Institutional Entrepreneurship in the Informal Economy: The Case of the Zamibia National Marketeers Association

Through a case study of the Zambia National Marketeers Association (ZANAMA), a nongovernmental, nonprofit association established to assist and secure the rights of market vendors in Zambia, this chapter investigates the institutional role of informal economy associations in creating privatesector development. Supported by institutional entrepreneurship theory, the results of this chapter suggest that ZANAMA promotes market vendors’ business conditions by filling important formal institutional voids in the markets, and in doing so, has a positive effect on private-sector development in the Zambian informal economy. In sum, a major function of informal economy associations is to address the significant formal institutional voids that hamper the market functioning and participation in the informal economy.