Breaking Barriers: Leveraging Local Languages and Indigenous Knowledge for SME Empowerment in Sri Lanka
View(s):Nalin’s Insights: Bridging Marketing and Economic Trends
Sri Lanka needs to take a different approach to reach the much-needed Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) sector. SME sector contributes 52% of our gross domestic product (GDP) and 45% of employment, with 75% of all businesses in Sri Lanka. The majority of entrepreneurs in this sector only can speak either Sinhala or Tamil. However, most of the programs in Sri Lanka can be seen conducted in English and even majority of participants were only silent observers. We have done some interviews with stakeholders including entrepreneurs, government officers related to the SME sector, and some NGO representatives in SME .The outcome of the study is really important for the country to investigate. The majority of the respondents also were of the view that there is a problem approaching masses in the SME sector with the same problem of language.
Professor Nalin Abeysekera (The writer is a Professor in Management Studies at the Open University of Sri Lanka. You can reach him on nalinabeysekera@gmail.com.)
This is the paradoxical situation we are in at the moment which most of the stakeholders do not know how to reach effectively (in terms of mentioning, instructions etc) to SME sector in Sri Lanka, Even Most of the conferences and workshops participated in we can see the same trend of using English as the main language. Anyway, this is contrasting to our neighboring country India applying a more Indigenous approach to reach their SME sector. I believe we need to have a different method to reach our entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka with “Indigenous engagement” . We have seen a kind of alienation between entrepreneurs and some stakeholders in this country. There should be proper discussion in the county by incorporating the native language for communicating with the SME sector. Research suggests that the creative ideas of people are mostly influenced by their native language.
We will discuss this with an example of the subject of Marketing. It is important to learn a subject such as marketing with some understanding of indigenous practices; because conventional marketing itself discusses many theories that can be seen as disconnected from the day-to-day practices of people, and alienated from the reality on the ground. As discussed earlier This disconnect is mostly visible in the small and medium-scale enterprise (SME) sector in Sri Lanka, which is dominated by entrepreneurs who only use the native languages (Sinhala or Tamil) in their communication. The author has done several studies on this subject in the last couple of decades and has observed that if certain best practices in marketing are explained, with examples that clarify “their basis”, to these entrepreneurs, they willingly catch on. We can elaborate on this with an example of a practice that can be seen in Kataragama, a pilgrimage town sacred to Buddhist, Hindu and Indigenous Vedda people, located towards the south of Sri Lanka; upon visiting a shop selling kalu dodol–a sweet, jaggery-based confection popular in Sri Lanka–the owner of the shop (called a mudalali in Sri Lanka) always offers a piece of kalu dodol to the visitor as a sample, to taste free of charge. The visitor may then decide whether to buy the confection or not. This indigenous practice originates in the signature Sri Lankan culture of hospitality. In Western theories, this sort of practice is discussed under integrated marketing communication (IMC) as a strategy for sales promotion. Nevertheless, if one learns and conducts such practices based on a “book”, one cannot experience “innate happiness”; this needs to be critically evaluated further. In fact, in applying theories learned in subjects such as marketing, it is better to first learn the culture and context, and then to learn pertinent theories to get a real sense of “marketing and best practices”. However, these need to be further examined; and the author believes that for a country like Sri Lanka, in which small and medium-scale enterprises (SME) are important for sustainable development, there is a need to equip entrepreneurs with sound knowledge. The combination of indigenous and Western knowledge in this context is really important. And also, in this context, the medium of instruction cannot be overlooked. One may argue that the dominating role of “English” as the language of instruction in developing countries like Sri Lanka (Liyanage, 2019) undermines the study of some indigenous practices. Nevertheless, a strong and sound justification is required on this matter and future researchers may further explore the same in their studies.And also native language is important as a strategy in marketing as well.As one study suggested that seventy-six percent(76%) of online shoppers select to buy products with information in their native language(this study was conducted by using 8,709 global consumers in 29 countries in Europe, Asia, North America, and South America). Moreover, 40% will never buy from websites in other languages.
Conclusion
There is a need for Sri Lankans to change some practices which we are currently applying in the SME sector. This is not only related in the context of marketing but also to Management and all other subject domains as well. Practitioners in subject domains reaching the SME sector to investigate “Indigenous flavor ” in Sri Lanka, could be one way in which we may learn the best practices in Sri Lankan culture as well. There should be a proper collaboration between the groups who study Indigenous practices in management, and scholars who explore historical and present-day multiple realities in the given problem with more managerial implications. I believe this should be one strategy that we need to apply with gratitude to our SME sector which is the future of the country.
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