Student Resources

Business 101 (BUS 101) is an undergraduate course that consists of three modules organized around responsibility for oneself, to one's organization and to the larger society.  Subsistence Marketplace Initiative created Module 3, which emphasizes the responsibility to the larger society by developing an understanding of marketplace activity in the radically different context of subsistence where much of humanity resides and survives. It covers how to envision the role of business in creating economically, ecologically, and socially sustainable products for subsistence marketplaces.  Learn more. 

Engineering 198 (ENG 198) is for first-semester undergraduate engineering students focused on developing products to serve the needs of those living in low-income communities, domestically and internationally.  Rather than begin with a predetermined technology, this course teaches students how to take a bottom-up approach beginning with user circumstances and cultural issues and then using that understanding to design engineering solutions.  View a sample course syllabus. 

Business 332 and 333 (Undergraduates)/Business 532 and 533 (Graduate students) is a year-long course that includes an international field trip, where students identify technologies and develop products for subsistence marketplaces. The course covers obtaining a bottom-up understanding of buyers, sellers, and marketplaces beyond literacy and resource barriers. It also discusses issues in product and market development, the nature of research methods, and the technologies that could be used to develop innovative products. 

Students must apply to participate in this course.  Applications open each [___part of the semester___].  Learn more [___link to subpage___]. 

This free Coursera Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) helps you develop an understanding of marketplace activity in the radically different context of subsistence where much of humanity resides and survives, and for you to design solutions that can be implemented by individuals, businesses, and social enterprises through economically, ecologically, and socially sustainable products for subsistence marketplaces. Learn more. 

Part of the Gies iMBA, Global Business Horizons engenders and appreciation for global challenges and the opportunities that lie ahead. The course covers the important role businesses can play in addressing these challenges with two immersive and interactive modules organized around understanding global challenges and designing business solutions on the topics of poverty and environmental sustainability. Learn more. 

Part of the Gies iMBA, this course is informed by insights from subsistence marketplaces where individuals find ingenious ways to reuse and conserve to survive, growing an appreciation among students for the challenges that lie ahead for businesses. Through lectures, case discussions, guest speakers, and a course-long project, each week students examine and critically evaluate contemporary trends in sustainable marketing business practices, and discuss such topics as sustainable consumer behavior and product design. Learn more. 

Entrepreneurs Without Borders (EWOB) focuses on being entrepreneurial and enabling entrepreneurship in subsistence marketplaces around the world, preparing students to serve impoverished communities and address global challenges. Learn more. 

This experience is geared toward visiting the environment of the urban and rural poor and has proven to be a transformative learning experience for students.  The spring semester is spent converting concepts to workable prototypes, and developing business, manufacturing, and marketing plans.

Students observe households in urban and rural subsistence contexts, as well as retail and wholesale outlets.  Students interview low-literate, low-income individuals regarding product ideas for group projects.  This experience is for students from the Sustainable Product and Market Development for Subsistence Marketplaces course.

Viswanathan, Madhu, Subsistence Marketplaces (2013), eBook.

Out of the global population of over 7 billion, approximately 2.5 billion live on less than $2 a day. Understanding and alleviating poverty is crucial to the development of sustainable marketplaces. In this book, through an immersive and interactive experience, we aim to a) provide you a fundamental understanding of subsistence marketplaces, b) offer a sense of how solutions can be designed for these marketplaces, and c) explore how these solutions work for different entities.

Our perspective is bottom-up, beginning with a nuanced, micro-level understanding of behaviors and contexts. This contrasts with relatively macro-level approaches, such as macro-economic perspectives that examine country- and region-level trends or meso-level business strategy approaches, such as the bottom of the pyramid perspective, which examine issues of business strategy of organizations working in these contexts. Instead, we adopt a micro-level approach and begin with life circumstances at the individual and community level, with a particular focus on marketplace interactions.

Hard copies are available at $15 plus shipping from Stipes Publishing at stipes01@sbcglobal.net

• BRINQ website – Base of Pyramid definition
• Base of Pyramid Innovation blog by Louise Koch
• Microsoft – Technology for subsistence markets
• SPENT Simulation
• Mercados de Subsistencia (Spanish-language blog)
• Voices from Subsistence Marketplaces

• Colby College website
• Velowala
• SEBRAE – Brazil
• University of Michigan
• Startup capital for social entrepreneurs

• Sources of Data in Subsistence Marketplaces
• Beyond Economic Growth (WBI, 2004)
• United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)  Publications
• Rural Marketing Association of India
• Article 1
• Article 2
• Article 3

• Mumbai slum dwellers turn rubbish into small fortunes

• Airlines involvement in future climate treaty
• Ecovative Design
• Other company CSR reports

• California Institute Technology: Product design for the developing world
• Columbia University: The Earth Institute
• Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis: The GO GREEN course
• Michigan Technological University: ENG 5530 Sustainability Graduate Seminar
• Portland State University: Sustainability Courses
• Globalinitiative Microfinance

• The Cooper Union: SEA²M³
• Sustainability – UNEP
• World Resource Institute