Search results

The predominance of certain adverse factors has historically de-motivated firms seeking to enter into the bottom-of-the-pyramid (BoP) markets due to the perception that BoP markets are impoverished and therefore unable to afford their products. However, Prahalad’s seminal study on BoP markets as potential sources of wealth may have influenced the mindset of marketers around the world to view the demographic at the BoP as prodigious product markets waiting to be mined. This chapter, therefore, explores how some multinational corporations (MNCs) may have successfully implemented BoP marketing in Nigeria against the backdrop of diffusion of innovation (DoI) theory. The DoI theory tries to explain how and why new ideas, product, structures, or phenomena (innovations), spread across users and social systems. It posits among other things that there are at least five conditions that define the rate of adoption of an innovation, including relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability. The authors find in the context of case companies, MTN Communications, Promasidor (Cowbell), and Dufil Prima Foods (Indomie) Nigeria that these elements contribute to building a viable explanation for the wide adoption of their products in the Nigerian BoP markets. Regarding the economic viability of BoP markets, the authors find that MNCs may have to embrace a commitment to long-term profitability, focus on economies of scale as a basis for competitiveness, and realize that in BoP markets, defining a marketing model is a continuous process.

Pro-poor innovations are innovations targeted at economically poor consumers. These innovations have the potential to improve consumer wellbeing. However, while take up of some such innovations has been rapid (e.g., mobile phones) take up of others has been slower (e.g., fuel efficient stoves). What explains why some pro-poor innovations fail and some succeed? While the literature on consumer innovation adoption in economically wealthy countries is vast, there is very little literature in the context of the “bottom-of-the-pyramid” (BoP) and subsistence marketplaces. This chapter aims to begin answering this question through a review of the extant literature in the area of consumer innovation adoption, which is integrated with literature in the area of consumption within subsistence marketplaces and the BoP. A conceptual model is proposed which outlines key parameters for marketers and managers. The chapter closes by outlining implications and a future research agenda.

It is estimated that the poorest of the world, termed as being economically at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP), have a purchasing power of $5 trillion. This paper aims to study what and why they consume, and how firms can best address those needs, an area that is relatively new.

The authors categorize the products and services people at the bottom of the pyramid consume with specific examples of both products and companies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and look at the theoretical frameworks that could explain those consumption patterns.

The authors find that despite income and resource constraints, BoP consumers are sophisticated and creative. They are motivated not just by survival and physiological needs but seek to fulfill higher order needs either to build social capital, for cultural reasons or as a compensatory mechanism. They also find that when firms offer products that also fulfill these higher order needs, especially through linkages to education and job offerings, there is a greater chance of their success.

The evidence is based on inference from examples in literature and related research on developmental economics. Empirical research to uncover motivations and their linkages to product success in different BoP markets would help to better understand sustainable approaches to BoP marketing.

BoP markets offer profitable opportunities. A lot can be learnt from both local and multinational companies successfully operating there. Firms should go beyond the mentality of merely removing features or services to make them cheaper. The lesson here is relevance, adaptability and tailoring products to suit specific BOP needs in an efficient manner. Also, enabling BoP education and providing marketplace services make for more sustainable approaches.

The study adds to BoP literature by examining consumption of this segment in an integrated manner: across various categories and linking it to motivation theories. This broad perspective would be useful not only for potential BoP marketers, but also for government and aid agencies.

Private labels are gaining increasing importance in many industries. While there are obvious benefits for retailers to embrace private labels, the standard explanations for manufacturers' involvement (idle capacity, buffer against follower brands, retailer's conditions) do not explain it completely. This paper seeks to provide an additional explanation.

An economic model of vertical differentiation is proposed.

The model shows that, once the retailer has decided to introduce the private label, and depending on the quality positioning chosen by the retailer, both manufacturers find situations where they are better off by not supplying the store brand and allowing the other manufacturer to produce the private label, but also situations where they prefer to produce the private label. Also, it is shown that retailers will choose the high‐quality manufacturer for its premium store brand, and the low‐quality manufacturer otherwise, and this decision is not based on the set of skills possessed by each manufacturing company.

The model contributes to explaining why private label supply is becoming so pervasive among all kinds of manufacturers under a variety of circumstances.

The purpose of this paper is to show that high technology companies often find it challenging to select their first reference customer. This is a challenging decision because such clients are not simply an immediate source of revenue, but also a source of learning, a technology test bench and a powerful promotional tool. This paper aims to explore not only the factors that make such decisions strategically crucial, but also the motivations for a client organization to assume such a risk and the characteristics of such organizations.

Theoretical and case studies. These ideas are illustrated with examples in both hardware and software, with a longer examination of HP's adoption of AMD's Opteron technology for its server line.

The choice of the first customer is a strategic decision, not just a tactical one. It has implications in terms of revenue generation, technology development, business development and industry focus, and it can be decisive in the success of a new technology.

This is one of the first papers to address the selection of the initial reference customer in high technology industries.

The purpose of this study is to provide an insight into the adoption process of mobile internet (M-internet) among bottom-of-the-pyramid (BoP) customers.

An empirical survey was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Data were collected from a total of 387 BoP customers from Bangladesh. PLS-SEM was applied to test the proposed model.

