Policy space for informal sector grassroots innovations: towards a ‘bottom-up’ narrative

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-137
Author(s):  
Fayaz Ahmad Sheikh ⶁ ◽  
Saradindu Bhaduri
Keyword(s):  
Informal Sector ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Mass Scale ◽  
Policy Space ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Grassroots Innovation ◽  
Policy Suggestions ◽  
Grassroots Innovations ◽  
Innovation Processes

Of late, innovation studies have taken a keen interest in exploring various components of informal sector grassroots innovations. While recognising the immense contribution of this scholarship in sensitising researchers and generating awareness, its connections to policymaking remain inadequate. In the absence of comprehensive policy discussions, the policy makers have often attempted to extrapolate the policies meant for formal sectors to suit the innovation requirements of the informal economy. The diverse, idiosyncratic nature of the informal grassroots innovation processes have not received adequate attention. Keeping in view the divergent motives, underpinnings and the nuances of informal sector grassroots innovations, this paper has undertaken a critical review of the various policy suggestions including intellectual property rights, commercialisation and standardisation on a mass scale, the role of awards and recognition for informal sector innovations, and the importance of feedback and standardisation. Based on ten years of ethnographic research in Kashmir, we identify key thematic insights into policy formulations for these innovations.

Commercialising innovations from the informal economy

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gautam Sharma ◽  
Hemant Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Informal Sector ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Institutional Support ◽  
Developing Nations ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Local Market ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Grassroots Innovation ◽  
Grassroots Innovations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the commercialisation mechanisms of the innovations that emerge from the informal sector of Indian economy. Also known as grassroots innovations, they are said to better fit with the local market demands and conditions in the developing nations of the world. The paper discusses the grassroots innovation ecosystem in India and the role that is played by the state in providing institutional support. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on an exploratory study using both the primary and secondary sources of data. Primary data are taken from the interview of the innovators during the field work, whereas secondary data are acquired from research articles published in various journals indexed in Scopus and web of sciences, government publications and reports. The annual reports of National Innovation Foundation are analysed to gather information and to build the arguments for this paper. The secondary data are also collected and evaluated from the database of the grassroots innovators available on Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network. Findings The paper provides insight into how the grassroots innovations are commercialised in India through different pathways such as social entrepreneurship, technology transfer and open source technology. It takes four case studies to discuss the institutional support to the grassroots innovator and the challenges in the diffusion of the grassroots innovations. Research limitations/implications Due to the chosen research approach, the results cannot be generalised on all grassroots innovations. Researchers are encouraged to conduct a survey of more grassroots innovations in order to derive generalised outputs. Practical implications The paper includes implications for understanding the diffusion process of grassroots innovations that can be useful for all the emerging and developing nations. Originality/value The paper fulfils an identified need to study the diffusion modes of informal sector innovations and management of grassroots innovations.

ENTRY INTO AND EXIT FROM INFORMAL MICROENTERPRISE ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN A SOUTH AFRICAN MUNICIPALITY: A TALE OF RESILIENCE

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (03) ◽  
pp. 2050020
Author(s):  
DARMA MAHADEA ◽  
SAMUKELISIWE KHUMALO
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Informal Sector ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Growth Constraints ◽  
Lock In ◽  
Push And Pull ◽  
External Growth

Although research on entrepreneurship in the micro and small firms has been the subject of much scholarly attention, it has been mostly on the formal rather than informal economy. Drawing on the push and pull theory, this paper uses Principal Component Analysis to examine the motivations influencing entrepreneurs to venture into informal sector entrepreneurship in a specific South African municipal context. Against a background of addressing their constraints to growth, the prospects of formalization were considered, using logistic regression. The results, based on a sample of 160 entrepreneurs, show that even in the informal economy, pull factors are the uppermost motivations, apparently stronger than push factors, in influencing individuals to partake in microenterprise entrepreneurship. The logistic results indicate that even when some internal and external growth constraints are addressed, the likelihood of the entrepreneurs’ formalizing their business is not encouraging. Although alleviation of the growth hurdles may assist in enhancing entrepreneurial competence, it does not necessarily favor formalization, but enables a lock-in contentment effect to the informal sector. Against this inertia, implications for policy makers are presented.

scholarly journals The Relationship between Informal Economy and GDP Growth: A Study on South-Asian Developing Countries

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Informal Sector ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Gdp Growth ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Gdp Growth Rate ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Asian Developing Countries

The informal economy has gained increased attention of the policy-makers and development practitioners, especially in the context of South-Asian developing countries. Though measuring the informal economy is difficult, statistics shows the rate of employment creation by the informal sector in this region is higher than the rest of the world. But the GDP growth rate in this region is still emerging in the global economic competition that indicates its effectiveness in the South-Asian region. The study was carried out to identify the relationship between the informal economy and GDP growth rate in South-Asian developing countries. The target population was economies of 8 South-Asian countries, which were also taken as the sample size. Data was collected from secondary sources and analyzed using multiple regression analysis. Results indicated that there is a significant positive relationship between the informal economy and GDP growth rate in South Asian developing countries. Therefore, it is necessary for the policy-makers and development practitioners in this region to give emphasis on the informal sector entrepreneurs to ensure constant economic growth and development.

Role of Perceptions in Health Insurance Buying Behaviour of Workers Employed in Informal Sector of India

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 250-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pooja Kansra ◽  
Harinder Singh Gill
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Informal Sector ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Buying Behaviour ◽  
Urban Informal Sector

Health insurance can be an effective tool of personal protection. But India’s health insurance market still lags behind the other countries in terms of penetration. The present article identified the role of perceptions in the enrolment of health insurance among the urban informal sector of Punjab, India. First, data were obtained from the urban informal sector of Punjab. Then factor analysis was applied to identify the perceptions associated with enrolment of health insurance. After this, logistic regression was performed to determine the associations of identified perceptions with enrolment of health insurance. The present study identified 12 perceptions factors associated with health insurance enrolment of the informal sector in India. Out of the 12 factors, the logistic regression results proved that 8 were statistically significant influencers of health insurance enrolment decisions. The significant perceptions factors were lack of awareness about the need to buy health insurance; comprehensive coverage; income constraint; future contingencies and social obligations; lack of information; availability of subsidized government health care; linkage with government hospitals; and preference for government schemes. It was found that perceptions play a vital role in the household decisions to enrol for health insurance. Policy makers or marketers of health insurance policies should recognize the household perceptions as a potential barrier and try to develop a health insurance package as per the actual needs of the informal sector (low income) in India.

scholarly journals Is Informal Sector Employment Marginal to Formal Sector Growth?

2012 ◽  
Vol 51 (4II) ◽  
pp. 543-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Tahir ◽  
Pervez Tahir
Keyword(s):  
Informal Sector ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Value Added ◽  
The State ◽  
Formal Sector ◽  
Informal Workers ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Government

Pakistan has adopted a neoliberal regime to open the economy to global competition and reduce the role of the state. This directional change brought increased flow of overseas remittances, speculative investment, and consumerism. Consequently, the economy in mid-2000s grew but commodity-producing sector contracted. Public sector spending has been falling, especially on social sectors. There are inadequate provisions for social security and employment based income guarantees. However, this growth and stability was short lived and there is now a fragile state and slowing economy. In the absence of an effective regulatory role of the state, and due to the failure in developing a long-term strategy to harness the labour force potential, there is a huge informal sector existing side by side with the formal economy. Almost 22 million of the employed labour force is earning its livelihood in streets and the government has no record of it. The informal workers can be categorised as self-employed workers and wage workers, doing diversified jobs from petty traders to small producers and from rickshaw driver to shoe shiners. It is difficult to measure the value added contribution of the informal sector in Pakistan. Indirect estimation approaches on the basis of employment and hours worked have been used to estimate the contribution of informal economy. For instance, Idris (2008) estimates the share at 36.8 percent of GNP, which is significant. Arby, Malik and Hanif (2010) measured the size of informal economy in Pakistan through a monetary approach. They find that the size has declined considerably.

scholarly journals How Local Energy Initiatives Develop Technological Innovations: Growing an Actor Network

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther van der Waal ◽  
Henny van der Windt ◽  
Ellen van Oost
Keyword(s):  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Technological Innovations ◽  
Local Energy ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Grassroots Innovation ◽  
Sociology Of Translation ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Grassroots Innovations ◽  
And Diffusion ◽  
Innovation Processes

Local energy initiatives are of growing interest to studies of grassroots innovation for sustainability. Some of these initiatives have developed novel technological solutions to fulfil local demand for renewable energy. However, whereas the upscaling and diffusion of grassroots innovations has been extensively discussed in the literature, their emergence has received very little attention so far. We will therefore focus on how energy initiatives can develop technological innovations by bringing together local actors and creating a fit to local circumstances. Grounded in actor network theory (ANT) and structured by concepts from Callon’s sociology of translation, we studied two technologically innovative projects of a Dutch energy initiative. Through document analysis and interviews, we researched how these initiatives developed their innovations by forming networks of social, material, and discursive elements. We found that the outcomes of the innovation processes are very dependent on the networking capacities of the energy initiatives, as well as how well they fit with external circumstances and opportunities. The paper concludes with five lessons for grassroots technological innovation: form links with the local, extensively scrutinize plans, create tangible proof of alignments, position the project as beneficial to as many actors as possible, and adjust the level of ambition to the strength of the actor network.

scholarly journals Coding Together - Coding Alone: The Role of Trust in Collaborative Programming

