Entrepreneurs of the Streets: an Analytical Work on the Street Food Vendors of Dhaka City

Abstract

Street food vending is a prevailing and distinctive part of a large informal sector in Dhaka city, the capital of Bangladesh. The paper attempts to gain insight into the business of street food vendors: highlight the problem areas and identify some key factors that positively affect their sales revenue. Using factor analysis as a tool, four major problem areas for the street food vendors have been identified. The problem areas are related to business operation, business knowledge, extortion, and product and production. Through regression analysis, it has been found that business experience, and initial capital are two key factors that positively affect sales revenue. Formal education, however, does not have any significant impact on business performance. The paper also comes to the conclusion that lack of security and problems in the supply of raw materials are two major problems as perceived by the vendors.