Subsistence Marketplaces Research Articles

Consumer Well‐Being at the Base of the Pyramid and Subsistence Marketplaces: A Review and Research Agenda

ABSTRACTA disparate collection of knowledge on the well‐being of low‐income consumers presents difficulties for both academics and practitioners. This review article addresses the critical need for a comprehensive synthesis of existing knowledge on well‐being of low‐income consumers. Focusing on Base of the Pyramid and Subsistence Marketplaces literature, we employed the SPAR‐4‐SLR protocol to structure our methodology and applied ADO–TCM framework for literature analysis. Our review uncovers conflicting evidence regarding the impact of conspicuous consumption, meeting basic needs and relative well‐being on consumer well‐being. Additionally, we highlight the diversity in conceptualisations of consumer well‐being, leading to inconsistent findings. We advocate qualitative methods, longitudinal studies and triangulation as potential research avenues. Our analysis underscores research gaps regarding the influence of culture, Western subsistence markets, alternative theoretical frameworks and under‐explored facets of consumer well‐being. We propose a set of research questions and objectives to guide scholars in this field.

Boosting app-based mobile financial services engagement in B2B subsistence marketplaces: The roles of marketing strategy and app design

Subsistence marketplaces generate over US$4 trillion annual spend and host fifty million B2B subsistence micro-enterprises, globally. These enterprises are increasingly adopting technology-driven service innovations, including app-based mobile financial services, to boost retail supply value chain efficiency. However, fostering users' continued engagement post-adoption in these markets remains challenging. Addressing this issue, in Study 1, we gather insights into theories-in-use held by app-based service providers, subsistence micro-suppliers, and -retailers. This led to a conceptual model grounded on the stimuli-organism-response (S-O-R) framework and SD logic. In Study 2 we empirically test this model through a field study with a dyadic sample of 253 micro-suppliers and micro-retailers. The findings reveal that relationship-building marketing strategies increase engagement, while transaction-focused strategies hinder it. App functionality (vs. aesthetics), likewise, represents a key customer engagement driver. Increased app-based services engagement positively impacts on non-coercive power and relationship satisfaction. These findings offer actionable implications for policymakers and marketers, emphasizing technology's role in fostering financial and digital inclusivity and efficiency in traditionally underserved B2B subsistence marketplaces.

Addressing grand challenges through the bottom-up marketing approach: Lessons from subsistence marketplaces and marketplace literacy

We present a bottom-up marketing approach as a pathway to addressing the grand challenge of poverty and inequality for the marketing discipline. We derive this approach from the research stream on radically different contexts of subsistence marketplaces. Research on subsistence marketplaces has typically explored micro-level phenomena but also traversed upward and explained aggregate phenomena at higher levels. We present a conceptual framework to encapsulate general and granular elements of the bottom-up marketing approach. Study 1 demonstrates general elements of the framework through a retrospective examination of the global diffusion of a marketplace literacy program. Study 2 demonstrates the more granular elements of the framework through a qualitative analysis of five case studies of social enterprise start-ups. Though presenting a complementary counter-perspective to conventional thinking, we embed the process of interweaving the bottom-up with the macro level to present an actionable approach. We conclude with insights for marketing research and practice.

Subsistence Marketplace: A Structured Review and Implication for Future Research

Subsistence Marketplace: A Structured Review and Implication for Future Research

Bottom-Up Journey into Subsistence Marketplaces from Micro-Level Behavioral Foundations: New Directions for Public Policy and Marketing

Bottom-Up Journey into Subsistence Marketplaces from Micro-Level Behavioral Foundations: New Directions for Public Policy and Marketing

Consumption Culture and Critical Sustainability Discourses: Voices from the Global South

Our qualitative critical research intends to examine the meta-normative features of the sustainability discourse of the marginalized Global South through sociological critique of (neo)colonial and anti-sustainable consumption. Using a critical lens, we discuss two community performances of sustainable consumer culture from the Global South to highlight the subversive consumption performances in the Global South market, which has the potency to ontologically denaturalize the Global North market’s standard-normalized Western discourses of sustainability that tend to legitimize social inequalities and the seizing of agency by marginalized consumers of subsistence marketplace. The article contributes to both sustainability and consumer culture literature by proposing a new research agenda: the way sustainable consumption culture projects and negotiates identity in the Global South, especially at the margin. We highlight how traditional sustainable prosumption of subaltern subjects of the Global South resists power practices promulgated by Western capitalism, neoliberalism, and neocolonization.

