Marketplace exchange occupies a central place in the lives of poor consumers and entrepreneurs across the world. The subsistence marketplaces literature has systematically examined marketplace exchanges in contexts of poverty and built a critical mass of knowledge. This knowledge stems from an approach with roots in the discipline of marketing and represents the unique contribution of scholars in marketing and related disciplines to the global discourse on poverty. This article reviews a decade and a half of research on subsistence marketplaces and clarifies certain conceptual, methodological and axiological positions that underlie marketing theory generation within this stream of research.
AbdelnourS.BranzeiO. (2010) ‘Fuel-efficient Stoves for Darfur: The Social Construction of Subsistence Marketplaces in Post-conflict Settings’, Journal of Business Research63(6): 617–29.
BakerS.M.GentryJ.W.RittenburgT.L. (2005) ‘Building Understanding of the Domain of Consumer Vulnerability’, Journal of Macromarketing25(2): 128–39.
4.
ChakrabartiR.MasonK. (2014). ‘Designing better markets for people at the bottom of the pyramid: Bottom-up market design’, in GeigerS.HarrisonD.KjellbergH.MallardA. (eds), Concerned Markets: Economic Ordering for Multiple Values, pp. 153–177. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
5.
ChakravartiD. (2006) ‘Voices Unheard: The Psychology of Consumption in Poverty and Development’, Journal of Consumer Psychology16(4): 363–76.
6.
ChaturvediA.ChiuC.Y.ViswanathanM. (2009) ‘Literacy, Negotiable Fate, and Thinking Style Among Low Income Women in India’, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology40(5): 880–93.
7.
ChristensenL.J.ParsonsH.FairbourneJ. (2010) ‘Building entrepreneurship in subsistence markets: Microfranchising as an employment incubator’, Journal of Business Research63(6): 595–601.
DeBerry-SpenceB. (2010). ‘Making Theory and Practice in Subsistence Markets: An Analytic Autoethnography of MASAZI in Accra, Ghana’, Journal of Business Research63(6): 608–16.
10.
DeBerry-SpenceB.ElliotE.A. (2012). ‘African Microentrepreneurship: The Reality of Everyday Challenges’, Journal of Business Research65(12): 1665–73.
11.
De SotoH. (2000) The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Succeeds in the West and Fails Everywhere Else. New York: Basic Books.
12.
FangJ.RussellR.SinghS. (2014). ‘Exploring the Impact of Mobile Money Services on Marketing Interactions in Relation to Consumer Well-Being in Subsistence Marketplaces–Lessons from Rural Cambodia’, Journal of Marketing Management30(5–6): 445–75.
13.
GauR.ViswanathanM. (2008). ‘The Retail Shopping Experience for Low-Literate Consumers’, Journal of Research for Consumers15: 1–8.
14.
GioiaD.A.CorleyK.G.HamiltonA.L. (2013). ‘Seeking Qualitative Rigor in Inductive Research Notes on the Gioia Methodology’, Organizational Research Methods16(1): 15–31.
15.
GopaldasA. (2013). ‘Intersectionality 101’, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing32(special issue): 90–94.
16.
GovindarajanV.TrimbleC. (2013). Reverse Innovation: Create Far from Home, Win Everywhere. Boston: Harvard Business Press.
17.
HillR.P. (2010) ‘A Naturological Approach to Marketing Exchanges: Implications for the Bottom of the Pyramid’, Journal of Business Research63(6): 602–07.
18.
IngenbleekP.T. (2014) ‘From Subsistence Marketplaces Up, from General Macromarketing Theories Down Bringing Marketing’s Contribution to Development into the Theoretical Midrange’, Journal of Macromarketing34(2): 199–212.
19.
KarnaniA. (2007). The mirage of marketing to the bottom of the pyramid: How the private sector can help alleviate poverty. California Management Review49(4): 90–111.
20.
KhannaT. (2013) Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India are Reshaping their Futures and Yours. Boston: Harvard Business Press.
21.
KjellbergH.HelgessonC.F. (2007) ‘On the Nature of Markets and their Practices’, Marketing Theory7(2): 137–62.
