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The paper aims to focus on how the dualism “petty trading and traffic” exacerbates the development of a social bond among traders from various communities and ethnic groups in Ghana. As understood in their normal innocuous sense, “traffic and petty trading” independently mark off two generally distinguishable exclusive partners. However, both petty trading and traffic now denote essential aspects of contemporary Ghana’s new social order shared uniquely among informal traders. The paper dilates on this phenomenon.

The theory underpinning this study is social constructionism. Social constructionism is part of a post-modern understanding of the nature of reality. It is a strand of sociology, pertaining to the ways in which social phenomena are created, institutionalised and made into tradition by humans. The core idea of constructionism, therefore, is that some social agent produces or controls some object. ’s (1967) situational constraints thesis also provides an important element to this paper. The thesis maintains that the poor in society are constrained by the facts of their situation; hence, the poor are unable to translate many of their ideals into reality in view of the considerable poverty that engulfs them. The thesis, reiterates that once the constraints of poverty are removed, the poor would have no difficulty adopting mainstream behavioural patterns and seizing available opportunities. The thesis is significant in exploring the objectives of this paper.

The paper finds that petty trading has given its adherents a new wave of life. The picture that emerges is that, although street hawkers are seen as a nuisance, a failure in society and lacking knowledge, they have become mindful of what society thinks about them. As a result, some have devised means to cope with what they do and also to find new ways to address the challenges facing them. The findings confirmed that people are self-reflexive beings and that they shape their own behaviour despite the influence of a variety of social factors that may constrain them. The study found that street hawkers have found a way to make life more meaningful for themselves than are actually perceived.

The paper seeks to discover the daily lives of petty traders, which have been stealthily tied in to urban development and planning. It brings a new dimension to the issue of petty trading. The fundamental argument of the paper is that the multidimensional nature of poverty is leading petty traders to a new consciousness which bodes well for them. These traders are shaping their own behaviour despite the influence of a variety of social factors that may constrain them. The social bond and interrelationship that permeate their working relationship has created a basis for which they now forge close ties that promote an inclusion from the exclusion that they are generally enjoined to.

The purpose of this paper is to examine aspects of the contemporary relevance of the Michelin Guide as efforts are made to extend its reach in Asia. The focus is on recent endeavours by the producers of the restaurant guide to represent local conditions by acknowledging the importance of street food and hawkers.

The methodology is that of a case study based on analysis of published material about the inaugural Singapore Michelin Guide and its consequences.

The Michelin Guide confronts challenges in retaining its authority and establishing itself in new Asian locations. The Singapore edition indicates attempts at responsiveness to distinctive circumstances through the recognition of street food and hawkers, but questions can be raised about the appropriateness of their inclusion and rating.

Despite the absence of primary data, important topics about food and dining landscapes and modes of restaurant reviewing and grading are explored. A research agenda for the future is also proposed.

Attention is given to the impacts of the guide for individual enterprises, suggesting positive and negative outcomes of endorsement.

Findings enhance understanding of the place of food and dining within societies and the influence of restaurant guides.

The paper offers an Asian perspective on and fresh insights into the role of local food cultures as well as the meanings and functions of the Michelin Guide.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experiences of international tourists with healthy signature food at a tourist destination, and explore the perceptions of food providers regarding the preparation of healthy signature foods. Healthy signature food at tourist destinations has become a crucial factor that can determine whether tourists revisit a tourist destination. The relevant literature review and Urry’s tourist gaze theory indicate that there is a lack of previous research on healthy signature foods among international tourists and food providers. The current study addresses this gap by providing a holistic understanding of healthy signature foods and how they have led to a culture of healthy eating in the tourism industry.

A case study was conducted in Malacca, a World UNESCO Heritage Site, to identify the experiences of international tourists with local signature foods. A purposive sampling method was selected to gather information from international tourists and food providers. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews to gain a detailed perspective of healthy signature foods.

The results revealed four thematic analysis outcomes, namely, memorable food experiences, food hygiene consciousness, cultural values and tourist happiness, which directly impact tourists’ satisfaction and intention to revisit. Additionally, aspects such as type of trip, trip frequency and the purpose of the trip influenced tourists’ experiences with healthy signature food. Furthermore, it was found that the selected food providers prepared their meals according to the standard procedures.

The current study extends Urry’s tourist gaze theory by exploring tourists’ perceptions of healthy signature food as well as exploring the way the food is prepared. Healthy signature food has much potential as a means of attracting and sustaining international tourists at tourist destinations. Furthermore, it strengthens the supply chain relationship between international tourists (customers) and food providers (suppliers) in the food tourism industry.

This study aims to investigate consumer decision-making styles (CDMS) in the context of street food. In addition to the original CDMS constructs, two additional constructs, namely food safety risks and environmental risks, were included based on relevant literature. Furthermore, the study explores the moderating role of social media celebrities (SMCs) in bridging the intention-behaviour gap in street food consumption behaviour.

The data were collected through an online survey, with 300 participants providing useable responses. Partial least squares (PLS) analysis was employed to analyse the data.

The findings indicate that out of the eight identified CDMS, six styles, specifically recreational (hedonistic shopping consciousness), price consciousness, novelty-seeking, impulsiveness, confusion due to over-choice and brand loyalty, significantly influence consumers' intention to consume street foods. Additionally, the results support the moderating role of SMCs. This suggests that the presence and influence of SMCs play a significant role in shaping consumers' intention and behaviours towards street food consumption.

This study contributes significantly to the literature by adding two additional constructs, namely safety risks and environmental risks in CDMS. Moreover, this study fulfils the intention-behaviour gap in street food literature by exploring the moderation effect of SMCs.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of mobile phones on the micro‐trading activities of traders in Ghana. The study aims to develop a conceptual model analyzing the impact of mobile phones on pre‐trade, during‐trade and post‐trade activities.