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Stephany ◽  
Fabian Braesemann ◽  
Mark Graham
Keyword(s):  
Open Source Software ◽  
Knowledge Spillovers ◽  
Digital Economy ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Collaborative Programming ◽  
Individual Asset ◽  
The City ◽  
Innovation Processes

In the digital economy, innovation processes increasingly rely on highly specialised know-how and open-source software shared on digital platforms on collaborative programming. The information that feeds into the content on these platforms is provided voluntarily by a vast crowd of knowledgeable users from all over the world. In contributing to the platforms, users invest their time and share knowledge with strangers to add to the rising body of digital knowledge.This requires an open mindset and trust. In this study, we argue that such a mindset is not just an individual asset, but determined by the local communities the users are embedded in. We, therefore, hypothesise that places with higher levels of trust should contribute more to StackOverflow, the world’s largest question-and-answer platform for programming questions. In relating the city-level contributions of 266 OECD metropolitan areas to infrastructure, economic, and trust measures, we find this hypothesis confirmed. In contrast, click rates to the platform are solely driven by infrastructure and economic variables, but not by trust. These findings highlight the importance of societal values in the 21st century knowledge economy: if policy-makers want to develop a lively local digital economy, it is not enough to provide fast Internet access and business opportunities. Instead, it is equally important to establish a trust-building environment that fosters sharing of innovative ideas, collaborations, and knowledge spillovers.

Evaluation of Fiscal Policy Effect of China’s Photovoltaic Industry

2018 ◽  
pp. 111-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gang AN ◽  
Hang WANG
Keyword(s):  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Research And Development ◽  
Operating Performance ◽  
Fiscal Policies ◽  
Micro Data ◽  
Policy Effect ◽  
Policy Suggestions ◽  
Asset Size ◽  
The Empirical Analysis

To explore the role of fiscal policies in promoting the development of photovoltaic industry, the effects of financial subsidies on the development of China’s photovoltaic industry were analyzed by using the micro data of listed companies. The empirical analysis results in this study indicate that the fiscal policies represented by financial subsidies play a remarkable positive impetus function and financial subsidies are positively correlated with the operating performance of Photovoltaic enterprises. With larger the asset size and higher the Research and Development (R&D) investments, the operating performance of Photovoltaic enterprises is the better. Based on the above results, this study puts forward some policy suggestions on optimizing fiscal policy tools and further promoting the development of photovoltaic industry.

POLICY CHANGE – THE ROLE OF IDEAS AND POLICY ENTREPRENEURS

2018 ◽  
pp. 63-72
Author(s):  
Arwanto Arwanto ◽  
Wike Anggraini
Keyword(s):  
Policy Change ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Policy Entrepreneurs ◽  
Multiple Streams ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Problem Framing ◽  
Exogenous Factors ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACT Understanding policy process involves many distinctive approaches. The most common are institutional, groups or networks, exogenous factors, rational actors, and idea-based approach. This paper discussed the idea-based approach to explain policy process, in this case policy change. It aims to analyse how ideas could assist people to understand policy change. What role do they play and why are they considered as fundamental element? It considers that ideas are belong to every policy actor, whether it is individual or institution. In order to answer these questions, this paper adopts Kingdon’s multi streams approach to analyse academic literatures. Through this approach, the relationship between ideas and policy change can be seen clearer. Ideas only can affect in policy change if it is agreed and accepted by policy makers. Therefore the receptivity of ideas plays significant role and it emerges policy entrepreneurs. They promote ideas (through problem framing, timing, and narrative construction) and manipulate in order to ensure the receptivity of ideas. Although policy entrepreneurs play significant role, political aspects remains the most important element in the policy process. Keywords: policy change, ideas, idea-based approach, Kingdon’s multiple streams, policy entrepreneurs.

An Analytical Approach to Cruise Tourism As an Option For Development: a Case Study of the Sultanate of Oman

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-109
Author(s):  
Heba Aziz ◽  
Osman El-Said ◽  
Marike Bontenbal
Keyword(s):  
Capital City ◽  
Sultanate Of Oman ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Cruise Tourism ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Average Expenditure ◽  
Return Intention

The objective of this study was to measure the level of cruise tourists' satisfaction as well as the relationship between satisfaction, recommendation, return intention, and expenditure. Also, the impact of factors such as nationality, length of the visit, and age on the level of expenditure was measured. An empirical approach for data collection was followed and a total of 152 questionnaires were collected from cruise tourists visiting the capital city of Oman, Muscat, as cruise liners anchor at Sultan Qaboos Port. Results of the regression analysis supported the existence of a causal relationship between satisfaction with destination attributes, overall satisfaction, recommendation, return intention, and expenditure. It was found that the average expenditure varies according to age and length of the visit. Recommendations for policy makers were suggested on how to increase the role of cruise tourism in strengthening the economy.

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