Connecting BOP consumers and retailers: What drives small-time retailing through social media?

Jitender Kumar, Gagan Katiyar, Ankit Mehrotra, Rekha Attri and Sushant Kumar Vishnoi

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2024, vol. 77, issue C

Abstract: Social media has emerged as an all-inclusive technology with the potential to integrate with the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) consumers to provide manifold benefits, ranging from education to retailing. Though the presence of BOP on social media has increased lately, the desired level of adoption by BOP consumers is still far from reality. There is a need to understand what motivates BOP consumers, primarily engaged in small-time retailing (STR), to adopt social media in their daily lives and for what purposes. Using the Gioia method and grounded theory approach, the study interviewed 52 BOP participants to investigate the motivational themes that drive them towards social media adoption. The mined themes were found to align with the Uses and Gratification 2.0 (UGT 2.0) theory, which were classified into four sub-elements of UGT 2.0: agency, modality, navigability, and interactivity. The classification provides interesting insights into what gratifies the BOP consumer to adopt social media as a tool for self-expression and growth. The study provides theoretical and practical insights for academicians and industry to better understand why BOP consumers engaged in STR adopt social media.

Keywords: Bottom of the pyramid; Grounded theory; Uses and gratification 2.0; Small-time retailing; Social media (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698923004307
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joreco:v:77:y:2024:i:c:s0969698923004307

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103679

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services is currently edited by Harry Timmermans

More articles in Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().