Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Making a market for Mexican food in Australia

Making a market for Mexican food in Australia The purpose of this paper is to account for the remarkable proliferation of Mexican restaurants and tequila bars in contemporary urban Australia, in the absence of any geographical contiguity, historical connection or cultural proximity between Australia and Mexico.Design/methodology/approachThe paper traces how the particularities of direct cultural contact, interpersonal networks and grass-roots entrepreneurism can open up new markets, and how the ground is, thus, prepared for subsequent large-scale international corporate entry to those markets. This research is based on interviews with key figures in the development of the Mexican food industry in Australia, interpreted in terms of the extant literature on cultural globalisation. The first-hand accounts of these participants have been interpreted in the light of available secondary sources and relevant theory.FindingsThe most striking theme to emerge in the study is the relative absence of Mexicans, or even Mexico-experienced Australians, in the making of a market for Mexican food in Australia. Rather, initially, Americans were prominent, as entrepreneurs and in forming a consumer market, while in later decades, entrepreneurs and consumers alike have been Australians whose experience of Mexican food has been formed in the United States, not Mexico. The role of hipster subculture and travel is seen as instrumental. Also of interest is the manner in which the personal experiences and interrelationships of the Americans and Australians have shaped the development of the Mexican food industry. This is not to ignore the much more recent participation of a new wave of immigrants from Mexico.Research limitations/implicationsWhile the scope of the study is national, the sharper focus is on the experience of Melbourne; it would be useful for future researchers to investigate other major cities, even if Melbourne has been the most pivotal of Australian cities in the history of Mexican food in Australia. The study has conceptual and theoretical implications for debates around cultural globalisation and “Americanisation”.Originality/valueThe paper provides a close-grained and suitably theorised account of how a particular consumer trend has become extended on a global basis, with particular attention to both individual experience and agency, and corporate activity. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Historical Research in Marketing Emerald Publishing

Making a market for Mexican food in Australia

Download PDF
16 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/making-a-market-for-mexican-food-in-australia-nB0Kiz0Aez
Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
1755-750X
DOI
10.1108/jhrm-07-2017-0042
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to account for the remarkable proliferation of Mexican restaurants and tequila bars in contemporary urban Australia, in the absence of any geographical contiguity, historical connection or cultural proximity between Australia and Mexico.Design/methodology/approachThe paper traces how the particularities of direct cultural contact, interpersonal networks and grass-roots entrepreneurism can open up new markets, and how the ground is, thus, prepared for subsequent large-scale international corporate entry to those markets. This research is based on interviews with key figures in the development of the Mexican food industry in Australia, interpreted in terms of the extant literature on cultural globalisation. The first-hand accounts of these participants have been interpreted in the light of available secondary sources and relevant theory.FindingsThe most striking theme to emerge in the study is the relative absence of Mexicans, or even Mexico-experienced Australians, in the making of a market for Mexican food in Australia. Rather, initially, Americans were prominent, as entrepreneurs and in forming a consumer market, while in later decades, entrepreneurs and consumers alike have been Australians whose experience of Mexican food has been formed in the United States, not Mexico. The role of hipster subculture and travel is seen as instrumental. Also of interest is the manner in which the personal experiences and interrelationships of the Americans and Australians have shaped the development of the Mexican food industry. This is not to ignore the much more recent participation of a new wave of immigrants from Mexico.Research limitations/implicationsWhile the scope of the study is national, the sharper focus is on the experience of Melbourne; it would be useful for future researchers to investigate other major cities, even if Melbourne has been the most pivotal of Australian cities in the history of Mexican food in Australia. The study has conceptual and theoretical implications for debates around cultural globalisation and “Americanisation”.Originality/valueThe paper provides a close-grained and suitably theorised account of how a particular consumer trend has become extended on a global basis, with particular attention to both individual experience and agency, and corporate activity.

Journal

Journal of Historical Research in Marketing – Emerald Publishing

Published: May 14, 2018

Keywords: Cosmopolitanism; Americanization; Cultural imperialism; Cultural globalization; Entrepreneurship; Mexican food

References

  • Product-country images: towards a contextualized approach
    Askegaard, S.; Ger, G.; Englis, B.; Olofsson, A.
  • Introducing gertrude, the hippest name in town
    Barrett, P.
  • Why Chipotle Mexican Grill stock looks like a great long term investment
    Bowman, J.
  • Australia-Latin America education relations
    Burgess, S.; Carr, B.; Minns, J.
  • Latinos in Australia
    del Rio, V.; Carr, B.; Minns, J.
  • Floating food: eating ‘Asia’ in kitchens of the diaspora
    Duruz, J.
  • Resisting ‘globalisation‐from‐above’ through ‘globalisation‐from‐below
    Falk, R.
  • Branding the nation: towards a better understanding
    Fan, Y.
  • Eating the asian other? Pedagogies of food multiculturalism in Australia
    Flowers, R.; Swan, E.
  • Cheap thrills for Latin lovers
    Fraser, J.
  • A tasty taco truck hits a council road hump
    Griffin, M.
  • Taco Bell boss Greg Creed hints at new Mexican food wave in Australia
    Grimaux, A.
  • Company website
  • Census data 2016: Melbourne overtakes Sydney as most popular city
    Irving, K.
  • Fitzroy’s Bullring bites the dust
    Jackson, A.
  • Los Vida Mexican restaurant to open in Crows nest
    Jones, G.
  • McDonald”s old boys beef up the burrito
    Kitney, D.
  • Forget the roast lamb and spaghetti bolognaise - Australia’s new national dish is TACOS
    Moore, H.
  • It’s final: AB InBev closes on deal to buy SABMiller
    Nurin, T.
  • The Latinization of America
    Ramos, J.; Segal, A.
  • The ‘McDonaldization’ of society
    Ritzer, G.
  • How the taco won Melbourne
    Rousseau, N.
  • Late-modern hipsters: new tendencies in popular culture
    Schiermer, B.
  • Agents of ‘Americanisation’: individual entrepreneurship and the genesis of consumer industries
    Sinclair, J.
  • Company website
  • Fast growing Zambrero’s offers burritos with heart