Research Question
Hawkers operating in the streets of major towns in the developing world: do they get banking services for the income they generate? There are many people who run small-scale businesses in the streets of major towns in the developing world. These business men and women play a major role in the economies of various countries. It is evident that the hawkers move to the streets in the evening when city and town dwellers are going home from work or early in the morning when they are reporting in their work place. Some of the hawkers have high levels of education but throng the streets due to lack other formal jobs after they have completed their education. Others lack formal education and so they cannot secure any other type of activity to engage in since they lack skills. In some developing countries, hawkers operating in major streets in towns constitute more than a quarter of the working-class population (Burns 2001).
Consequently, hawkers generate a lot of income during their scheduled business hours as many people who are employed in major companies in town centers and outskirts too find it extremely difficult to move to the areas that are designated for hawkers in the peripheries of the towns. They cannot find time to go and look for the products due to their constrained work schedules and therefore find themselves getting most of what they want from the hawkers in the streets. This income generated by the hawkers is the subject of this paper to establish whether it is well kept in the major banks operating in these countries or the banks are yet to launch services that could target that group of people who are very critical in economic advancement, growth, and development. This research proposal will seek to demystify the myth and the kind of revelations gotten will go a long way in affecting the decisions going forward. If cheap banking services for this group of people are not yet in the market then it will be an opportunity to exploit for both those already in the banking industry and those who are in the process of getting into the industry (Lev 2001).
Goals/Objective of the research proposal
This proposal seeks to achieve the following goals and objectives. The first one is to establish where the hawkers take the extra money they get in their businesses and which they are not prepared to use immediately. Secondly, this proposal objective is to get the facts about the amount of money the hawkers make per day depending on the environment they operate in and at different times of doing business either during the start of the month, mid-month, or at the end of the month. Other times of doing business are at day time and also at night. Another goal for the proposal is to know whether hawkers have bank accounts and if they have then know how much they deposit in the account either on daily basis, on weekly basis, or on monthly basis and their opinion on the services they get from the banks; if they have accounts then know of the charges by the banks for provision of those services. The last objective/goal for the proposal is to establish from the banks the kind of banking services they have for the small scale businesses like the hawker’s type, the charges on those services and how available the services are to the target group. Those are the goals and objective that this proposal will target to achieve (Prince 2004).
Introduction to Entrepreneurship nowadays
Entrepreneurship can be defined as the art of being entrepreneur, while an entrepreneur is the person who carries out innovations on business, marketing and finance with an aim of transforming those innovations into economic gain or new products. The act of entrepreneurship can end up to having a brand new firm or organization(s) or may go along way in giving a new face to an already existing organization by revitalizing and transforming it. The actual or perceived new opportunity is what transforms a mature organization as it responds to an innovative mind. The common form of being an entrepreneur is to start a new venture or business which is referred in entrepreneurship subject matter as Startup Company. Nevertheless, today this terminology has been re-invented to the extend of including political and other social forms of entrepreneurship. There are instances where entrepreneurship is used to refer o activities going on within a particular firm or a big organization with a large capital base which is called intra-preneurship. Intra-preneurship may even include corporate venturing. Entrepreneurship has been revolutionaries lately owing to research by re-known economists who describe an entrepreneur as somebody willing and has the ability to invent an idea and turn that idea into a viable innovation which is successful. Those who can be called entrepreneurs usually seek to replace partly or wholly primitive innovations across different spheres of an economy or industry by making it possible to have new products and new business models (Kuratko 2008).
