Success Drivers of Urban Haats Selling Craft Products

Craft industry is as much the mainstay of the rural economy after agriculture. It provides occupation to a large section of population. However, it is characterised by fragmented individual artisans on one side and dispersed customers on the other. It also suffers from market separations. Urban haats were set up with the objective to present artisans and buyer on one platform and reduce these separations. In this study urban haats have been conceptualised as marketplaces that bring artisans and customers at one place to optimise their respective values. They also serve as a tool for disintermediation and a social distribution initiative and represent a retailing initiative in the inclusive entrepreneurship domain. This study focusses on identifying drivers of success of urban haats. Using a mixed method approach, data was collected from Haat officials and NGO members through personal interviews. The data from artisans and customers was collected through a survey using a structured response format. The study was conducted at 18 haats in 10 states. The study highlights the factors that drive satisfaction of artisans and customers and the role of administrators in making the marketplace a success. Customer consider diversity of the products, quality of the products, behaviour of the salesperson, price parity with other markets, buying experience, parking space and aesthetics of the stalls as major influencing factors for the recommendation of the haats to other customers. Most important attributes of the haats in driving artisan satisfaction were stall allotment system, haat location, advertisements, product promotion and monitoring. It is also found that while the infrastructure is necessary, it is not sufficient in enhancing the performance and sustainability of haats. Administration of these haats plays a defining mediating role. Based on these findings, an approach is proposed for success of urban haats.

Impact of ICT-Enabled Product and Process Innovations at the Bottom of the Pyramid: A Market Separations Perspective

Innovations in products and processes enabled by ICT such as mobile phones and the Internet constitute a rapidly emerging means of market development at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP), which consists of people who earn less than US$2 a day. However, these ICT-enabled market development efforts have not always yielded positive developmental outcomes, in part because market development is hindered by remote location and geographic dispersion of BOP communities, their low and uncertain incomes, and informal local markets having exploitative intermediaries. These conditions imply that BOP consumers and producers are ‘separated’ from marketers and customers, respectively, through physical distance, lack of financial ability, and information asymmetry. The paper examines the question: How do ICT innovations in products and processes impact development at the BOP? Drawing perspectives from the information systems (IS) and marketing literatures, we analyze how and why ICT-enabled innovations in products and processes deployed for market development at the BOP, enable developmental outcomes through reduction of market separations. Analyzing qualitative data gathered from interviews with 33 respondents in India, including BOP individuals, social entrepreneurs, and managers from private organizations, we find that ICT-enabled product and process innovations do have the potential to reduce four types of separations that ‘disconnect’ BOP consumers (producers) from marketers (customers). However, situated social conditions influence the impact of ICT innovations on reduction of separations. The reduction of separations leads to developmental outcomes at the BOP. Implications of our findings for theory, practice, and policy are discussed.