Immigration and street entrepreneurship in Alicante, Spain

Abstract

Within the theoretical framework of Entrepreneurship Studies, this article investigates the thriving immigrant-based street market system in Alicante, Spain. Entrepreneurship research clearly has illustrated that the success of legitimate entrepreneurial endeavours is determined by a complex variety of factors that involve supply and demand, risk vs. return and opportunity vs. need, among others. Based upon field observations, interviews and a detailed survey conducted during the summers of 2005 and 2006, our investigation of the small business street vendor system in Alicante illustrates that these entrepreneurial factors also define and affect the illegal enterprises established by a largely undocumented immigrant population. Despite the apparent simplicity of the street vendor network, both the wholesale and retail systems in Alicante are highly complex and structured, and they work to minimise risk to street entrepreneurs while providing greater economic returns to a large and highly diverse population.

Street Vending Phenomena: A Literature Review and Research Agenda

“…Observation and focus group studies were added to interviews in order to assess credibility of the street vendors’ responses or to collect the data that the vendors refused to give. For instance, in the study of L'Hote and Gasta () on street entrepreneurship in Alicante, Spain, less than half of subjects approached were willing to participate. The authors substantiated their findings by interviews with local immigration specialists and police authorities.…”

“…The articles included in Table investigate only traditional vendors. Three studies use only the sample from mobile vendors (Ancho‐Chi, ; Greenburg et al, ; Reid, Fram, & Chi, ), and two articles investigate only fixed‐stall vendors (L'Hote & Gasta, ; Saha, ). The rest collect from both types of vendors or do not specify types.…”

“…Many are illiterate or do not successfully complete their basic education. Not surprisingly, the marginalized population includes recent immigrants such as Chinese and Senegalese in Spain (L'Hote & Gasta, ) or migrants from other locations in seeking better opportunities in the city as in the case of mobile vendors in Hanoi, Vietnam (Turner & Schoenberger, ).…”

“…When both genders engage in selling, division of labor based on gender is observed (e.g., Cohen, ; L'Hote & Gasta, ; Tinker, ; Turner & Schoenberger, ). For instance, in Spain, Senegalese males almost exclusively sold products on the street, whereas females mainly offered services, such as hair braiding or massages (L'Hote & Gasta, ). In Thailand, male members of a family go to wholesale markets early in the morning to buy stock while female members sell it (Walsh, ).…”

“…However, a few authors imply that vendors possess traits such as the need for achievement, risk taking, innovativeness, autonomy, locus of control, and self‐efficacy. For example, L'Hote and Gasta () view immigrant vendors in Spain selling pirated goods and other wares to tourists, as possessing the risk‐taking trait. Their risk‐taking trait is demonstrated by their ability to sell cheap goods at the highest possible profit while minimizing risk of arrest and confiscation.…”