These kinds of activities have resulted to diversification, dynamism of markets and the overall economic development and growth. However, it has been mentioned that entrepreneurship through innovations leads to economic development and advancement in a country which still debatable. It’s also true that in current time and of late, many innovations are just geared at improving what is already there or replacing partly. It is critical to note that entrepreneurship has emerged as one of the leading force for economic growth and especially from 1980s all the way to 1990s and now in the 21st century with economies like that of the United States of America undergoing some critical turn around. This has not only been on the US but also many countries across the globe have realized the importance of entrepreneurship for there economic vitality and advancement. Through the act of entrepreneurship small scale businesses are in a position to compete with large and already established firms and organizations (Minniti, Zacharakis & Speneli 2007)
Literature review
Relevant works that have been done in the field of entrepreneurship are discussed below. Entrepreneurship is much emphasized in the articles composed by the ISI Thomson; one is a scholarly research publication on small scale management of businesses and also entrepreneurship. The journal has been circulating in more than 60 nations all over the world and is leading in the area of research on small businesses and entrepreneurship. It is also a journal that has been very important in research cycles on innovation and inventions too. The journal is entitled ‘International Council for Small Business (ICSB): Journal of Small Business Management’ in short JSBM and is used by the organization called ICSB in advancing its objectives and goals it pursues (ISI Thompson 2011).
Another journal by composed by ISI Thompson for entrepreneurship and innovative work is entitled ‘official Journal of the United states Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship’. This is also an important and leading journal publication in the field and subject of entrepreneurship studies and also innovation. The journal purposes to publish papers that are original and which do contribute to entrepreneurship advancement. The ‘Entrepreneurship Theory and practice (ET &P)’ basically will publish empirical and creative articles that are of great use by public officers on policy making, for use by scholars, the consultants and also researchers on the field of entrepreneurship. Other issues on the article deal with how to teach on the subject of entrepreneurship in schools and colleges (ISI Thompson 2011).
In another article composed by ISI Thompson called ‘strategic entrepreneurship journal’ and which is a research journal; original work is published upon recommendations by the developmental process of review on which scholars conduct review processes. This journal deals with changes and creation of new ideas for the purposes of adding value to the community in ways that are sustainable and acceptable. This journal is read and recommended internationally and has lots of theory on the subject of entrepreneurship. It also involves research which is based on evidence found, conducted and more so applied in many areas and regions in the world. The journal is also devoted to quality and in content which is of high standard. This journal is particularly based on theory which is relevant, which has been tested and found to work and that which is scientific in methodology. It incorporates data which is appropriate upon evidence and that which represents contributions from other sources. This journal also acknowledges the contributions which will lead to better practices in the process of organizational management as they seek do deal with the process of entrepreneurship which involves invention , imagination, innovation ,insightfulness and those inevitable transformations and changes resulting and are beneficial to the whole society(ISI Thompson 2011).
Another journal published by the ISI Thompson is the ‘international conference on energy, environment, entrepreneurship & innovation, (ICEEE 1’11)’. This journal for entrepreneurship was published during a delegate’s conference inEurope. All presentations on it were for the sake of conveying the necessary messages on the subject of entrepreneurship to interested parties and stakeholders like students, scholars and consultants on the same subject matter. Another ISI Thompson composed journal is the ‘Entrepreneurship & Regional Development: Association of Business Schools Academic Journal quality guide’. This is a very unique guide since it moves to address the key factors on economic advancement and development with the issue of entrepreneurial innovation and also vitality being emphasized regionally as well as in local phenomena. This journal aims at providing such a broad forum to researchers on entrepreneurship and development of small scale businesses as well as those who learn and develop an environment within and without, which is right for the innovators to emerge, to re-invent and end up establishing other activities which are new in economics forum which is geared at steering economic development. This journal does focus on the complex and diversified characteristics of the regional and the local economies which will result to vitality on the field of entrepreneurship as well as endow small and large scale firms within their operations to compete internationally (ISI Thompson 2011).
The other journal on entrepreneurship composed by ISI Thompson is ‘ECIE 2011-ECIE 2011: 6th European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship”. This conference was held in Scotland with the main objective being academic entrepreneurship and innovation. The article deals with entrepreneurship as a subject to be stressed in school and a strong drive of the economies both developed and those which are developing. Having known the importance of entrepreneurship in school will go along way in making the dream to be an innovator come true and be a solution to many of the problems all over the world that need to be solved through inventing new ways of developing new products and services (ISI Thompson 2011).