Examining the satisfaction level of insurance policy holders at subsistence marketplaces: the bottom-up approach

Examining the satisfaction level of insurance policy holders at subsistence marketplaces: the bottom-up approach

Educational approaches to enable marketplace metacognition and social intelligence in subsistence consumers

PurposeSubsistence marketplace can be characterized as a marketplace with widespread cognitive and social vulnerabilities, due to low income and low literacy levels. This may result in retailers exploiting the consumers. The purpose of this research paper is to develop a holistic learning program to impart marketplace intelligence to overcome these vulnerabilities of subsistence consumers.Design/methodology/approachUsing vicious cycle approach, the authors illustrate the self-perpetuating nature of consumer vulnerabilities. The authors argue that retailers behave in an opportunistic manner and exploit the consumers. This further reinforces the vulnerabilities of subsistence consumers resulting in a vicious cycle. The authors draw insights from Sen’s capability approach and propose marketplace intelligence as a potential solution to eradicate consumers’ vulnerabilities. The authors apply Biggs’s 3Ps model to design a learning program to impart two types of marketplace intelligence – marketplace metacognition and marketplace social intelligence.FindingsBased on a review of literature on subsistence marketplace initiatives, persuasive knowledge management and education research, the authors have devised a holistic learning program comprising an integrated learning environment (presage), problem-based approach (process) and assessment strategies for learning outcomes (product).Originality/valueThis study marks a pioneering effort toward liberating subsistence consumers from the vicious cycle of retailers’ exploitation by empowering them with marketplace intelligence. This study’s novelty lies in conceptualizing consumer vulnerabilities in the subsistence marketplace as a self-perpetuating phenomenon and subsequently designing a holistic learning program to impart intelligence toward alleviating these vulnerabilities.

Global Virtual Immersion in a Post-Covid World: Lessons Learned in Moving from Sympathy to Informed Empathy in Subsistence Marketplaces

ABSTRACT We describe lessons learned from one-and-a-half decades of global virtual immersion practices in subsistence marketplaces, and explore implications for international business teaching and learning in the post-pandemic world. Global virtual immersion refers to bottom-up learning experiences, typically in contexts much different than what we may be familiar with, without being physically present in a specific geographic location. “Bottom-up” learning connotes learning from actual ground-level reality rather than the opposite, “top-down” reliance on prior knowledge. The aim of global virtual immersion is to move learners from sympathy – a most natural human emotion in response to poverty and suffering, to informed empathy, developing an understanding of subsistence marketplaces in different countries through a variety of means. Students, thus, broaden their global horizons, paving the way for additional learning and perhaps actual immersion, where possible. This process is particularly relevant as global contexts are so diverse and often elude generalities, and more so at lower income levels. This “bottom-up” approach for understanding subsistence marketplaces enables a better appreciation of the environmental realities, social contexts, market-level exchange systems, and individual behaviors of subsistence consumers and entrepreneurs, providing a particularly important learning approach for international business education across geographically diverse settings.

Revisiting business relationship quality in subsistence marketplaces

Micro-entrepreneurs play a critical role in alleviating poverty in subsistence marketplaces through their business relationships with microfinance institutions. Despite the enormous importance of these relationships, a critical research question on the dimensions of business relationship quality and their overall effects on relationship outcomes remains unanswered. Thus, drawing on the relationship marketing, social exchange, and self-determination theories, this study answers the focal research question by conducting in-depth interviews (n = 30), thematic analysis, and a survey (n = 300) of micro-entrepreneurs in a subsistence marketplace. The findings show a third-order business relationship quality model with three second-order dimensions (i.e., business trust, business respect, and business reciprocity) and nine subdimensions. The findings confirm the impact of business relationship quality on business customer inspiration and business customer value examined in this marketplace. The findings also identify the mediating role of customer inspiration and both the moderating and quadratic roles of relationship quality on relationship outcomes. The predictive power of the business relationship quality model is validated through PLSpredict using a training sample (n = 270) and a holdout sample (n = 30).

The Past, Present, and Future of Subsistence Marketplaces: Broadening Inclusion and Diversity

