Determinants of Marketing of Handloom Products Across Heterogeneous Weaving Business Units: A Study of Rural Assam

Abstract

Success in marketing plays an important role in the growth and extension of rural non-farm informal sectors. The present study made an attempt to understand the marketing success among diverse groups of handloom weaving business units and factors determining the marketing of handloom products through the lens of weaving business units in rural Assam. Besides descriptive and inferential statistics, multiple linear regression method was applied for the analysis of data. The results of the study show that the success of marketing in terms of sales volume and revenue was significantly higher among the master weavers. Factors like years of schooling of handloom weaving entrepreneurs, business experience, working hours, storage capacity, advance payment requirement, number of handloom competitors in village, transportation cost, communication expense, and proximity to market significantly influenced the marketing across heterogeneous weaving business units in the study area. Steps towards the improvement of rural market infrastructure and road connectivity by taking a slew of suitable policies by Central and state governments may allow the rural handloom weavers to get better access to the market, which in turn, may assist in the promotion of sales.