Carter and Jones in their book entitled ‘Enterprise and small Business: principles, practice and policy ‘ does outline the theory on the subject of entrepreneurship ,the process of how it has developed from 18th, 19th, 20th and now 21st century. The practice on how innovation and invention is done all over the world is well detailed in the book. The consequences of innovation and the benefits that have been derived through the act of innovation are all well outlined in the book. This book is very important for students in academic institutions, consultants on the subject of entrepreneurship and also researchers (Carter & Jones 2006).
The other book by Ann Dupuis and Ann Bruin entitled ‘Entrepreneurship: New perspective in global age’ outlines the concepts and themes of entrepreneurship. The book also stresses the subject of constrained entrepreneurship, ethical entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial capital, electronic entrepreneurship, familial entrepreneurship, community entrepreneurship, municipal-community entrepreneurship, state entrepreneurship, indigenous entrepreneurship and elder entrepreneurship as main types of entrepreneurship (Bruin & Dupuis 2003).
Peter F. Drunker and Ferdinand in their book entitled ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship’ have also discussed the subject of entrepreneurship in details. The practice of innovation is given a lot of space in the book as well as systematic entrepreneurship. Purposeful innovation and seven sources of innovative opportunity are also discussed in the subject matter. Other contents in their work include entrepreneurial strategies. Entrepreneurship has got strategies and has to be done appropriately so as to achieve the purpose that is made for it. This strategies are well outlined in this book which include ‘fustest with the mostest’ and ‘hit them where they ain’t’ (Ferdinard & Drunker 2007).
Research Methodology
The research methodology will involve various methods of data collection in the field. After identifying a case to study, various ways of data collection will be employed so as to capture the required and necessary information for analysis. One of the methods will be carrying out interviews. The interviews will be carried through face to face interviews and others over telephone if not possible to get a particular person especially those working under very tight schedules and need to get information from them. The questions for the interview will be structured in a manner that will enable the interviewer capture the most important data on the research question so that no need to go back to an interviewee just because one failed to capture all the information relevant to the research question and the objectives targeted. Face to face interviews will involve the interviewer going to the various banks and interviewing the managers of certain departments which are in line with consumer banking so that a sample of three people per bank is got for the purposes of research. The other leg will be meeting a section of hawkers in the streets and interviewing them. This will involve getting a sample of 20 by interviewing hawkers dealing with different wares and of different age and gender. The ratio of men to women should be 1:1 for purposes of this research (Bridge & Cromie 2003).
The other method to be used in doing this research is through observation. Though this method will not be as much stressed to provide relevant data it will help in capturing some information on the various movement of the hawkers and through that the researcher will be able know whether the hawkers move to the banks. If they do visit the banking institutions at a time during the course of their work then there will be the possibility that they do have bank accounts and do get banking services. This will involve the researcher going to the streets and cautiously following the movement of some hawkers of choice but take care not to antagonize their business mood and his or her own security. This can be carried out by sitting strategically in a place where the researcher can be able to observe and track the movement of the hawkers to and from various bank branches in a town (Burns 2001).
Another method that will be employed in doing this research is the use of questionnaires. This will be the most important instrument for data collection on this research proposal. The target will be to administer 100 research questionnaires. Some of the questionnaires will have open ended questions and others will have closed ended questions. The open ended questions will be geared at capturing answers which do not require opinions of the various interviewees but to answers on what happens. For the open ended questionnaires about 70 out of 100 will be administered to both hawkers and the bank staff. Out of the 70 only 20 will be for the bank staff with the 50 being administered to the hawkers in the streets. The rest of the questionnaires that is 30 with the closed ended questions requiring opinions and selective comments will also be administered selectively to those the interviewer choose to get information from. There will be a possibility to administer both questionnaires to the same interviewee (Bygrave & Zacharakis 2010).
To administer the questionnaires the researcher will give them to the targeted person to fill. If that person is not able to fill it or understand the various questions structured, the interviewer will ask the questions in the questionnaire as he/she fills it for the interviewee. The interviewer will also be able to interpret the questions to the interviewee and in that way be able to capture the most relevant data for the purposes of the research. The questions in the questionnaire will be ten in total. This will be the case for the purpose of taking less time since the target group belongs to most involving and busy professions. The other method for the research will be use of econometric models for the data analysis and interpretation. Regression which is an econometric method of data analysis will be used as well as statistical packages for social sciences-SPSS (Henry, Hill & Letch 1988).
