Business models to serve low-income consumers in emerging markets

Abstract

Multinational corporations addressing low-income consumers in emerging markets face the challenge of designing business models that provide truly beneficial products and services to the poor. Examples of successful cases are scarce, while the literature review provides little help. Guidelines range from a minimum shift from conventional marketing thinking and practice to radically new approaches involving a wide diversity of non-market actors in a variety of settlements. A classification to help researchers and practitioners is needed. The article contributes to the literature on business models to serve low-income consumers in emerging markets by proposing conceptual framework, a 2 Â 2 matrix. One axis reflects different perceptions of the low-income consumer's conditions (opportunity/constraint), and the other axis reflects the diverse approaches to developing business models (bottom-up/top-down). The four resulting cells become the article's suggested alternative business models. The framework allows classifying the extant literature and identifying opportunities for future research. Typologies provide a first step towards theory development as well as offer managers a sound theoretical structure.

Acceptance of mobile commerce in low-income consumers: evidence from an emerging economy

“…The increasing interest in Emerging Markets (EM) observed in the global economic arena can be partly attributed to the fact that a high percentage of the world's population resides in these markets. These markets also display a steady gross domestic product growth that could surpass developed countries (Pels and Sheth, 2017). Emerging markets (EM) are desirable investment targets (Pels and Sheth, 2017) because of their volume, predominance, growth potential (Hill, 2002), and the purchasing power that they represent as a whole (Guesalaga and Marshall, 2008).…”

Desenvolvimento de um Framework de Adoção da Inovação no Mercado de Baixa Renda

“…Dadas as características da inovação disruptiva e as demandas dos consumidores que a inovação disruptiva pretende atingir, esta literatura é apropriada para estudar o mercado da BOP (Hart & Christensen, 2002;Nogami & Veloso, 2017). Os consumidores da BOP são os principais alvos da tecnologia disruptiva, porém, a inovação não deve ser disruptiva sem mudanças no modelo dos negócios das empresas (Pels & Sheth, 2017). Para obter sucesso na baixa renda, é preciso inovação disruptiva no processo, na cadeia de distribuição, na gestão da organização, na educação dos consumidores, na forma de pagamento e nas pessoas envolvidas no negócio (Corsi & Di Minin, 2014;Hart & Christensen, 2002).…”

Developing an Instrument for Business Model Dimensions: Exploring Linkages with Firm Competitiveness

“…Also, analysis of data from 241 Indian SMEs has indicated that novelty in business model design has benefited newer SMEs (Wirtz et al 2016). To create novelty in business model design, firms use diverse approaches to develop business models (Pels and Sheth 2017;Velu 2017).…”