A mixed methods approach consisting of a descriptive survey of 136 traders and a case study of two traders was adopted.

The findings suggest that traders primarily use mobile phones to monitor goods and pricing strategies, scheduling deliveries, and addressing inquiries and complaints in during‐trade activities. Traders, including those with no formal education, also use mobile phones as calculators in post‐trade activities. This innovative use of mobile phones is a function of their pre‐knowledge which may have been developed through formal education and/or social networks. Improving information management through mobile phones directly or indirectly contributes to the economic empowerment of the trader.

The paper proposes a conceptual framework that extends the transaction cost theory to consider transaction benefits and effects in micro‐trading. The study develops four propositions which can guide future research.

The study provides practitioners with a “theoretically‐inspired” framework which goes beyond examining design and adoption to identify needs and assess impact in mobiles for development initiatives.

The conceptual framework extends the work on transaction cost theory in information systems and may inform future research in mobile phones and micro‐trading activities.

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic impacts the financial condition and the mental health of millions of workers from various informal sectors. This study aims to look into the hawkers’ community’s mental health and living conditions in Bangladesh during COVID-19.

The researchers have applied the purposive sampling technique to choose ten hawkers from Khulna city, a district in the southern region of Bangladesh. An in-depth interview was taken in the Bengali language in an unstructured manner and lasted 30–40 min per respondent.

The findings showed that the Hawkers’ income reduced, and specifically, during the pandemic, they had earned half of what they usually made before. Besides, they could not open their stores because law enforcement agencies imposed restrictions on opening business centres during the lockdown except for some emergency necessities shops. This restriction led the hawkers to stop selling their products because there was a high chance of spreading the virus through the products they sold. Due to income reduction, they had to eat cheap food, which caused their health problems. Consequently, this community mentally got depressed.

Policymakers in Bangladesh might think about enacting more effective measures to provide some extrinsic and intrinsic support in improving the mental health of the hawkers’ community.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on the mental of the hawkers’ community during COVID-19.

The purpose of this study is to review the critical success factors (CSFs) of street food destinations, given the limited attention awarded to such research in the food and beverage sector.

An interpretivist approach was used to merge CSFs from street vending and culinary tourism perspectives, to develop a draft framework for analysing CSFs for street food destinations. In total, 64 cities that appeared in the first 20 webpage results of a Google search, using 4 keywords, formed the population. A purposive sample of seven destinations (Bangkok, Marrakesh, Mexico City, Istanbul, Hong Kong, Portland and Singapore City) was used. A content analysis method was used to review webpages, journal articles and government reports of the destinations, based on the modified list of CSFs.

The availability of diverse street food resources and cultures, coupled with rich historic city cores that sustain street food vending, in some destinations, are very important CSFs. The presence and extent of regulatory enforcement were also key in others. Empirical research is, however, required to corroborate the draft framework to create a body of knowledge for further research in the field.

The study examines how leading street food destinations have instituted the CSFs required for street food provision.

The purpose of this research is to examine the current physical qualities and activities of pedestrian environment from the perspective of the users' needs and perceptions for making user-friendly streets in Dhaka city.

Case study research approach was adapted with a mixed method approach in data collection and analysis to gather information about the interrelationship concerning the variables. The questionnaire survey and direct observation was conducted with the users of the streets to get the actual scenes of the study areas. For the findings, multiple sources of evidence were triangulated and used to analyze which were derived from the convergence of the data.

The findings of this study show that the needs for the factors which make people to use the street are similar with the previous theories derived by different scholars. The results establish that making of user-friendly street from the users' perspective has a significant relationship with the attributes of public spaces in the context of Dhaka. Correlation among the attributes of public spaces concerning sociability, uses and activities, access and linkage and safety, comfort and image showed the issues affecting the pedestrian environment toward a crucial condition in Dhaka city.

Time allocation, inadequacy of secondary data sources and earlier research on this topic in the context of Dhaka city, were the primary limitations to let an in-depth and full exploration of the research.

The study provided a detailed representation of Dhaka's users' perception of the pedestrian environment. This study suggests a new perspective of bettering pedestrian experience in the city center.

The purpose of this paper is to explore resilience strategies of Chinese street vendors in a shifted regulatory policy environment from a strength-based and entrepreneurial perspective.

Drawing upon nine in-depth interviews and naturalistic observations in an urban village of Guangzhou, China, the study empirically investigates how unregulated sidewalk-based hawkers struggle to survive against socioeconomic adversities compared with regulated vendors’ operations in a legitimate transitional market.

Mirroring a sub-group of rural-to-urban migrants, street vendors espouse subtle strategies centering on purposefulness, resourcefulness and hardiness, which are instantiated through family obligation, sales tactics, merchandising techniques, technology application, trading flexibility, moral sentiment and assistance network. As such, street entrepreneurs are both enacting and constructing resilience in response to specific challenging contexts including impoverishment, operating cost inflation, contingent loss, fierce competition, market uncertainty, intensive workloads, municipal inspection and arbitrary governance practice of village cooperative organization.

Notwithstanding its limited generalizability, the result sheds light on crystallization of street vendors’ resilience and informs social services and policy remedies.

The study provides a frame of reference to examine the interplay of resilience theory from psychology and entrepreneurship thesis from the field of business management by adding new evidence to the research on “entrepreneurial resilience” and potentially serves as a catalyst to enrich existing literature with an integrated perspective to comprehend the coping process of these necessity-driven micro-enterprise operators. The antagonistic understanding of informal economy is so predominating that it obscures structural oppression undermining social justice, whereas the spirit of self-reliance among street entrepreneurs is ought to be respected.