As the 2022 Academy of Management conference (“Creating a Better World”) call for submissions notes: “there seems to be a growing awareness of the vital role of business organizations, managers, and stakeholders in tackling societal challenges including environmental sustainability; inter-generational trade-offs where future generations cannot make their voices heard today; and issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion” (AOM 2022). While the issues of poverty and inclusive management practices have been examined as management topics for decades, the global grand challenges of health pandemic, environmental sustainability, and worsening economic inequality have sharpened the need for a more scholarly-based exploration of what we might refer to “subsistence marketplaces” [SM]. Since the publication of the seminal edited volume (Viswanathan and Rosa 2007), which raised awareness of the need for a “bottom-up” approach to study the broad range of low-income consumers, entrepreneurs, communities and marketplaces around the world (Viswanathan, 2021), scholars from a wide range of management and social science disciplines have advanced our understanding of these communities. By “subsistence”, we are referring to the wide range of low-income communities—from extreme poverty to those at the cusp between low and lower-middle income. It essentially captures people and communities barely meeting basic conditions for living. We are also using the term “marketplaces” in the broadest and most diverse sense, meaning where goods, services, information, and ideas are exchanged, versus a meaning that restricts the focus to a physical marketplace. Such marketplaces captures different domains of subsistence, such as health, nutrition, education, and livelihood, different geographies, and different modes, such as physical and virtual. Over the past 15 years, a plethora of SM studies has advanced some foundational insights on how subsistence marketplaces function and how social innovations and organizations can foster well-being in subsistence communities (Gau et al, 2014; Sridharan et al, 2017; Steinfield and Holt, 2019). At the same time, given the global and diverse stakeholders involved in the subsistence marketplaces field, there remain important under representations in literature both in terms of geographical contexts, such as sub-Saharan Africa and transition economies, as well as substantive topics such as the intersectional disadvantages stemming from gender and disability. The purpose of this panel symposium is, therefore, to engage a group of panelists in a moderated and interactive discussion of (1) how best to define and understand subsistence marketplaces as a field in 2022; (2) what are some critical insights that could improve organizational theories about the work of organizations with these communities and best practices; (3) what are important under-represented or missing topics and stakeholders in the subsistence marketplaces literature and how best can scholars fill those gaps; (4) what might comparative analyses of subsistence marketplaces across geographies or institutional environments look like and (5) how is subsistence marketplaces as a field of study changing amidst the global pandemic, environmental sustainability, and other global grand challenges.

The 7A Framework: Extending the 4A Framework Based on Exchanges in Subsistence Marketplaces in India and Vietnam

Researchers in the marketing domain have investigated some key drivers of market development in subsistence marketplaces in emerging economies. This article contributes to the literature by proposing a 7A framework that identifies an enhanced set of drivers of market development in subsistence marketplaces in emerging markets (EMs) (by extending the 4A framework). Using qualitative data collected through in-depth interviews with farmers (i.e., micro-entrepreneurs) in subsistence marketplaces from two EMs (countries: India, Vietnam), the study findings provide evidence of the 7A's as facilitators and/or inhibitors of market development in such markets. This article draws attention to the growing importance of the selling processes and strategies used by farmers in such markets for maintaining relationships with customers and investigates the benefits and challenges of selling at farmers’ markets that contribute to developing the 7A framework. The study uniquely contributes to the base of pyramid (BoP) literature in emerging markets, which could be of interest to future researchers examining the effectiveness of the 7A marketing framework on micro-entrepreneurs. The study findings offer important insights into policy and practice by uncovering new dimensions of market development for micro-entrepreneurs in emerging markets.

Leadership and Marketing Capabilities in Small Businesses of Subsistence Marketplaces

Small businesses are vital in developing countries. Usually, the marketplaces in the most impoverished areas are subsistence marketplaces, and small businesses are frequently created as the only form of subsistence for the entrepreneur and their family. These businesses working in subsistence marketplaces have distinct marketing needs. These businesses may require leadership to use their marketing capabilities to be competitive. This paper analyzes the mediation of marketing capabilities and leadership as sources of competitive advantage in subsistence small businesses using a partial least square technique and timber industry data from a region in Argentina. This paper confirms that transformational leadership and marketing capabilities are a source of competitive advantage in subsistence small businesses. In particular, leaders use marketing capabilities to generate a competitive advantage.

Examining the Satisfaction Level of Insurance Policy Holders at Subsistence Marketplaces: The Bottom-up Approach

Examining the Satisfaction Level of Insurance Policy Holders at Subsistence Marketplaces: The Bottom-up Approach

Adoption of Insurance Products among Low-income Consumers (Subsistence Marketplaces)

Adoption of Insurance Products among Low-income Consumers (Subsistence Marketplaces)

Market development of local peatland commodities to support successful peatland restoration

Peatland degradation and community livelihood are often driven by market forces. Successful peatland restoration including community livelihood improvement programs is therefore highly correlated with market development of various local peatland commodities that are introduced to replace fire-using farming activities. However, since the development of local peatland commodities is often under subsistence marketplaces, investigation of their market is not attractive and has received little attention. This paper investigates the market structure of the local peatland commodities developed by the local community under peatland livelihood programs using Rapid Market Appraisal (RMA) technique and market structure analysis to quickly draw challenges and opportunities of market development of peatland commodities. We also analyze a business model applied by the local community, particularly their strategy to adapt to market dynamics and to secure market competition. The information is essential to serve as a basis for formulating appropriate interventions needed to develop a more established market of local peatland commodities, which as a consequence will prevent peat forest conversion. The investigation finds that at least three types of peatland commodity market structures are evolving in the research site. Each of them has different challenges and needs different interventions to make the livelihood programs more sustainable. Meanwhile, the local community is more oriented towards sales than the marketing of peatland products. They have not prepared a specific strategy yet to adapt to and win the dynamic market competition. It needs significant efforts to change its business culture if relevant stakeholders intend to develop the local peatland commodity market as a part of peatland restoration and community livelihood improvement programs.