22.
KottakC.P. (1992) Assault on Paradise: Social Change in a Brazilian Village. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
23.
LaderchiC.R.SaithR.StewartF. (2003) ‘Does it Matter that We do not Agree on the Definition of Poverty? A Comparison of Four Approaches’, Oxford Development Studies, 31(3): 243–74.
LazarusR.S. (2006) Stress and Emotion: A New Synthesis. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
26.
LeverJ.P.PiñolN.L.UraldeJ.H. (2005) ‘Poverty, Psychological Resources and Subjective Well-Being’, Social Indicators Research73(3): 375–408.
27.
LewisO. (1966) La vida: a Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty-San Juan and New York (Vol. 13). New York: Random House.
28.
LindemanS. (2014) ‘“Until We Live Like They Live in Europe” A Multilevel Framework for Community Empowerment in Subsistence Markets’, Journal of Macromarketing34(2): 171–85.
29.
LiptonM. (1988). The poor and the poorest: Some interim finding. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
30.
LondonT.HartS.L. (2004) ‘Reinventing Strategies for Emerging Markets: Beyond the Transnational Model’, Journal of International Business Studies35(5): 350–70.
31.
MartinK.D.HillR.P. (2012) ‘Life Satisfaction, Self-Determination, and Consumption Adequacy at the Bottom of the Pyramid’, Journal of Consumer Research38(6): 1155–68.
MullainathanS.ShafirE. (2013) Scarcity: Why having too Little Means so Much. New York: Macmillan.
34.
NichterM.NichterM. (1983) ‘The Ethnophysiology and Folk Dietetics of Pregnancy: a Case Study from South India’, Human Organization42(3): 235–46.
35.
OzanneJ.L.AndersonL. (2010) ‘Community Action Research’, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing29(1): 123–37.
36.
PrahaladC.K. (2006) The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. New Jersey: Pearson Education.
37.
RanganV.K.SehgalD.RajanR. (2007), ‘The complete business of serving the poor: Insights from Unilever’s Project Shakti in India’, in RanganV.K.QuelchJ.A.HerreroG.BartonB. (eds), Business Solutions for the Global Poor: Creating Social and Economic Value, pp. 144–54. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
38.
RavallionM. (2004) ‘Pro-poor Growth: A Primer’, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, 3242, Washington DC: World Bank.
39.
RogersonC.M. (1996) ‘Urban Poverty and the Informal Economy in South Africa’s Economic Heartland’, Environment and Urbanization8(1): 167–79.
40.
RuonaW.E.LynhamS.A. (2004) ‘A Philosophical Framework for Thought and Practice in Human Resource Development’, Human Resource Development International7(2): 151–64.
41.
SaatciogluB.CorusC. (2014) ‘Poverty and Intersectionality A Multidimensional Look into the Lives of the Impoverished’, Journal of Macromarketing34(2): 122–32.
42.
SachsJ. (2006) The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. New York: Penguin.
43.
SchoarAntoinette. (2010). ‘The Divide between Subsistence and Transformational Entrepreneurship’, in LernerJoshuaSternScott (eds). Innovation Policy and the Economy, pp. 57–81, vol. 10. National Bureau of Economic Research.
44.
ScottJ.C. (1977) The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press.
45.
SeersD. (1963) ‘The Limitations of the Special Case’, Bulletin of the Oxford University Institute of Economics & Statistics25(2): 77–98.
46.
SharifM. (2003) ‘A Behavioral Analysis of the Subsistence Standard of Living’, Cambridge Journal of Economics27(2): 191–207.
47.
ShethJ.N.SisodiaR.S. (1999) ‘Revisiting Marketing’s Lawlike Generalizations’, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science27(1): 71–87.
48.
SridharanS.MaltzE.ViswanathanM.GuptaS. (2014). ‘Transformative Subsistence Entrepreneurship: A Study in India’, Journal of Macromarketing34(4): 486–504.
49.
