Senior Deli: Pioneer in an Emergent Care Food Ecosystem

A Hong Kong start-up, Senior Deli develops a wide variety of soft meal products targeted at mostly elderly patients suffering from dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing and chewing. Its patented technologies help supply softened food that retains the original taste and appearance and appeals to local palates. There is significant market potential for soft meal products amid the aging populations in Hong Kong, mainland China, and other developed countries. Yet the team has found that some patients and care homes have hesitated to adopt the products. In general, soft meal products are still new to many people and suppliers in Hong Kong. The stakeholders seem to hold up in adoption of the products. This market chasm is too costly for Senior Deli or any single start-up to overcome. Therefore, Senior Deli’s major issues are educating target customers, legitimizing soft meals, and promoting its products amid such uncertainty. At the end of 2022, a localized guideline for care foods was announced in Hong Kong, but will it create an opportunity for Senior Deli to overcome the issues it has been facing?

This case fits well in undergraduate- and graduate-level courses on entrepreneurship, new venture creation, social entrepreneurship, and strategic management. It can also be used in executive development programs to introduce the sector-specific topic—that is, the food tech industry—or the market-specific topic—that is, general or social entrepreneurship in Hong Kong.<br><br>The case explores the entrepreneurial environment from an ecosystem perspective. It allows the instructor to highlight that the determinants of start-up success and performance do not simply depend on the business’s capability to innovate or identify and address pain points in the market. Rather, overcoming the prevalent hesitancy problem in a newly created market is also important, as is noting that this market is characterized by an underdeveloped ecosystem.<br><br>Following this discussion, students will have the opportunity to do the following:<ul><li>Analyze situations in which hold up problem arises in an entrepreneurial context.</li><li>Identify and map important stakeholders in an emergent ecosystem. </li><li>Evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of a localized standard, or more generally an industry standard or guideline established by regulatory authority.</li><li>Provide insights into how start-ups or other stakeholders in the ecosystem can overcome the challenges brought by the hold up problem.</li><li>Appreciate social entrepreneurial opportunities in food technology.</li></ul>

• social entrepreneurship
• hold-up problem
• ageing
• soft meal
• stakeholder