Marketing and Entrepreneurship from the Perspective of the Handcraft Industry: A Practical Study on Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia

(Ibrahim A. Elshaer, Mohamed A. Aldoghan, Mohamed A. Moustafa and Alaa M. Shaker)

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Abstract

Although there has been a growing universal demand for handicrafts and their cultural, economic and tourism importance, handicrafts in the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia, particularly in Al Ahsa governorate, face many challenges, notably marketing challenges. The aim of this study is to explore the impact of marketing dimensions (product, price, promotion, and location) on the performance of the handicrafts’ entrepreneurship in Al Ahsa region, and to suggest some strategies to overcome any obstacles related to these factors, in order to develop an integrated vision of maximizing business advantage. Questionnaires were distributed among 150 handicraft workers, and structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with Smart-PLS 3 was the main data analysis technique. The results obtained from the structural equation modelling using Smart-PLS 3 show that promotion and place (as two dimensions of marketing) have a positive but not significant impact on the handicrafts entrepreneurship performance whereas the product and pricing impact on handicrafts entrepreneurship performance was positive and significant. These results give a strong indication that there are no efforts (or very weak) to finance individual promotions for handicraft owners, and also the Saudi media are not interested enough in this field. Additionally, craftsmen generally do not trust in media and have no place to offer their product to customers, besides limited financial capabilities of the craftsmen to open powerful and effective outlets. In a different context, the results show that handicraft workers can still produce the product as inherited and that the original concrete artisan product is still being sought by buyers. Finally, it is still accepted by most consumers that craft products have a higher price compared to auto-manufactured ones. KEYWORDS handicrafts, entrepreneurship, Pesht making, pottery making, cages making
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