ThompsonC.J.LocanderW.B.PollioH.R. (1989) ‘Putting Consumer Experience back into Consumer Research: The Philosophy and Method of Existential-Phenomenology’, Journal of Consumer Research16(2): 133–46.
50.
Toledo-LópezA.Díaz-PichardoR.Jiménez-CastañedaJ.C.Sánchez-MedinaP.S. (2012) ‘Defining Success in Subsistence Businesses’, Journal of Business Research65(12): 1658–64.
51.
VenugopalS.ViswanathanM. (2015). ‘Developing customer solutions for subsistence marketplaces in emerging economies: A bottom -up 3C (customer, community, and context) approach’. Customer Needs and Solutions, 2(4): 325–336.
52.
VenugopalS.ViswanathanM.JungK. (2015) ‘Consumption Constraints and Entrepreneurial Intentions in Subsistence Marketplaces’, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing.
53.
ViswanathanMadhubalan (2010), ‘A micro-level approach to understanding BOP marketplaces,’ in LondonTedHartStuart, (eds). Next Generation Business Strategies for the Base of the Pyramid, pp. 129–164, Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Press.
54.
ViswanathanM.EchambadiR.VenugopalS.SridharanS. (2014a) ‘Subsistence Entrepreneurship, Value Creation, and Community Exchange Systems: A Social Capital Explanation’, Journal of Macromarketing34(2): 213–26.
55.
ViswanathanM.JungK.VenugopalS.MinefeeI.JungI.W. (2014b) ‘Subsistence and Sustainability From Micro-Level Behavioral Insights to Macro-Level Implications on Consumption, Conservation, and the Environment’, Journal of Macromarketing34(1): 8–27.
56.
ViswanathanM.RosaJ.A. (2007) ‘Product and Market Development for Subsistence Marketplaces: Consumption and Entrepreneurship Beyond Literacy and Resource Barriers’, Advances in International Management20: 1–17.
57.
ViswanathanM.RosaJ.A.HarrisJ. (2005) ‘Decision-Making and Coping by Functionally Illiterate Consumers and Some Implications for Marketing Management’, Journal of Marketing69(1): 15–31.
58.
ViswanathanM.RosaJ.A.RuthJ.A. (2010) ‘Exchanges in Marketing Systems: The Case of Subsistence Consumer-Merchants in Chennai, India’, Journal of Marketing74(3): 1–17.
59.
ViswanathanM.SridharanS. (2012) ‘Product Development for the BoP: Insights on Concept and Prototype Development from University-Based Student Projects in India’, Journal of Product Innovation Management29(1): 52–69.
60.
ViswanathanM.SridharanS.GauR.RitchieR. (2009) ‘Designing Marketplace Literacy Education in Resource-Constrained Contexts: Implications for Public Policy and Marketing’, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing28(1): 85–94.
61.
ViswanathanM.SridharanS.RitchieR. (2010) ‘Understanding Consumption and Entrepreneurship in Subsistence Marketplaces’, Journal of Business Research63(6): 570–81.
62.
ViswanathanM.SridharanS.RitchieR.VenugopalS.JungK. (2012) ‘Marketing Interactions in Subsistence Marketplaces: A Bottom-up Approach to Designing Public Policy’, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing31(2): 159–77.
63.
ViswanathanM.ShultzC.J.SridharanS. (2014) ‘Introduction to the Special Issue on Subsistence Marketplaces: From Micro-Level Insights to Macro-Level Impact’, Journal of Macromarketing34(2): 119–21.
64.
WebbJ.W.TihanyiL.IrelandR.D.SirmonD.G. (2009) ‘You say Illegal, I say Legitimate: Entrepreneurship in the Informal Economy’, Academy of Management Review34(3): 492–10.
65.
WebbJ.W.BrutonG.D.TihanyiL.IrelandR.D. (2013) ‘Research on Entrepreneurship in the Informal Economy: Framing a Research Agenda’, Journal of Business Venturing28(5): 598–14.
66.
WoolcockM.NarayanD. (2000) ‘Social Capital: Implications for Development Theory, Research, and Policy’, The World Bank Research Observer15(2): 225–49.