The findings in this study reveal that BoP customers’ life satisfaction, internet literacy, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use significantly influence a customer’s intention to use M-internet, while these relationships are partially mediated by the attitude toward M-internet. Furthermore, price perception was found to directly influence intention to use M-internet and to have a positive moderating effect on the relationship between attitude toward M-internet and intention to use M-internet. Also, intention to use M-internet was found to have a significant influence on BoP customer’s M-internet adoption behavior.

The findings of this study help to understand what drives and impedes the M-Internet adoption behavior of BoP customers in a developing country like Bangladesh.

This is the first study that incorporated BoP customers’ life satisfaction and internet literacy to investigate the BoP customers’ adoption process of M-internet in the context of developing countries. Overall, this study contributes to the limited literature regarding the BoP customers’ M-internet adoption behavior. The results of this study will help the M-internet service providers of Bangladesh and other similar developing countries to understand the BoP customer’s adoption process regarding M-internet to create successful policies and strategies both for the service providers and policymakers.

Most conventional research methodologies both in consumer and business‐to‐business marketing are modernist in nature, but their applicability in an increasingly postmodern business setting is decaying. Postmodern conditions are particularly prevalent in the business‐to‐business arena but, although new postmodern research methods are slowly growing in popularity in consumer markets, their use by business‐to‐business market researchers is still almost nonexistent. The article contributes to filling the existing vacuum in the business‐to‐business marketing literature and provides a framework for the use of postmodern research methods in industrial markets. A short case is used as illustration of this use.

The purpose of this paper is to examine market segments within the broader category of occasional patrons of the performing arts. While similarities between these segments exist, important distinctions are also apparent.

The authors surveyed 347 performing arts patrons using a structured questionnaire. Their responses along 28 proposed motivational variables were subjected to factor analysis to reduce their dimensionality and collinearity. Cluster analysis was then applied to respondents’ factor scores to group subjects into homogenous segments for subsequent comparison along variables, including demographic and marketing mix elements.

The authors find six key motivating factors influencing the attendance of performing arts events: personal; promotional; product; distribution; economic; and social motivators. The authors also find that infrequent consumers can be further subsegmented into disinclined and fringe consumers with different levels of performance attendance and dissimilarities in responding to motivators.

The survey was conducted in a single county within the San Francisco Bay Area, limiting the generalizability of results.

Fringe consumers are more responsive to the personal benefits (e.g. cultural enrichment) derived from the core product offerings of a performance such as programming and quality of the performers. The disinclined segment is more influenced by economic, social, and distribution related elements associated with a performing arts event such as pricing, the accessibility (or convenience) of the venue, and the opportunity to socialize accompanying attendance.

The practice of relationship marketing by small local performing arts organizations (PAOs) has been emphasized and often advocated by researches in the most recent literature. In order to ensure the viability of PAOs beyond the short-term, further examination of audience development is imperative. This paper indeed places more attention on audience development with a particular focus on expanding audiences among subsegments of infrequent performing arts consumers.

The central purpose of this research is to arrive at comprehensive profiles of subsegments within a group of infrequent arts patrons, along with viable differentiated marketing program and positioning approaches that would appeal to each of these consumer categories. Consequently, the authors address a significant gap in the performing arts marketing literature as few recent studies appear to have been structured to allow for the possibility of producing adequate subsegmentation information within a group of occasional performing arts patrons. Secondarily, this study also answers a call for future research to examine the internet as a channel of promotion for arts consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors affecting decision-making at the BoP and propose a framework of the consumer decision-making process at the base of the pyramid (BoP).

The qualitative research design was adopted to collect primary data. Data collected through the in-depth semi-structured interviews of the 48 BoP consumers in Kolkata and Kharagpur (India) were subjected to grounded theory analysis for theory development.

This study reveals that consumer vulnerability affects the decision-making process and the transaction cost at BoP level. It was observed that the consumers at the BoP make constrained choices due to their vulnerability and try to minimise transaction cost while selecting the retails. The constrained retail choice leads to a limited selection of products and brands.

This study, for the first time, has investigated the decision-making process for BoP consumers in detail. As a pioneering attempt, it sheds light on some new factors including consumer vulnerability and transaction cost that have an impact on the consumer decision-making process.

The purpose of this paper is to examine m-payment adoption for the bottom of pyramid (BoP) segment in a developing country context.

A questionnaire was distributed to 247 BoP customers in Bangladesh. Data were analysed by employing confirmatory factor analysis and Structural Equations Modelling.

The results show that performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), facilitating conditions (FC), habit and social influence (SI) significantly influence the BoP segment’s behavioural intention (BI). It is revealed that PE, lifestyle compatibility (LC), SI and habit have relatively stronger effects being higher predictor of intentions. Again EE and FC have relatively lower effects on m-payment BI. On the other hand, hedonic motivation (HM) and price value (PV) are two non-significant predictors of m-payment adoption.

The study recommends that financial institutions, such as banks and other non-banking service firms, need to know the antecedents affecting BI suggested by the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) theory along with “LC”. This will increase m-payment adoption for the BoP segment in developing countries.

To the extent of researcher’s knowledge, none of the previous studies using the UTAUT2 theory to examine m-payment adoption for BoP segment. This study contributes empirical data to the predominantly theoretical literature by offering a deeper understanding of the inclusion of LC, which is one of the significant antecedents in explaining BoP segment’s m-payment adoption.