Executive summary
The dissertation will be structured to start with the introduction. In the introduction the summary of ideas which are broad and are associated with the question ‘hawkers operating in the streets of major towns in the developing world: do they get banking services for income they generate?’ will be discussed. The research question is also discussed broadly to reveal the finer details it should be capturing and required. Also of importance in the introduction are the objectives of the research itself and the goals it will be geared at achieving. The significance of the objectives and goals are also highlighted in this part of the research with emphasis on the knowledge of the subject on small business operations in the developing world (Kuratko 2008).
The literature review which will be structured to follow the introduction will discuss previous research done on same subject by others and also the researcher himself. The cited articles will have to be the relevant works on entrepreneurship and especially which dates back to 1980s and 1990s.In the literature review also to be revealed will be the interlocking findings of different scholars on the same subject under research and also the questions which are unanswered leaving a gap which the researcher tries to now fill. The literature review will also discuss the preliminary works that the researcher has done on the same subject or proposal previously if any (Prince 2004).
The remaining questions for the researcher and other logic which is interlocking will be discussed in the literature review. The other content of the literature review will be reprising of own research question or questions in that context. The methodology to be used will follow the literature review in the dissertation. The approach to be applied in the research will be very important in methodology part of research. This is the approach to answering the question or questions for the research. The kind of data needed for the sake of answering the question or questions will be discussed in the methodology. The analytical techniques are also crucial in writing the methodology as well as the methods to use in data collection for research proposal. The plan to be used in result interpretation comes in hardy as part of methodology (Hisrich, Peters & Sherped 2005).
The dissertation will be structured to accommodate results of the research work. The kind of results got when the final research is done will be discussed in detail mentioning that which was possible and not possible. The results are then discussed and conclusions on them made on whether they met the expectations and also whether the questions were answered and objectives and goals achieved. After the discussion and conclusion, is the part on budget and plan for the activities for the research. Research is costly affair and therefore is the need to have a budget for the resources required for research to take place including the number of days, the places to visit and those to be visited (Bridge, O’nell & Cromie 2003).
The last part in the structure is the bibliography or the reference. This is the actual citation of references or works done are done on same subject by others or own research on the same subject. It is usually provided for the sake of those who read the dissertation and want to refer for their own information or want to do further analysis. The bibliography has the authors of related books and journals or articles, the title of the articles journals or books, the year when published and also the publisher. Once the bibliography has been provided then appendixes come last in the dissertation where important parts of the dissertation are discussed in more details which could not find space in the main body (Caroll & Hannan 2004).
Why entrepreneurship and the particular question was chosen for research proposal
The motivation behind choosing entrepreneurship for research is the role the subject plays in both developed and developing countries world over. The role of entrepreneurs cannot be over-emphasized in development of new technologies, products and services. Innovation and inventions have ensured that companies and organizations are turned around from losses to making profits or from situations of only breaking even to very profitable scenarios, become large and employ many people due to the large capital turnover and activity diversification. Therefore entrepreneurship is a subject which is very critical and cannot be ignored in economic growth and development (Caroll & Hannan 2004).
The question for research is ‘hawkers operating in the streets of major towns in the developing world: do they get banking services for income they generate? This topic/question was chosen so that if the answer is got then it can be a business opportunity for an intrepreneur who want to fill the gap which will be identified through the revelations of the results. Hawkers operate small businesses but that which have very large turnover thus making them operate with a lot of money. Knowing whether this money is well kept in a banking institution will be critical in exploiting the opportunity and moving to offer the services by an entrepreneur. So the topic seeks to find a solution and fill a gap which has been realized or offer better ideas. Therefore, the research question and the topic relate to each other since getting to know about the hawker’s business activities, how much they earn and where they save the money will be critical in interpreting the results and discussing a way forward (Miner 2007).
