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Transformative Subsistence Entrepreneurship: A Study in India

Srinivas Sridharan, Elliot Maltz, Madhubalan Viswanathan and Samir Gupta
Journal of Macromarketing published online 3 April 2014
DOI: 10.1177/0276146714529659

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Article
Journal of Macromarketing
1-19
Transformative Subsistence The Author(s) 2014
Reprints and permission:
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Entrepreneurship: A Study DOI: 10.1177/0276146714529659
jmk.sagepub.com
in India

Srinivas Sridharan1, Elliot Maltz2, Madhubalan Viswanathan3,

and Samir Gupta1

Abstract
There are millions of subsistence entrepreneurs around the world, located primarily in developing countries, engaging in micro
enterprise to eke out a survival living when other labor market options become unavailable. However, the vast majority of them
are trapped in a survival and maintenance cycle. This article focuses on a phenomenon involving a subset of subsistence
entrepreneurs who do manage to thrive and grow their enterprise. We label the phenomenon transformative subsistence entre-
preneurship, reflecting (1) significant positive change in their personal, social and economic well-being, and (2) significant positive
influence on their immediate communities. Drawing on 18 in-depth qualitative interviews, we show how the phenomenon plays
out and how transformative subsistence entrepreneurs carry out vital marketing activities in their local exchange contexts, rising
above substantial life challenges and end up improving the economic capacities of their communities as well. We contend that the
contributions of a network of such transformative subsistence entrepreneurs, each seen at a micro enterprise level of analysis, can
accumulate and coalesce to emerge as the backbone of the informal economy at a macroeconomic level.

Keywords
subsistence entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, micro enterprise, India, macromarketing

Introduction Background: Marketing Scholarship, Poverty

Within the marketing discipline insights are emerging on
marketplaces in impoverished contexts. This is an oppor-
tune development, for most of the worlds market-based
exchange indeed occurs in economically impoverished
environments (de Soto 1989). This article contributes to the
disciplinary interest by presenting a study focused on entre-
preneurial activity occurring within subsistence market-
place contexts. Millions of subsistence entrepreneurs
are active around the world, particularly in developing
countries where they engage in micro enterprise to eke out
a survival living when other labor market options become
unavailable (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor [GEM]
2009). However, the vast majority of them are trapped in
a necessity, survival and maintenance cycle and their
activity does not affect national economic development
(Acs 2006). Here, we introduce the phenomenon of trans-
formative subsistence entrepreneurship, characterizing the
process through which a subset of subsistence entrepreneurs
manage to thrive and grow their businesses and experience
enhanced personal well-being. Importantly, this phenom-
enon also charts how such entrepreneurs positively influ-
ence the subsistence communities in which they operate,
a core macromarketing concern.
and Disadvantage
The marketing discipline has long studied consumers experi-
encing disadvantage (Andreasen 1993), vulnerability (Baker,
Gentry, and Rittenburg 2005), and the stigma of impoverished
living (Hill and Stamey 1990) and is now beginning to inspire
a new, transformative consumer research agenda on poverty
(Blocker et al. 2013). Macromarketing scholarship itself has
also provided long-standing insight into impoverished mar-
kets by analyzing national or regional marketing systems that
shape both the antecedents and consequences of poverty (e.g.
Dholakia 1984; Harrison et al. 1974). From a theoretical point
of view, macromarketing scholarship offers uniquely useful
1
Monash University, Caulfield East, Victoria, Australia
2
Atkinson Graduate School of Management, Willamette University, Salem,
OR, USA
3
College of Business, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, USA
Corresponding Author:
Srinivas Sridharan, Department of Marketing, Monash University, 26 Sir John
Monash Drive, Caulfield East, Victoria 3145, Australia.
Email: srinivas.sridharan@monash.edu

