Indigenous Management Practices- A Case Study on Street Vendors

Abstract

Street vending a very ancient and critical occupation found in each and every country with far reaching economic and social impact. Even before the pre independence era, in India, street vending was by far the only recourse to sales activities in an informal space. Even to this day in smaller semi urban localities and pockets of the country we see a congregation of sellers and buyers getting together in vacant spaces for an informal marketing activity. They are called by various names as in sandy bazaars, santhe’s etc which could happen once a week in most places. Not just food, every possible and essential good and in certain cases services are also bought and sold here. While there is a lot of study on formal sales management, marketing mix, product life cycles stages and a plethora of marketing concept, this street vendors business management have been given very little thought and study. In the absence of a shop, any perceivable brand building exercises, advertisements the street vendor is successful in getting very good returns on the minimal capital expenditure invested. This paper is a case study approach to viewing the successful business practices of street vendors. How do these street vendors manage competition amongst them and still continue to attract a growing numbers of customers. Certain sellers have become brands in themselves for certain unique services they offer and able to sustain their product and service through the years successfully. In this paper, we have discussed certain critical practices of street vendors that could be of much use in furthering management theories and practices.