The effect of poverty on street vending through sequential mediations of education, immigration, and unemployment

Abstract There is limited research that has explored the effect of poverty on street vending. The current study attempts to explore this area by looking into the relationship between poverty and street vending via multiple mediations such as lack of education, immigration, and unemployment. By testing a sample of 425 responses that reflect the perspective of the general public in Iraq, this study proposes and validates a number of mediation models using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach and the PROCESS macro in SPSS. The main findings suggest that poverty positively impacts street vending. In addition to this direct effect, poverty influences street vending via multiple mediations: lack of education and unemployment mediate the effect of poverty on street vending; immigration and unemployment mediate the effect of poverty on street vending; and finally, lack of education, immigration, and unemployment mediate the effect of poverty on street vending. However, lack of education and immigration do not mediate the effect of poverty on street vending. The theoretical contributions, managerial implications, limitations, and recommendations for further research are provided.