Importance of the research and its contribution
The results and contributions through this research work will help banking institutions to introduce new services targeting small business people in the developing world and hawkers will be able to access banking services after the services are available in banking institutions. The estimated scientific results in this paper will be two; one to reveal whether this particular group of people are banked or not and two to if banked the kind of bank services they access, charges and how beneficial the services are to them. The results will also be important for the scientific community as a basis for further research on the same subject and improvement of the work already done (Storey 1994).
Results dissemination and conclusion
The results will be disseminated through arrangements for seminars and workshops in various countries classified as developing. Results will also be disseminated through academic journals which can be availed in learning institutions such as colleges and universities in the developing world. The journals will also be posted in a specific website which is known and has many visitors so as to reach the targeted audience. The results will also be conveyed in conferences and stakeholder forums on entrepreneurship which are held many times in developing countries (Minniti, Zacharakis & Speneli 2007).
Definition of terms
- Hawker- this term is synonymous with peddler and is a vendor of goods or merchandise that is easy to move or transport from one place to another.
- Streets- this is a public land near or adjacent to buildings the context of urban place or town where people can assemble freely, move about and also interact.
- Developing world- this is a term that is used to describe a country or nation with less or low materials for well being.
- Questionnaire- this is a research tool that consists of questions that are in series and other persuasive geared at collecting data from people or respondents.
- Target group-is a group that is specific and within a targeted market aimed at receiving a particular or specific message.
- Generate-this is to create.
References
Bridge,S, O’nell, K & Cromie, S. (2003). Understanding enterprise, entrepreneurship, and small business. University of Ulster, Palgrave Macmillan.
Bruin, D & Dupuis, A.(2003). Entrepreneurship: The new perspectives in a global age. New York, Routledge.
Burns, P. (2001). Entrepreneurship and Small business: Business and Economics. University of Ulster, Palgrave.
Bygrave, D & Zacharakis, A. (2010). Entrepreneurship: Business and Economics. New York. John Wiley and sons.
Carter, S & Jones-Evans, D. (2006).Enterprise and small Business: principles, practice and policy. New York, Financial Times Prentice Hall.
Caroll, R & Hannan, M. (2004).The demography of corporations and industries: Business and Economics. Princeton University, Princeton University Press.
Ferdinard, P & Drunker, F. (2007). Innovations, theory and practice of entrepreneurship in global perspective. New Jersey, English press.
Henry, C, Hill, F, & Leitch, C. (1988). Entrepreneurship, education and training: Economc development. London. Ashgate publishing company.
Hisrich, R, Peters, M & Sherped, D. (2005). Enterpreneurship: Business and Economics. New Jersey, Mc Graw Hill.
ISI Thompson. (2011). ‘Entrepreneurship and & Regional Development’, An international Journal. Vol.23. Print ISSN: 0898-5626. 10 issues per year.
ISI Thompson. (2011). ECIE 2011 – ECIE 2011: ‘6th European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship’, An international Journal, Vol.4, no.1.
ISI Thompson. (2010). ‘International council for small business’, Journal of small business management, Vol.5, no.2.
ISI Thompson. (2011). ‘International conference on Energy, environment and enterprenuership’,Official journal for business and economics, Vol.1, no.1 2010 issue.
ISI Thompson. (2011). ‘Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice’, The official journal for United States Association for small business and Entrepreneurship. Monthly journal, Vol.35. Print ISSN: 1042-2587.
Kuratko, F. (2008). Entrepreneurship:theory of enterpreneurship ,process,and practice. New York ,Macmillan.
Miner, J. (2007). Entrepreneurship: Four routes to entrepreneurial success. New York, Green wood publishing House.
Minniti, M, Zacharakis, A, & Speneli, S. (2007). Entrepreneurship: The engine of growth in both developed and developing world. New York, Green Wood Group.
Lev, B. (2001).Intangibles: management, measurement, and reporting. Washington DC, Brookings Institution Press.
Prince, R. (2004). Roadmap to entrepreneurial success: Powerful Strategies to building a high profit business. New York. Amacom Div American Mgmt Assn.
Storey, D. (1994).Understanding the Small business Sector: Business and Economics. New York, International Thomson Business Press.