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2 Journal of Macromarketing
lenses to organize, interpret, and explain marketplace systems
and phenomena in poverty contexts (Meade and Nason 1991).
Two strands of recent research reflect a central focus on
communities experiencing widespread poverty. First, man-
agement scholars have embraced the concept of base of the
pyramid markets, referring to the lowest income segments of
global consumer markets (Prahalad 2010). This stream has
anchored its work to the axioms of neoclassical economics.
It casts consumers in poverty as rational utility optimizers,
who will appreciate high quality market offerings made by
competent firms if such choice is made accessible. The locus
of analysis is typically a non-poor, resourceful, private sector
firm, and thus the narrative is one of marketing to the
poor. Marketing scholars have explored the notion of sub-
sistence marketplaces, focusing on survivalist consumption
occurring within socially embedded exchange traditions
(Viswanathan and Rosa 2007). This approach has been
bottom-up, aiming to understand the marketplace process
at work, rather than study the purposeful action of business
managers. Amongst other things, it has highlighted the blur-
ring of economic and social spheres in consumption and
marketing decisions in subsistence contexts (Viswanathan
et al. 2012). Although, beginning at a micro-behavioral
level, it has studied exchange systems, thus complementing
macromarketing goals of inquiry into the nature and roles of
marketplaces (see Layton and Grossbart 2006).
Taken together, these intellectual backgrounds can be seen
as the disciplines overall reflections of poverty and its allevia-
tion. As such, they form a solid platform on which to build.
However, some gaps remain to be overcome.
Research Gaps and Opportunity
First, less knowledge has been accumulated on the producer,
entrepreneurial side of poverty than on the consumer side.
Efforts to understand the sellers side of the exchange dyad are
relatively recent (Viswanathan et al. 2012). Emerging insights
reveal how subsistence entrepreneurs cope, survive, and nego-
tiate an adverse marketplace (Viswanathan, Rosa, and Ruth
2010). The current study extends this thinking and examines
how a subset of subsistence entrepreneurs reach further, and
adapt, thrive, and shape an entrepreneurial marketplace.
Second, inquiry into informal (versus formal) marketing
systems is sparse. In most developing countries, an informal
economy, which is partially or fully outside government reg-
ulation, and where the poorest essentially support themselves,
not only exists, but is growing (Becker 2004; Portes 1994). It
provides economic opportunities for the poor where formal
systems fail to provide means to survive. Yet, we know little
about the marketing systems underpinning such informal
economies. The subsistence literature has begun to study how
informal marketing systems operate internally (Viswanathan,
Rosa, and Ruth 2010). The present study expands and inte-
grates these emerging insights more tightly with the systems
perspective, addressing issues of growth and interplay with
formal marketing systems.
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In the quest to address the above limitations, we note the
extensive knowledge, compiled over decades, of informal
economies in the broader social science disciplines. This liter-
ature can be brought to bear. In particular, economists have
extensively documented informal economic activity (Thomas
1992) and commented on its market structures and incentives
(de Soto 1989); development scholars have analyzed its impli-
cations for human and skills development (Harriss-White
2004); sociologists have revealed its social paradoxes (Portes
1994); political scientists have critiqued the political rules of
income generation causing its emergence (Tripp 1997); and
finally, anthropologists have criticized the counter productive-
ness of using the term, informal economy, for real understand-
ing of human progress (Peattie 1987). The literature on the
informal economy has always remained in close proximity to
the broader literature on poverty alleviation (Moser 1998),
although the informal economy contains both impoverished
and non-impoverished segments.
The crossover of the two literatures can be best detected in
the profuse treatment of the microfinance sector in recent years
as a promising poverty alleviation mechanism (Morduch
1999). Typically, however such a crossover has presented a
paradox. While on the one hand, microfinance programs have
been championed by the global formal institutional sector with
social impact objectives in mind (e.g., poverty reduction), their
efficacy in fostering financial development in an economy is
hotly debated (Morduch 2000). Pre-existing informal lending
institutions have far from disappeared with the advent of
microfinance institutions and in fact have proliferated in the
same locations and become the intermediary suppliers of
repayment capital to microfinance consumers (Jain and
Mansuri 2003). This is a testament to the ability of the informal
sector to throw up emergent solutions to a local problem
(Viswanathan et al. 2012). Such paradoxes remain in need of
strong explanations, but the broader poverty alleviation-
informal economy literatures do not appear to be grounded in
the principles of marketing exchange and market development.
Thus opportunity exists to strengthen marketing contributions
to such substantial inter-disciplinary discourse on informal
economies and poverty by integrating the theoretical perspec-
tives of macromarketing with the emerging phenomena-
driven insights of subsistence marketplaces, which are informal
economies.
Focal Phenomenon - Transformative Subsistence
Entrepreneurship
This article works toward this objective by reporting the
findings of a study of entrepreneurs in subsistence settings in two
states of India. We analyze 18 in-depth interviews recently con-
ducted in these contexts and present a view of transformative
subsistence entrepreneurship, a transformative value-creating
path taken by some entrepreneurs operating in an informal sub-
sistence economy. It has potential for bi-dimensional growth (i.e.
for the entrepreneurs and for the communities in which they
live). Individuals in this process can be contrasted with a
Sridharan et al.
majority of other subsistence entrepreneurs who focus on sur-
vival and livelihood maintenance. Our study uncovers environ-
mental triggers that can motivate individuals to attempt the
shift from subsistence to transformative subsistence entrepre-
neurship (TSE) and also identifies entrepreneurial qualities and
business model approaches that supply the ability and opportu-
nity to follow through on a path to TSE.
The remainder of the article is organized as follows. We
describe our study, detailing the method and findings gleaned
from our interpretation of informants narrations. Using the
themes from the data as a basis, we then develop a growth-
oriented, open-systems model of TSE, and show how it
extends a recently published closed-systems model of subsis-
tence entrepreneurship. In conclusion, we discuss implications
of the study for macromarketing theory and for the broader
endeavor of human development.
A Qualitative Study of Potentially
Transformative Subsistence Enterprises
in India
Data Collection
In November 2011, we conducted in-depth interviews with 18
local entrepreneurs in two states of India (Tamil Nadu and
West Bengal) for the specific purpose of this inquiry. These
interviews had, as precursors, various sets of other interviews
and observations over the previous decade as part of a larger
subsistence entrepreneurship research program. Thus, data col-
lection was iterative in a community where the research team
had developed rapport. Informants were recruited through a
local non-profit organization working in specific low-income
communities of Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu. The
informant recruitment process through a local NGO in West
Bengal was similar. One of the authors conducted 15 inter-
views in Tamil, the local language, with the assistance of two
Tamil-speaking trained interviewers. Another author con-
ducted 3 interviews in Bengali, the local language in the town
of Shantiniketan, West Bengal. Informants received small gifts
for participating. Interviews were audio recorded and typically
lasted 6090 minutes. They were transcribed in the local lan-
guage (Tamil or Bengali) and translated into English.
The sampling process was purposeful and theoretical
(Schatzman and Strauss 1973). It was guided by the aims of the
research to examine a specific subset of entrepreneurial activity
in subsistence that shows potential for significantly growing
ones own business and the economic capacity of the commu-
nity. We pre-identified 18 subsistence entrepreneurs, using the
criteria that their business should be at least three years old and
be embedded within a subsistence marketplace. Essentially, the
selected informants had achieved a minimum threshold level of
business success, and therefore had financial stability beyond
day-to-day survival. Conceptually, this sampling approach
allowed us to examine a range of entrepreneurial situations,
personal qualities, behavioral strategies, and outcomes, while
ensuring that all informants shared the situation of being near
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3
the boundary of subsistence living, but no longer merely fight-
ing survival. With regard to the core phenomenon of interest,
transformative entrepreneurship in subsistence markets, the
sample can be thought of as encompassing individuals going
through the process, exhibiting differing levels of progress but
all having some potential to achieve TSE.
Informants were typically between 30 and 50 years old,
had low formal education (dropping out earlier than tenth
grade in school), and were typically a part of a family with
children. Hence the majority of informants did not possess
anything more than rudimentary literacy and numeracy skills.
This is, of course, speaking only in the educational sense. All
the informants were proficient in oral-verbal literacy, a legit-
imate form of literacy and cultural communication where the
spoken word predominates (Ong 2002). Most of the infor-
mants were running businesses that began with a focus on
selling a single product directly to end users in the commu-
nity. Over time many of the businesses expanded to selling
multiple products and/or providing financing to members of
the community. Characteristics of the informants and their
businesses are summarized in Table 1.
Interviews began broadly and then converged on specific
issues, as noted in the literature on this research method
(McCracken 1988). This sequence afforded our informants
freedom to express themselves in a comfortable manner. They
would elaborate on the circumstances and evolution of their
lives, gradually transitioning to their current life situation,
inclusive of household economics and community social
dynamics. Embedded within this broader conversation, the
interviewer would gradually shift and hold the focus to their
business activities, entrepreneurial decisions, and market beha-
viors. Once at this stage, probing questions elicited an under-
standing of how they obtained supplies from vendors,
interacted with customers, and managed resources and business
tasks. The conversational domain about entrepreneurship was
itself broad, encompassing individual traits and skills, aspira-
tions and motivations, and the influence of the surrounding
environment. Given the diversity of incomes and business
situations in the sample, some informants tended to speak about
currently ongoing business circumstances, whereas others,
especially those with bigger and better income-generating busi-
nesses, retrospectively traced their entrepreneurial path leading
up to current life outcomes.
Analytic Method
We adopted the grounded theory construction method for anal-
ysis of the interviews. This is an appropriate approach when the
theoretical goal, beyond a phenomenological interest in the
interviewee stories themselves, is to identify higher and
more abstract levels of conceptual structures (Martin and
Turner 1986). The analysis involved reading and rereading the
transcribed interview text to gain insight into how these indi-
viduals became entrepreneurs, how they managed their busi-
nesses, what traits and aspirations they brought to their
entrepreneurship, and the life outcomes made possible by their
4 Journal of Macromarketing

