Stakeholders and accountability in a traditional indigenous market: the case of pasar in Indonesia

Traditional indigenous markets, known as pasar in Indonesia, have a specific role in promoting national economic and social sustainability. However, their decline in numbers has sharpened policy on preserving their existence. Previous work on pasar has neglected their hybrid characteristics. Therefore, this research aims to contribute to the extant literature by developing the analysis of pasar as hybrid organizations, offering both theoretical development, and new empirical evidence, with implications for public policy. It explores how managers perceive their pasar, with two objectives: first, exploring how they characterize their stakeholders; and second, how the practice of accountability functions in pasar. The case study approach of this paper employs the mixed-method, using an exploratory sequential design. The qualitative data include textual evidence on laws and regulations relevant to pasar, and recorded evidence from interviews with pasar managers and their stakeholders. The quantitative evidence of this paper uses data from 205 respondents. Our findings are as follows. (i) The Governor, and related governmental units, are definitive stakeholders of pasar, possessing all key stakeholder attributes of power, legitimacy and urgency to claims. (ii) Merchants are identified as dominant stakeholders too, as they ‘own’ both power and legitimacy. (iii) While customers are also grouped as stakeholders, they are classed as ‘dormant’ as they only have power. (iv) Pasar managers successfully meet vertical accountability criteria yet fail to balance successfully the relative satisfaction of merchants versus customers. Extensions of the research are suggested, involving broader stakeholder analysis and developing integrated policy to bolster accountability.