses. Achieving good work-life balance should be the focus of all individuals associated in the hospitality industry. Improved schedule arrangements, such as compressed working weeks and flexitime (scheduling arrangements designed to specifically suit an individual's schedule while still ensuring the completion of necessary tasks) should be put in place to allow employees to have more time with their families (Hinkin, & Tracey, 2010). As destinations continuously look for ways to distinguish themselves from others, aspects of food and beverage could easily contribute as a significant destination attraction feature (Boniface, 2003). Destination marketers could look to emphasize coffee tourism as a part of Klang Valley's cultural and culinary tourism initiatives. Although not designed to specifically to attract tourists, café business can also be a form of tourist attraction. Kleidas et al. (2010) have noted that there are essentially three types of cafés (or coffee houses) that form coffee tourism attractions: historic cafés, traditional cafés and speciality cafés with the reputation for offering high-quality coffee. Based on this study, destination marketers could aim to promote independent cafés to emphasize the uniqueness of Klang Valley's café/coffee culture, as they implicitly fit into the criteria of speciality cafés. Coffee enthusiasts, who would willingly travel to these cafés, are also known as ‘espresso tourists’: they are travelers whose main interest is tasting and learning about espressos offered at different premises (Kleidas et al., 2010). As the number of independent cafés in Klang Valley continues to grow, the destination has strong potential to become a significant specialty coffee destination: it hosts many specialty cafés that results in a unique coffee culture (Weissman, 2008). Although espresso-based beverages are commonly found in various other regions of the world,

tourists and coffee enthusiasts may find their habitual desire for coffee at these cafés to be a unique experience due to its production in a different cultural and hospitality context (Jolliffe, 2010). In summary, as coffee continues to reign as one of the worlds’ most popularly consumed beverages, the upsurge in independent café entrepreneurial activities in Klang Valley may prove advantageous to destination marketers who seek to attract coffee and culinary enthusiasts from abroad. 5.4. Limitations and future studies The limitations of this study include firstly the small sample size of five independent cafés in the Klang Valley area. Nevertheless, the findings still exhibited data saturation. Clearly the findings cannot be generalized across different settings, as different settings may alter the results. Nonetheless, this research still managed to provide an insight into how independent foodservice establishments can work to survive to pass the turbulent entry stage of the business cycle. Future studies could explore different independent foodservice contexts. Also, the possibility of duplicating this study's research design in different areas in Malaysia is suggested, as it would contribute to an overall completeness of the Malaysian independent café industry.

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