Fostering inclusive social innovation in subsistence marketplaces through community-level alliances: An institutional work perspective

Social enterprises can play an instrumental role in addressing major societal challenges in subsistence marketplaces through the creation of shared value. However, there are many social barriers in subsistence contexts that exclude vulnerable groups from participating in, and benefiting from, the shared value creation process. These social barriers are contextual in nature and arise from sources such as gender-based discrimination or caste-based discrimination. The exclusion of such vulnerable groups undermines the goal of inclusive social innovation and sparks concerns of elite-capture of shared value in subsistence marketplaces. In this paper, we highlight how social enterprises can overcome the concern of elite-capture of shared value by fostering inclusive social innovation in subsistence contexts. Our research draws from a longitudinal inductive study of nine Indian social enterprises operating in industrial markets such as agriculture and logistics. We apply and extend insights from institutional work perspective to uncover three principal mechanisms for fostering inclusive social innovation, namely – a) relational work, b) inclusion work and c) equity work. These mechanisms work in concert to facilitate the a) creation of shared value in subsistence contexts, b) inclusive distribution of shared value, and c) fair distribution of shared value.

Diffusion of Banking Products in Financial Inclusion Linked Savings Accounts: A Case Study Based on Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana in India

The slow rate of adoption of savings and transaction accounts opened under financial inclusion programmes is a challenge for policymakers across the globe. We use the experience of a large-scale financial inclusion programme in India—Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)—to model the adoption of simple banking products, namely deposit, withdrawal, fund transfer and ATM usage. Based on account-level transaction data, we create a dataset to capture the adoption of each product over time. We use this data to estimate three growth models: Bass, Gompertz and logistic. The Bass model which is based on diffusion of innovations theory is found to be the best fit across products. The role of social influence in the diffusion of the four products studied is found to be much lower when compared to other products in subsistence marketplaces. Social network effect is comparatively stronger in the adoption of fund transfer and ATM. We discuss the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon and contend that information transfer by word of mouth and network effects are the most probable reasons for the observed adoption behaviour.

Marketplace Literacy as a Pathway to a Better World: Evidence from Field Experiments in Low-Access Subsistence Marketplaces

Multinational companies increasingly focus on subsistence marketplaces, given their enormous market potential. Nevertheless, their potential is untapped because subsistence consumers face extreme constraints. The authors contend that subsistence consumers need marketplace literacy to participate effectively and beneficially in marketplaces. Marketplace literacy entails the knowledge and skills that enable them to participate in a marketplace as both consumers and entrepreneurs. This is crucial for subsistence consumers, as they often must function in both roles to survive. Previous research, however, has not empirically examined the influence of marketplace literacy on well-being or marketing outcomes related to well-being. To address this gap, the authors implemented three large-scale field experiments with approximately 1,000 people in 34 remote villages in India and Tanzania. They find that marketplace literacy causes an increase in psychological well-being and consumer outcomes related to well-being (e.g., consumer confidence, decision-making ability), especially for subsistence consumers with lower marketplace access, and it causes an increase in entrepreneurial outcomes related to well-being (e.g., starting a microenterprise) for those with higher marketplace access. Overall, this research generates practical implications for the use of marketplace literacy as a pathway to a better world.

Innovation in the subsistence marketplace: an analysis considering multiple concepts and approaches

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the different concepts of innovation in the subsistence marketplace from top-down and bottom-up approaches. This study analyzes the literature on the theme and identified research gaps by constructing a framework based on approaches and innovation concepts, which can guide future research efforts. Additionally, this paper presents two case studies, which can improve the way innovation is developed and diffused in the subsistence marketplace. Design/methodology/approach Through a literature review, this study develops a framework by analyzing innovation concepts in the subsistence marketplace (i.e. base of the pyramid innovation, disruptive innovation, frugal innovation, reverse innovation and inclusive innovation) in light of subsistence marketplace approaches (top-down and bottom-up). Findings The analysis showed critical research gaps, especially a lack of studies involving disruptive and frugal innovations from a bottom-up approach. This paper also concludes that the top-down approach is more common than the bottom-up one. To fill these gaps, this study presents two business plans by illustrating disruptive innovation vs bottom-up approach and frugal innovation vs bottom-up approach. Originality/value The use of real business plans to illustrate proposals having an actual impact on subsistence marketplace regions sheds light on how to address these challenges. By doing so, this paper intends to fill the theoretical gap in disruptive and frugal innovations within a bottom-up approach to promote the development and diffusion of different types of innovation in the subsistence marketplace, and thus provide solutions to alleviate poverty.