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1. Introduction
Microenterprises are an important economic segment of countries. These ventures tend to have gross sales of under $25,000 a year ([61] Tinker, 2000). In the case of many African nations, the combination of micro and small enterprises contribute to about half of all people employed ([9] Chao et al. , 2007). In Indonesia, small and medium enterprises, including microenterprises, comprise about 90 percent of firms outside of the agricultural industry ([57] Tambunan, 2007). Other locations, such as Mexico, have seen an increase in informal microenterprise activity in recent years ([31] Hernandez-Trillo et al. , 2005). As an emerging economy, China's economic terrain has a high presence of small and microenterprises. Microenterprises constitute street vendors, retailers, and traders that sell products or services to build income and expand assets ([23] Eversole, 2004) and these businesses are omnipresent in both urban and rural locations in China.
Public and private entities are becoming increasingly aware of the merits associated with microenterprise development. Interest in microenterprises has led to 37 scholarly articles being written on various aspects of microenterprise development around the world. There are numerous benefits ascribed to microenterprises and their development include: job creation ([15] Daniels, 1999; [58] Tamilmani, 2009), financial betterment ([15] Daniels, 1999; [21] Ellis, 2000), strengthening of the economic framework ([16] Davis, 2003), contributions to lower prices of goods and services ([36] Kirkpatrick and Hulme, 2001), poverty alleviation ([17] Dokmo, 2002), improvements to poverty-stricken neighborhoods ([47] Nelson, 2000), community building and inner-city development ([25] Friedman, 2001), and social and political betterment ([32] Holt and Ribe, 1991).
Initiatives geared towards the growth and expansion of microenterprise activity have the potential of transforming societies as they can lead to job creation and revenue generation. This paper examines key challenges confronting microenterprises and introduces the concept of Microenterprise Zones (MEZOs). MEZOs are government designated zones that offer business and tax incentives to all operators situated in the zone. In recent years, many governments around the world have established Free Trade Zones (FTZ's), Export Processing Zones (EPZ's) and Technology Parks (TP's) in order to attract foreign investors. The authors posit that there are merits in establishing MEZO's where microenterprise activities will be clustered.
2. Characteristics of microenterprises
There are several defining characteristics of microenterprises. A common...