Table 1. Sample Characteristics.

Characteristics of the informants and business information

Business

no. Name Gender Age Education Marital status Location Initial Current

1 Dhanam F 34 Yr. 6 Married with 2 Urban Supplier of raw lemons Same business but expanded
children
2 Partha M 40 Yr. 10 Married with 1 Urban Helper in ration shop Finance business lending money
child
3 Fatima F 38 Yr. 10 Married with 2 Urban Catering, distributing, selling Same business but expanded
children readymade food
4 Natarajan M Yr. 10 Married with 2 Urban Milk distribution Milk business, loan agent and
children tea shop owner
5 Sunder M Yr. 10 Married Urban Clay pot manufacturer Retailing claypot; nursery and
landscaping business
6 Ragini F Married with 1 Urban Wage employee Cell phone cover manufacturer;
child manufacturing cell phone retailing
covers
7 Manju F Married with 2 Urban Catering, distributing, selling Same business but expanded; rental
children readymade food income from investment
vproperty
8 Godavari F 34 Yr. 8 Married with 2 Urban Retailing womens clothing Same business but expanded
children
9 Celina F 30 Yr. 12 Married with 1 Urban Variety of job then main Expanded from selling kitchen
child business selling kitchen utensils to other kitchen and
utensils laundry items (e.g. whitegoods)
10 Valar F 33 Yr. 10 Married with 2 Urban Porter Selling and distribution camphor
children and associated products
11 Shanti F 35 Yr. 5 Married with 2 Urban Selling and distributing Same business but expanded
children utensils
12 Mary F 45 Yr. 6 Married with 2 Urban Provision shop
children
13 Selvi F 40 Married with 3 Urban Catering, distributing, selling
children readymade food
14 Jogen M 40 Married with 1 Rural Wage employee at bicycle Owner of Bicycle shop Fish
child (one shop monger poultry eggs
deceased) and live goat distributer
15 Dinobondhu M 50 Married with 2 Rural Contract Gardner Contract Gardner Live goat
children distributer

economic progress. Each author constructed detailed memos
for each interview, leading to the identification of a set of con-
ceptual themes (Corbin and Strauss 2008). Iteratively with this
qualitative coding task, each author also studied streams of
literature relevant to the subject matter, both within business
disciplines and in the social sciences in general. This ensured
that extant, cross-disciplinary perspectives were incorporated
into the process of interpreting the data. Also, the diverse back-
grounds of the four authors ensured that no one theoretical
stream dominated the construction of the grounded theory and
reduced the likelihood that any one set of assumptions drove
the analysis.
Each interview was first analyzed independently by each
author, and then subjected to a discussion. After all interviews
were analyzed, a composite database was constructed to iden-
tify commonalties and exceptions found in the data, including
the interviews as well as the discussion among authors. In sum,
all findings were discussed, challenged, and clarified between
the authors, leading to a shared interpretation of the findings.
As will be discussed in the next section, the analysis yielded
concepts or themes, as well as relationships among the con-
cepts (Corbin and Strauss 2008).
Insights from the Interviews
The data from the interviews are presented in thematic form
below. At the outset, we present the central theme and the core
focus of this research transformative subsistence entrepre-
neurship (TSE). We then discuss (a) aspects of an individuals
environment that can act as motivational triggers for a TSE
pathway, (b) entrepreneurial qualities that enable entrepreneurs
to take this pathway, and (c) business model elements that
shape the opportunity for the kind of marketplace outcomes
that help fulfill the TSE potential. Thus, rather than look for
a clear demarcation that places an informant inside or outside
the category of TSE, we describe, using the above themes,

