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

Madhu Viswanathan (), Arun Sreekumar (), Srinivas Sridharan () and Gaurav R. Sinha ()
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Madhu Viswanathan: Loyola Marymount University, Emeritus - University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Arun Sreekumar: Indian Institute of Management
Srinivas Sridharan: Monash University
Gaurav R. Sinha: University of Georgia

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2024, vol. 52, issue 5, No 3, 1279-1300

Abstract: Abstract 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.

Keywords: Subsistence marketplaces; Marketplace literacy; Bottom-up marketing approach (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s11747-024-01022-z

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