An Investigation of Success and Failure Factors of Street Food Sector Entrepreneurs in Sylhet

Abstract

Street food sector is rapidly growing large informal sector in Sylhet, the holy land of Bangladesh. This study attempts to investigate the success and failure factors of entrepreneurs in the street food sector of Sylhet. The study was descriptive in nature and both qualitative and quantitative data were used. In this study, a total of 50 entrepreneurs of street food business were interviewed on the basis of convenience sampling (non-probability sampling technique) from Sylhet district. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the data from the entrepreneurs with a face to face half an hour interview. Mean, mode, percentile, standard deviation were used in the data analysis. The findings of the study divulge that most of the entrepreneurs of street food sectors are young and male. The study also depicts that lack of experience of the entrepreneurs is the main failure factor of this sector. Along with this insufficient capital, a large amount of bribe, intense competition, undefined location are the key failure factors of this sector. On the other hand, the key success factors include easy formation, lower startup cost, less paperwork, fewer employees. The study also interprets that the government has less regulation in this sector, which is also a crucial success factor in this sector. For the development of this sector, the local government authority should provide some specific location for this sector. A large amount of bribe in this sector also needs to be controlled. The banks and other financial institution should provide SME loan to the entrepreneurs. The study will helps local government authority, policymakers, academician and interested persons to get a better insight into this sector. Keywords: Street food sector, entrepreneurs, success and failures factors, Sylhet. DOI : 10.7176/EJBM/11-9-01 Publication date :March 31 st 2019