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Sridharan et al.
those factors that formatively combine to influence the phe-
nomenon and its occurrence at varying levels in our informants.
This is consistent with our view of conceptualizing transforma-
tive subsistence entrepreneurship as a process. Throughout, we
use excerpts of our informants words to illustrate the findings.
Transformative Subsistence Entrepreneurship
In every interview, informants offered their personal view on
what constituted thriving in the marketplace, as opposed to
eking out a livelihood geared to subsistence and maintenance,
and how to get there. The collage of views expressed on this
matter coalesced to our central theme in this research trans-
formative subsistence entrepreneurship (TSE). We define this
as value-creating activity pursued by individuals living in
subsistence conditions that places them on a path toward (i)
self-enhancing business growth and significant positive
change in their personal agency in the economic realm, and
(ii) enhancing the economic capacity of the community in
which they operate. It is important to note the definition
implies the TSE process is pursued only by a subset of entre-
preneurs in subsistence, and to varying degrees within such a
subset. In the subsequent few paragraphs, we illustrate using
quotes, how we induce the two key themes in the TSE defini-
tion significant progress toward individual growth and that
of ones community.
Individual dimension of transformative subsistence entrepreneurship.
As illustrated in their own words, all our informants consider a
significant improvement in business income important. For
example, Godavari is a 34-year old businesswoman running a
home-based business, micro-retailing saris in her neighbour-
hood. She talks with pride how she started very modestly, buy-
ing small-margin clothing items from wholesale merchants
elsewhere in town and retailing them door-to-door in her neigh-
borhood, and then graduated to high-margin clothing (e.g. the
sari, a traditional Indian female clothing item). She describes
how she utilized her initial business capital obtained in the form
of debt (micro-loan from a micro-credit organization).
Godavari: I got 10000 rupees to expand my business. I never used
a penny of it for my kids education or other household needs.
I used the whole amount to buy saris and inner skirts and blouse
bits.
She also recounts reinvesting existing current assets to grow
her business, minimizing or foregoing personal expenses for
the growth of the business.
Godavari: Now I am just taking [retailing] 10 to 15 saris [at a
time]. If I take my profit [use up for personal expenses], I cannot
expand [my business]. My customers are already asking me to
procure better saris worth Rupees 600 or more. If I kept taking
portions of the profit for personal use, I am unable to buy such
better merchandise. If I invest the profits now in the business,
later when I take [buy] 700 rupee sari that I will sell for 800, then
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5
I will have enough profits, which I can afford to use half for my
personal expenses.
The ability to leverage existing assets toward greater returns
beyond the immediate time frame turned out to be a recurring
theme in how several informants viewed the transformation
from a survival business to a thriving business. The assets
referred to, could be diverse, whether the initial debt capital
or the incremental profits in the initial years or intangible brand
reputation.
Dhanam is another 34-year-old enthusiastic businesswoman
and a mother of two. Dhanams narrative is even more intri-
guing as her business deals with a commodity, lemons, and is
conducted in the context of grueling 20-hour workdays. She
discusses how she and her husband leverage their brand rep-
utation even in a business not involving a brand name, steer
clear of some simple cognitive errors, and remain relentless and
disciplined in how they attend to each days business:
Dhanam: Before [earlier], my grandmother did [this business] and
then my mother-in-law, and now we both are doing. So only
lemon business is going on [for many years], and we are very
famous for our lemon business in this whole Ayanavaram [name
of local area] market
Dhanam: During Pooja time [religious festive periods in a year]
we will be happy thinking our business will go well, but here the
nearby shops all will start selling lemons because lemon is
important for Ayudha pooja [hyper competition]. Merely hoping
that we will earn more in the Pooja season will lead us into dire
straits. So regularly we have to put shop [be open for business]
and earn, because we cant earn extra during festive season.
Dhanam: Any function here, they [other, neighboring shops] close
the shop and then attend, we dont do that, and any time we do
business. This sincerity has paid and we have grown now.
Partha is a 40-year-old self-made businessman, running a
teashop and simultaneously operating an informal money-
lending business. He echoes Dhanams view about the every-
day conduct of the business, and talks about the extent to which
his basic practices of thrift and saving have helped in his busi-
ness growth.
Partha: We will never leave the shop closed as we will miss cus-
tomer base and they will go off disappointed when closed, even
for my wedding I lift just one day holiday and also my staff
depend on my shop.
Partha: When my grandfather was working, he used to give me
some daily bata [allowance] and my relatives used to give to
me some money for pocket expenses. From young age I had the
habit of saving money. From the work [his first job] also I started
saving and I had saved till 10,000 rupees.
For these informants, a level of significant growth in busi-
ness income seems a result of the gradual accumulation of
assets procured through unrelenting adherence to certain
everyday business practices cost control through an inher-
ently thrifty system of values, leveraging existing assets and
conscientiously reducing debt, being extremely attentive to
6 Journal of Macromarketing
every detail of business on an everyday basis, being polite with
customers and responsive in the extreme, and keeping tactics
very simple.
However, mere growth in business income or product port-
folio is inadequate to capture the notion of transformation.
Income is but one factor along a path of personal ascent. While
it is reasonable that without a significant quantum of income
improvement there can be no transformation, income alone
does not fully reveal the extent of transformation felt by indi-
viduals in subsistence. It is nearly an axiom in modern poverty
literature that poverty is multi-dimensional, context-specific,
and cannot be solely expressed or measured in terms of dollar
figures of income or consumption expenditure (Narayan 2009;
Narayan, Pritchett, and Kapoor 2009; Sen 1993, 1999). Given
that poverty is not merely the lack of income, it stands to reason
that transformative entrepreneurship in subsistence cannot be
merely a substantial improvement in income. We now transi-
tion to voices and views from a subset of our informants that
indicate a much more complex reality; a reality where a growth
in business income and assets eventually strengthen an individ-
uals personal agency, i.e. achieving a semblance of power,
acquiring an ability to exercise ones rights, and perceiving
some control over everyday decisions (Narayan, Pritchett, and
Kapoor 2009).
For example, Partha recognizes an improvement in his posi-
tion of power in the community from his ability to employ peo-
ple in his business.
Partha: Now this business is 10 years old. . . . I had two assistants
and their salary was 80 rupees per day and now it is 300 rupees
per day and now I am capable of paying the 600 rupees [two peo-
ple] plus the shop rent.
Partha also demonstrates his exercise of rights to express his
opinions in matters relating to the marketplace.
Partha: I dont have the habit of smoking, I just sell it [cigarettes]
and many told me not to sell as its a bad product. The govern-
ment should take the initiative to ban so that cigarette consump-
tion comes down. Some [competitors] dont have any ethics, and
they sell whatever to any one, I dont sell [cigarettes] for school
students and boys below 18, I advise and send them away.
Partha also discusses elements that reveal his perceived con-
trol over the circumstances of his business relative to working
for others.
Partha: . . . .after all the expenses, I can easily save 700 to 800
rupees. And if I also add extra breakfast and two more assistants
we can easily earn 1000 per day. Rather than earning 30,000
rupees in a big company, the same we can earn here.
This sentiment is echoed by Natarajans who, when per-
ceived to be underappreciated by an employer resigns, begin-
ning a path to self-sufficiency.
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Natarajan: I worked for two years and my salary was the same.
I told them I will leave the job, but they offered just 750 [rupees]
in return. I asked for 1250 rupees they refused, so I resigned.
For subsistence entrepreneurs, a felt sense of power in their
own initiative, acquiring a semblance of control of their
everyday circumstances and decisions, and an exercise of
their rights to express their opinion in matters relating to the
marketplace is a psychological marker of real upward mobi-
lity. This is consistent with insights from the development lit-
erature indicating the central importance of personal agency,
along with self-confidence and aspirations, in helping people
move out of poverty (Narayan, Pritchett, and Kapoor 2009). It
is also consistent with the literature on market formation (Lin-
deman 2012), marketplace literacy, which is conceptualized
as skills, self-confidence, and awareness of rights (Viswa-
nathan, Gajendiran, and Venkatesan 2008). In subsistence
marketplaces characterized by severe resource constraints,
uncertainty, and the low literacy and social power of market
actors, an increase in ones personal agency can be transfor-
mative for an entrepreneur. Parthas quote below illustrates
this quite simply.
Partha: I did my marriage on my own expenses and when turning
back I can see the work I did without the help of my father and
mother, staying in my grandpas house, and have come up so
much in life like in small amount financing.
Apparently, some subsistence entrepreneurs are able to
acquire a level of perceived control of their life circumstances
and through substantial business and income growth and per-
sonal agency, they get on a transformative path out of survival
and maintenance and on to growth and thriving.
Community dimension of transformative subsistence entrepreneurship.
Informants also spoke about of making significant contribu-
tions to the communitys economic progress through the way
they do their business. This forms the second, community-
focused, dimension of TSE as specified in our working defini-
tion. Partha speaks of lending money to other entrepreneurs in
need. Here, he cites the instance of lending the equivalent of
more than twice his monthly net income toward another per-
sons business.
Partha: I gave to this tea stall ex-owner 50,000 rupees [to expand
his business)
He, in fact, makes lending money into a business model on
its own. He speaks of an initial 10,000 rupees loan to a neigh-
borhood entrepreneur, which he kept plowing back into further
loans to different local entrepreneurs until it grew 150-fold in a
dozen years.
Partha: Yes, that 10,000 rupees initial loan slowly grew by
repeated loans to all in need, in a span of 13 years to 150,000
rupees. I always used it only to loan others, and did not touch any
of it for my life expenses.
Sridharan et al.
Celina discusses a more modest but innovative approach,
where she helps the local community households invest in gold
by selling gold coins on extended credit.
Celina: I would buy the coins first for 500 rupees. Then give
them to people who want to buy these. They would in turn pay
me in installments of 50 rupees weekly or 20 rupees daily. The
customers will get gold saving through an easy method of
installment, and I would also benefit.
Note that this is not her main business, but rather a sec-
ondary activity to her main trade of reselling kitchen and
laundry appliances. In either Parthas or Celinas cases, the
propensity to lend funds to other productive actors in the
local community shows a deep concern for creating an eco-
system to enable entrepreneurial activity around them.
Although this can possibly be achieved merely through the
ripples created by their core business, they go further and
proactively help those around them. Another way they con-
tribute is through mentoring other entrepreneurs during their
early venture periods, or for that matter, their own small
workforce. Partha talks about mentoring the two employees
who work for him. He displays a passion to share his
method of success for the benefit of others who are at the
start of the learning curve. Here he emphasizes the impor-
tance of thrift and saving.
Partha: I also tell them how I had toiled hard to come to this posi-
tion during my first job, my salary was 10 rupees per day; in
addition, they will give 5 rupees for lunch expenses, which I will
never eat and take the money home. My thinking was that, with
that 15 rupees, we [are] four in the family would eat happily that
evening [even within that I would save some amount]. Like this I
will compare my salary of 10 rupees . . . with their 300 rupee
salary and ask them to work hard.
In fact, Parthas decision to employ his two assistants, in
itself reveals more nuance in how some subsistence entrepre-
neurs go about enhancing the communitys economic capacity.
Partha: My aim [in running a business] is [also that] two families
can easily eat food if I employ them.
Natarajan, a provision storeowner in his mid-30 s, also talks
about mentoring. His advice focuses on doing something you
know and being persistent in pursuit of goals.
Natarajan: I have advised so many youngsters to do the business
about which you know something; we have to work honestly and
not be scared of hardship; if we know that profit is there in some-
thing, then work hard to achieve it.
Such propensity to mentor and nurture younger, entrepre-
neur aspirants directly enhances the communitys capability
to rise economically.
A last nuance we can point to from our interviews about a
community-referent dimension of TSE is an ability and drive
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7
to engage the bigger and more formal and non-subsistence-
level players with their informal system.
Dhanam: . . . we sat and talked that we have to supply for all these
juice shops [bigger ventures in nearby, modern malls] . . . used
to talk to these juice owners about this, and asked them that if
we regularly come and supply, are they ready [would they do
business?], they happily agreed and by word of mouth we started
expanding shop by shop.
Sunder: Now we buy goods from Periyapalayam and Uthiramerur
[other communities] and sell them. We get goods like plants,
dolls, plates, flowers, idols of Lord Ganesha, small playing uten-
sils, etc.
In summary, interpreting the views of our informants
reveals the twin dimensions of transformative subsistence
entrepreneurship, both individual and community. The idea
of this dual dimensionality is critical to label entrepreneurial
activity in subsistence contexts as transformative. Growing
ones own economic condition is significant but does not cap-
ture the whole picture of either the entrepreneurs comprehen-
sive personal progress in life or their contribution to the
economic mobility of the subsistence community as a whole.
The transformation to being both for oneself and others is a
central idea, and reflects a single entrepreneurs contributions
to creating an ecosystem of entrepreneurial activity in a subsis-
tence community. Having described the core phenomenon of
interest in the researcj, transformative subsistence entrepre-
neurship, we now turn to discussing related factors of motiva-
tion, ability, and opportunity. As we will explain subsequently
in the section of model building, these factors must combine in
an entrepreneurs life to lead to the pathway of TSE.
Environmental Triggers
The data from our interviews suggest that a set of triggers ori-
ginating from the immediate environment of the entrepreneur
(e.g. family) often initiate a sequence of events placing them
on a path of TSE. Environmental triggers refer to events or
situations that potentially motivate subsistence entrepreneurs
to go beyond a maintenance cycle of survival toward one
of thriving and growth. For example, issues or tensions arising
from within ones family, or from within the community can
upset the balance of emotions within a person and relationships
among persons.
Celina: I decided to sell utensils. I did not want to start it big rather
starts a small-scale business by selling aluminum utensils. . . . But
when I told people at home, they all started laughing at me.
Such change in emotions can either completely overwhelm
a subsistence entrepreneur or act as a catalyst that puts her on a
growth path. This is consistent with research in poverty con-
ducted across many countries, which shows that emotional
states and relationships can stimulate or discourage trust, initia-
tive, risk taking, and entrepreneurship (Narayan 2009, p. 72).
8 Journal of Macromarketing
Partha (tea shop owner) speaks of an episode where he had
to part with all his savings to ensure that his sisters marriage
was conducted without incident (because of an unexpected eco-
nomic emergency which threatened the familys social dig-
nity). In Indian cultural practice, a central traditional norm is
for the parents or older male siblings of a woman to personally
undertake to ensure the marriage event is an honorable and
happy one, and passes without incident. Despite being very
close to his sister and eventually proud of his efforts and con-
tribution, Partha noted with some frustration that he took on the
central role in this obligation because his father did not.
Partha: My dad never worked after marrying my mom. My dad
worked for one year and was into gambling and is still doing it.
In fact, this frustration with his fathers lack of paternal sup-
port seems to run deep. He frequently speaks of his fathers
vices drinking and gambling and remarks that he was deter-
mined to negate such an influence on himself. This seems to
have been a big trigger in his dedication to growing through his
business.
Partha: I could have gone into bad habits as my father was doing
all the years before when I was young.v Instead, I saved a small
amount to see a big change in life. . . . my father was actually
working for [name of a very big company], but he was no good
in his habits, so my grandparents actually brought me up and
gave me basic education.
For Celina and Dhanam, a perceived deep disrespect from
family members who may be in higher material comfort also
became a significant motivational trigger. For Celina, one or
two critical incidents served as the triggers; for Dhanam, it had
evidently been a long-running situation.
Celina: I had to ask my brothers for help for my sons education.
They helped me but started speaking at my back. I felt bad, as
I never wanted to face such a situation. [Celina had a severe
asthmatic condition, which after being revealed, led to near-
ostracization from her family, in particular her older brothers].
Dhanam: In my husbands family, his brother and sister are in
high-level bank jobs, and in the whole family, we are on the
lower side. In this situation when we go to any family function,
we feel odd as they get a good welcome but we dont. They all
gather and talk fondly of family topics, while my husband gets
left out and always sent away on petty errands.
Triggers to transformational aspirations could also come
from the broader environment beyond the family. Sunder
explains how his business model of making clay pots became
threatened because a large property developer (formal econ-
omy) decided to build new residential units near the place of
his business essentially a sudden intrusion of the formal econ-
omy into the informal economy.
Sunder: We had some space earlier, but now a lot of buildings
have come up nearby. Many apartment buildings have come
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up, so they object to our furnace [for firing earthen pots]. When
we burn or heat the furnace they complain, so we had to stop.
Deprived of in-house making of earthen pots, Sunder found
another way to supply his operation (of flower pots), and
turned to importing them from other villages. Mary, an inde-
pendent businesswoman retailing saris, on the other hand,
decided to do something different from her earlier business
of a provision shop, when a larger, formal store opened near
her much smaller one.
Mary: We dont have much business in the provision shop as
before, because there are many departmental stores now . . .
So it has become very difficult now. Because of this problem,
I started to do a new business of doing chamki work [embellish-
ing] for saris. [husband continues to run the provision shop].
When I started, it was very popular, but now bigger companies
do this cheaper and sell in shops, so it affected my business. So
now, I have started a sari business. This is running better to some
extent.
Environmental triggers do not have to necessarily be nega-
tive. Some of our informants revealed that triggers could also
have a positive valence. Celina talks of the surprising support
she received from her supplier during their first chance
encounter.
Celina: One day while traveling, I crossed a shop that had lots of
Venus cookers and aluminum vessels. I wanted to stop and
inquire. I went in and inquired the rate of a non-stick tava [frying
pan]. He asked me how many I wanted! I was taken aback: why
he is asking me the count? How did he know I have a plan of
doing a business of reselling these vessels? He then asked if
I had prior experience in this business . . . he was ready to teach
me . . . he told me not to worry about money and said he will
give me 1week time to pay. It is Gods gift to have started my
business there.
In summary, chance life events or situations (many nega-
tive, some positive) may prove to be initial triggers for a small
subset of subsistence entrepreneurs, to branch off into newer,
potentially transformative, trajectories in their life and enter-
prise. The notion of such environmental triggers is consistent
with Banduras (1998) idea of fortuitous determinants of life
paths, which he argues can set in motion constellations of
influences than can alter the course of lives (Bandura 1998,
p. 95); and also with Shaperos (1975) idea of a precipitating
factor as a key ingredient of an entrepreneurial event. Of
course, such chance life encounters may have little impact on
a majority of subsistence entrepreneurs who may simply pro-
duce minimal adaptations, if any, without altering the basic
direction of the course of their lives. Whereas all poor people
frequently encounter events that make their current difficult sit-
uation even more difficult, the nature and scope of impact that
such events exert can vary considerably, and for some, be
transformative.
Sridharan et al.
Entrepreneurial Qualities
Entrepreneurial qualities relate to knowledge structures, traits,
and social competencies that enable individuals to respond
effectively to motivational cues in environmental triggers.
Many qualities discussed centrally in literature on entrepre-
neurship in general, are evident in subsistence contexts as well.
For instance, Partha exemplifies entrepreneurial spirit a ten-
dency to be sensitive to new economic opportunities (Shane,
Locke, and Collins 2003). Parthas original business was
money lending, but at one point he recognized an opportunity
to branch out.
Partha: I had once loaned the former owner of this tea stall 50,000
rupees. He was a Keralite [from an adjacent state], and since he
had just married off his children, he wanted to return to Kerala to
settle back there. So he wanted to sell his shop, and I also
thought why not try a new business? He quoted 150,000 rupees,
and since he already owed me 50,000, I gave him 100,000
rupees and bought out his business.
Ragini provides some insight into her level of management
acumen an ability to link ones assessment of the external
business landscape with an awareness of how money can be
made (Charan 2006). As with many subsistence entrepreneurs,
because many of her customers are also poor, she faces a prob-
lem in ensuring that they actually will pay her. In the quote
below, she solves this by creatively segmenting her market.
Ragini: If they are coming from some other location and stay in
this community for rent, then I would give them one blouse and
check if they are prompt in paying the money; because if they
vacate the house and go away I cant go behind them, right?
Natarajan finds a way to take a commodity water and
add value in a way that differentiates him from the other water
sellers in the area.
Natarajan: I just will sell [water] in my street and the adjacent one,
as they are my customers through this provision store [different
business]. If they call for water outside, it may take time, but if
they call me I will instantly deliver, as I am right there.
Overall, entrepreneurial spirit and management acumen
enable individuals to connect the dots in a way that turns
opportunities into businesses. Subsistence contexts reveal evi-
dence and individual variation in these qualities, just as we
might find in non-subsistence contexts as chronicled in the
entrepreneurship literature (Shane, Locke, and Collins 2003).
Perhaps more unique to subsistence contexts is the quality
of aspirational resilience the mindset of wanting to signifi-
cantly improve ones lot in life and persisting in the face of
tremendous personal adversity. Organizational resilience has
been examined in the entrepreneurship literature as a mechan-
ism by which an organization looks beyond troubled times
and considers further entrepreneurial opportunities (Dewald
and Bowen 2010). However, the subsistence context is one
where substantial existential difficulties can act as barriers
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9
to entrepreneurial action despite intent. While most people
in subsistence economies have to be resilient merely to sur-
vive some subsistence entrepreneurs appear to do so with a
firm view to long-term improvement, reflecting an ability to
envision a future beyond their immediate travails.
Dhanam: If I toil hard with my husband, then only we can come
out of the present financial problem and come up in life. I feel
my kids should come up in life and our social situation should
improve. We always have to be in shop. We take this all in
smiling because then only my kids will study well and come
up in life.
An important entrepreneurial quality is to engage in rela-
tively abstract thinking as opposed to the concrete thinking
shown to be commonly associated with low income and lit-
eracy (Viswanathan and Rosa 2007). The ability to leverage
existing assets toward greater returns noted earlier is an exam-
ple of an abstract thinking quality. This is consistent with stud-
ies showing that know-why forms of marketplace literacy,
that is, conceptual and strategic knowledge of the marketplace,
enables better adaptation to changing circumstances than
know-how literacy with its procedural and tactical emphasis
(Viswanathan, Gajendiran, and Venkatesan 2008). Such know-
why facilitates adaptation to changing circumstances, reflected
in the practices of a number of our informants. For instance, the
ability to leverage existing assets toward greater returns beyond
the immediate time frame was a recurrent theme in how our
informants viewed the state of transformation from a survival
to a thriving business.
Another relevant entrepreneurial quality evident from our
data is a degree of social competence an ability to build
strong, productive relationships with other members of the
local marketplace. Again, social competence is a key trait for
entrepreneurship in general (Baron and Markman 2003), and
is as relevant, and perhaps more crucial, in the subsistence
context given its resource-poor but network-rich character
(Viswanathan et al. 2012). In the following quote, Celina
shows a strong sense of being able to adapt to a new social sit-
uation as she tries to build a new customer base through her
social connections.
Celina: My friend took me to Moolakadai [the local market hub]
and introduced me to everyone. I had never been in such a situ-
ation before [new social environment], but I adapted quickly.
I realized that I would be able to provide clients there with small
kitchen items.
Dhanam and her husband demonstrate an impression man-
agement ability that helps them to relate very well to their reg-
ular supplier.
Dhanam: My husband would explain that the fruit was not good,
so he had to get from the next shop [an explanation for a one-
time defection event], and then he [the regular supplier] would
reassure us of good lemons the following day . . . Since the sup-
