A Market Void: Are We Missing a Market Actor? Insights from JUNTOS’s Action-Research Case

Sustainability challenges include critical social dimensions. One unresolved issue is how to enable bottom-of-the-pyramid (BOP) or informal sellers to market their products beyond local fairs and community consumers. This concern is reflected in several of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. A failed pilot project aimed at integrating informal sellers into multinational corporation (MNC) supply chains and a successful subsequent action-research case, JUNTOS, provided insights and solutions into the challenges faced by informal sellers in accessing formal markets. Drawing on the pilot project analysis and an extensive literature review, the chapter underscores that, traditional solutions focus on helping informal sellers to transition from informal to formal markets by providing training, and micro-lending. This approach has been labeled as a regulative-type approach; i.e., learning new rules. However, this approach often fails due to overlooking a deeper issue: the market habitus gap. This gap, rooted in distinct cultural and cognitive dispositions between informal and formal market actors, hinders informal sellers’ access to formal markets. The literature review also revealed that the pilot case was no exception and that most current regulative-type solutions, involving temporary intermediaries that provide mentoring and financing, have not proven successful. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of habitus, the paper emphasizes that informal and formal markets operate under different sets of practices, necessitating a new approach. Adopting a cognitive-cultural perspective highlights that the market habitus gap not only poses a larger challenge than previously recognized but also impedes informal sellers from effectively accessing formal markets. Reframing the problem from a regulative-type to a cognitive-cultural-type definition revealed the existence of a “market-actor void,” meaning that a necessary market actor is missing. This insight led to the development of JUNTOS as a permanent intermediary able to bridge the formal/informal market habitus gap. Unlike traditional mentors or financial institutions, JUNTOS actively facilitates trade between informal sellers and formal buyers by providing both bridging social capital and cultural capital in the form of marketing and managerial capabilities. JUNTOS operates as a non-digital marketplace to ease the transactions. In short, JUNTOS allows to overcome challenges such as lack of social networking, working capital, and market literacy. Over six years, JUNTOS has grown significantly, demonstrating the effectiveness of its model. The paper argues that the creation of such permanent intermediaries can address the market-actor void, offering a sustainable solution for informal sellers to access formal markets. This model contributes to inclusive economic development and has implications for public policy, particularly in rethinking support mechanisms for informal sellers.