What are the Entrepreneurial Marketing Characteristics and Practices of Street Food Vendors in Tehran, Iran?

Abstract

The main aim of the research was focused on attempting to appraise, assess and diagnose the  entrepreneurial marketing characteristics and practices of street food vendors in Tehran, Iran. The  research was qualitative, abductive, systematic, exploratory and descriptive in nature. It was based on  two researches and reviews of literature and sources of secondary data and information, firstly in  English and then in Persian. This was followed by two videographic researches, also provided first in  English and then in Persian. Further, a pictographic research was conducted on street food vendors in  Tehran. Moreover, semi-structured and unstructured interviews were implemented with street food  vendors in Tehran. The analysis of the findings provided that eight entrepreneurial marketing  characteristics and practices were identified, providing that there was a tendency, to a degree, for street 
food vendors to practice entrepreneurial marketing. However, what may be termed generically as classic marketing characteristics and practices, were also found. This implies that street food vendors practice both entrepreneurial marketing and classic marketing, but tend to use, more entrepreneurial marketing practices. These findings suggest to further research street food vendors’ entrepreneurial marketing characteristics and practices in Iran, but also within other countries, so as to continue within the realm
of such a research stream. However, and interestingly, what also seemingly emerged from this research was that the ‘mix’ of entrepreneurial and classic marketing characteristics and practices identified may be seemingly specific to street food vendors only. This also suggests further research in attempts to identify if such marketing characteristics and practices are effectively specific to street food vendors or not.