Subsistence Marketplaces Conferences

Subsistence marketplaces consist of consumer and entrepreneur communities living at a range of low income levels, and are concentrated in developing countries and regions such as Brazil, India, China, Vietnam, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, many individuals and groups in developed countries also live in subsistence. In the last decade, the Subsistence Marketplaces Conference has been a leading forum for evolving and sharing research and fostering best practices in these communities.

The subsistence marketplaces approach is unique in examining the intersection of poverty and marketplaces with a bottom-up approach that begins with micro-level understanding of life circumstances of consumers, entrepreneurs, and communities. This stream has been reflected in five biennial conferences and almost 60 refereed articles in related special journal issues, as well as in dedicated session tracks at other conferences and refereed articles in a variety of journals.

Subsistence and Sustainability (2018)

Hosted by the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
Champaign, Illinois

This year’s theme centered on empathy, and conducted various scenarios in which attendees learned the difficulties posed through a life in poverty. This concept strikes at the heart of Viswanathan’s research, which focuses primarily on literacy, poverty, and marketplace practices. “The idea (of the subsistence marketplace) is we start at the micro level and not at the macro level. It’s ‘How do they think, feel, and relate?” Viswanathan told Central Illinois Business. The conference delivered on this concept through a series of sessions.

 

Themes included:

  • Sustainable Business and Consumption from the Bottom Up
  • The Institutional and Organizational Dimensions of Enterprises and Public Partnerships
  • Survival, Subsistence, and Transformative Entrepreneurship
  • Sustainability and Consumption from the Bottom Up
  • Technology and Innovation
  • Curricular Innovations
  • Transformative Consumer Research in Subsistence Marketplaces
  • Methodological Innovations in Subsistence Marketplaces
  • Lessons from Practice in Subsistence Marketplaces
  • Subsistence Marketplaces Across Geographies
  • Junior Scholar and Practitioner Mentorship
  • Theoretical Avenues and Open-Minded Inquiry
  • Intersectionality, Historical Blueprints, and Worth in Subsistence Marketplaces
Developing Pathways at the Intersection of Research and Practice (2016)

Hosted by the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
Champaign, Illinois

Themes included:

  • Traversing Theory and Practice – Stakeholder Dialogues of Subsistence Marketplaces
  • Institutional and Organizational Dimensions of Enterprises and Partnerships 
  • Integration and Visioning in Subsistence Marketplaces Research
  • Survival, Subsistence, and Transformative Entrepreneurship
  • Sustainability and Consumption from the Bottom Up
  • Subsistence Narratives, Incentives, and Agency
  • Disruption, Technology, and Innovation
  • Curricular Innovations
  • Junior Scholar Mentorship
Consumption and Entrepreneurship in Subsistence Marketplaces (2014)

Hosted by the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
Champaign, Illinois

Themes included:

  • Consumption and Conservation
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Substantive Domains of Subsistence
  • Diverse Geographies
  • Social Innovation
  • Research Methods
  • Curricular Innovation
  • Junior Scholar Mentorship
From Micro-Level Insights to Macro-Level Impact (2012)

Hosted by Loyola University

Chicago, Illinois

Concurrent sessions' and panels' topics:

  • What subsistence consumers aspire for
  • How subsistence entrepreneurs negotiate the marketplace
  • How businesses can work with subsistence communities
  • Impoverishment, Deprivation, and Consumption
  • Creativity and cognition among subsistence entrepreneurs
  • Multilevel phenomena in subsistence marketplaces: the emergence of macro level implications from macro level insights
  • Subsistence consumer behavior
  • Social interventions in subsistence marketplaces
  • Social entrepreneurship in subsistence marketplaces
  • Innovative business leadership for subsistence marketplaces
  • Product design for subsistence marketplaces
  • Partnerships and networks
  • Local-global linkages
  • Learning from practice

 

From Impactful Research to Sustainable Innovation (2010)

Hosted by University of Illinois at Chicago

Chicago, Illinois

Sessions included:

  • Understanding subsistence consumers
  • Co-creating impactful innovations and applying technologies for subsistence marketplaces
  • Entrepreneurship in subsistence marketplaces
  • Innovative partnerships in subsistence marketplaces
  • Creating impact through business innovations in subsistence marketplaces
  • Design thinking for social innovation
  • Understanding subsistence consumers and envisioning business infrastructures
  • Innovative business strategies for subsistence marketplaces
  • Subsistence entrepreneurs and networks
  • Financial and technological innovations for subsistence marketplaces
  • Bringing subsistence marketplaces into the business curriculum

 

Sustainable Consumption and Commerce for a Better World (2008)

Hosted by University of Illinois at Chicago

Chicago, Illinois

Sessions included:

  • Understanding subsistence consumers
  • Subsistence consumers and transformation readiness
  • Socio-economic factors and technology categorization as determinants of complexity expectation of new product technologies among low income consumers
  • Consumer psychology in subsistence marketplaces
  • Situated cognition and low-literate, low-income consumers: implications for theory and practice
  • Measuring consumer purchase decision involvement in subsistence marketplaces
  • Sustainable product and market development for subsistence marketplaces
  • Insights from product and market development for solar ovens
  • Developing sustainable businesses in subsistence marketplaces
  • Market research in subsistence marketplaces: Insights and observations
  • Innovativeness and creativity among subsistence consumer-merchants
  • Producers in subsistence marketplaces
  • Social capital and entrepreneurship in subsistence marketplaces
  • Subsistence entrepreneurship in times of conflict
  • The "Schlent" as an organizing concept in markets
  • Facilitating market access in subsistence marketplaces
  • Co-value creation in business networks in subsistence marketplaces: a Nordic relationship and network management approach
  • Sustaining culture
  • Reinforcing cultural traditions in global markets
  • Handcraft as a subsistence activity among producers in two villages from Oaxaca, Mexico
  • Local development and transfer of knowledge: the Banco Palmas experience
  • Children as change agents: sustaining culture through participatory methods for subsistence marketplaces
  • Collaboration and co-production in subsistence marketplaces
  • The village network: a new approach to poverty alleviation through partnership
  • Self-help groups and private policy partnerships in subsistence marketplaces: toward a win-win formula for poverty reduction and sustainable development
  • Marketing healthcare to the poor: the case of medicated managed care
  • Biodiesel and microfinance: a new model for Haiti
  • Policies and strategies for subsistence marketplaces
  • Understanding stakeholders in subsistence marketplaces
  • Market structure and processes of a boom and bust economy
  • The causatum of market dominence: HSBC Sri Lanka in subsistence marketplaces
  • Marketing to subsistence consumers: contemporary methodologies and initiatives
  • Sustainable social enterprises in subsistence marketplaces: a case study of the Byraju Foundation
  • Two-way learning and teaching in subsistence marketplaces: taking marketplace literacy to subsistence marketplaces and bringing subsistence marketplaces to management education
Product and Market Development for Subsistence Marketplaces (2006)

Hosted by the University of Illinois at Chicago

Chicago, Illinois

Sessions included:

  • Consumer Behavior in Subsistence Marketplaces
  • Consumer Experiences in Subsistence Marketplaces
  • Marketing in Subsistence Marketplaces
  • Diverse Methodological Approaches to Subsistence Markets
  • Business Practice in Subsistence Markets
  • Inter-Organizational Linkages in Subsistence Marketplaces
  • Entrepreneurship Development in Subsistence Marketplaces

Sponsors

We sincerely thank the organizations that make our events happen. Since 2006, our supporters have included: