Beyond Platform Access: Capital, Embeddedness and Digital Social Marketing among Immigrant Entrepreneurs in the United Arab Emirates

Purpose: This study examines how immigrant entrepreneurs enact digital social marketing under resource constraints, explaining how configurations of capital and embeddedness translate structural conditions into differentiated digital marketing practices.
Design/methodology/approach: An interpretivist qualitative design draws on 66 semistructured interviews with immigrant entrepreneurs across four Emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Data were analysed using the Gioia methodology, progressing from first-order concepts through second-order themes to five aggregate dimensions.
Findings: Two recurring but overlapping resource-mobilisation configurations emerged: investment-enabled and resourceful/self-produced. Investment-enabled entrepreneurs more frequently amplified resources through paid reach, external expertise and professionalised digital activity. Resourceful/self-produced entrepreneurs relied more heavily on substitution through self-production, improvisation, cultural knowledge and socially embedded resources. Boundary cases show that financial constraint does not necessarily limit digital reach when entrepreneurs possess strong digital, creative and social capabilities. Platform access therefore does not equalise market opportunities. Digital outcomes depend on how capital, embeddedness and context are configured and mobilised.
Research limitations/implications: Findings derive from self-reported accounts within one national context and should therefore be interpreted in relation to the UAE’s distinctive institutional and market environment. Comparative and longitudinal research could examine how resource-mobilisation configurations transfer across contexts and evolve as entrepreneurs accumulate capital, digital capabilities and market experience.
Practical implications: Enterprise-support organisations should replace uniform digitalisation initiatives with tiered support aligned with entrepreneurs’ financial, digital and social resource configurations. Resource-constrained entrepreneurs may benefit from accessible digital-skills development, mentoring and networking, while more digitally capable entrepreneurs may require advanced support in analytics, multi-platform integration and strategic scaling.
Social implications: Differentiated digital support can strengthen market participation and economic inclusion among immigrant entrepreneurs. Improving access to relevant digital capabilities and networks may enable resource-constrained entrepreneurs to broaden customer reach and participate more effectively in digitally mediated markets.
Originality/value: The study challenges the assumption that access to low-cost digital platforms creates broadly equivalent entrepreneurial opportunities. The 5-Cs framework, comprising Capital, Context, Competitiveness, Channels, and Creativity, explains how differences in capital and embeddedness translate into digitally mediated market action through resource substitution and amplification. It thereby connects structural explanations of immigrant entrepreneurship with the enactment of entrepreneurial marketing practices.
Keywords: Digital social marketing; immigrant entrepreneurship; mixed embeddedness; forms of capital; resource