plier has faith that we will buy the lemons from him regularly, he
10
will give us the merchandise at normal price straightaway with-
out making us participate in an auction [the mechanism used for
all non-relational transactions].
Elsewhere in our interviews, informants narrated incidents
that illustrate their ability to form accurate perceptions of oth-
ers in their environment (social perception), express their emo-
tions and feelings in the right way that strikes a chord in others
(expressiveness), and be persuasive. These aspects of social
competence are indicative of personal strengths both necessary
in and facilitated by a highly social and networked marketplace
environment (Viswanathan, Rosa, and Ruth 2010), and gives
entrepreneurs an ability to generate useful resources from ven-
dors, family members, and other potential business partners.
In summary, our interviews revealed several entrepreneurial
qualities, which represent the sphere of personal ability that an
individual could bring to the table, to act upon the motivational
stimuli presented by environmental triggers. Rather than com-
pile an exhaustive listing, we have highlighted some qualities
that have central resonance in any entrepreneurial context, as
well as those that carry special relevance in a subsistence con-
text. We could see that these qualities were present in varying
degrees across our individual informants. Our view is that
when plentiful, these entrepreneurial qualities can enable indi-
viduals to respond effectively to chance life encounters and get
on a TSE path, as we explain in a later section.
Enterprise Model
Whereas an individuals entrepreneurial qualities and the envi-
ronmental triggers may combine to shape their motivation and
ability to pursue business and life paths that reflect a very dif-
ferent course to their existing circumstances, the actual oppor-
tunity for such a new direction to become transformative is
shaped by the nature of business decisions they make in run-
ning their enterprise. In our interviews, we explored the enter-
prise models of our informants their approach toward funding
the business, growth strategies, and differentiation strategies
(Morris, Schindehutte, and Allen 2005).
Natarajans approach toward funding his provision store
enterprise is essentially one of small, thrifty practices leading
to a social, informal form of debt (without collateral or inter-
est), which can be paid back in small installments, whereas
Partha takes a bolder approach, bolstered by the capital
afforded by his money-lending business.
Natarajan: I will put the income I get through my milk business in
chit funds; if I put in small amount monthly for 20 months, then I
can take out a big amount when most needed in an auction of the
chit fund; through that I got 70,000 rupees once, and used this to
arrange the money [to operate the enterprise efficiently].
Partha: I had once loaned the former owner of this tea stall 50,000
rupees. . . . He quoted 150,000 rupees [to buy his business], and
since he already owed me 50,000, I gave him 100, 000 rupees
and bought out his business.
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Journal of Macromarketing
Dhanam illustrates the propensity to keep growing ones
current business, whereas Sunder illustrates the propensity to
adapt to constraints and grow in new directions (and Partha
above reveals an opportunity-driven diversification approach
to growth).
Dhanam: Earlier, my grandmother did this business [selling lem-
ons], then my mother-in-law continued it, and now my husband
and I are carrying it on. So lemon is our core business for gen-
erations, and we are very famous for our lemons in this whole
Ayanavaram market. So this is one reason not to expand our
business in new ways.
Sunder: I was doing a car wash business. My service was good and
business was also going well. But there was a lack of space [only
500 sq.ft.]. Within that area I was not able to carry on my busi-
ness, and we didnt have any other facility. So I closed the busi-
ness. Then I took over the plant business [his parents had].
Partha illustrates his competitive differentiation strategy (in
running a tea shop), which is heavily oriented toward an
empathic form of customer service.
Partha: We have good reputation and also the former owner
never had so many customers like me. I am here for the past
25 years and I am very friendly with these people; any problem
in their house I will be the first person to stand for them. The
hospitality we extend to our customers makes them recom-
mend me to their friends; we give good respect and we will not
make them angry in any instance, and we will never leave the
shop closed as we will miss customer base and they will go off
disappointed when closed.
Natarajan reveals a product-driven nuance to his differentia-
tion strategy in the business of selling 25 litre bubbles (large
bottles) of water.
Natarajan: Customers perceive different tastes of water when it
comes from different lands; my customers are quite used to this
one taste and therefore I ensure that I do not change the brand.
Other suppliers are not that careful. Long time users will easily
find the taste difference.
Sunder highlights a price-based differentiation strategy in
his flower pot business.
Sunder: We dont want to lose our regular customer, so we let
them negotiate the rates down a bit. If we charge 15 rupees for
a new buyer, for example, we might give it to a regular customer
for 10 rupees if they bargain.
Hence, the interview data support the existence of nuance
and individual variation in the three classic business model ele-
ments funding approach (which in this context, approximates
to ones approach toward debt reduction), growth approach,
and differentiation approach (Morris, Schindehutte, and Allen
2005). Related to the entrepreneurial quality of abstract think-
ing, a subsistence entrepreneurs enterprise model can reflect
levels of thinking either rooted in the here-and-now or
forward-looking. The latter facet involves envisioning beyond
Sridharan et al.
the immediate, whether in terms of the time frame of the enter-
prise (future thinking) or the geographical scope of the value
chain (thinking beyond ones own community). It can enable
long-term-oriented adaptive (and thriving) strategies rather
than short-term-oriented coping (and surviving) strategies. This
envisioning notion finds support in emerging discussions in
psychology (see Atance and ONeill 2001, for a discussion of
episodic future thinking). For the four informants quoted just
above, envisioning was evident in their enterprise model, an
ingredient that substantially increases the opportunity for their
businesses to take on transformative dimensions.
Summary of Insights from Data
To summarize to this point, we have described our central
phenomenon of interest, transformative subsistence entrepre-
neurship (TSE), and discussed three formative factors of envi-
ronmental triggers, entrepreneurial qualities, and enterprise
models, each with illustrative examples. These aspects pro-
vide insights into how some entrepreneurs living in subsis-
tence move beyond survival and maintenance to a path of
thriving and transformation that both affects them and the
communities around them positively. We now develop a
model showing the emergence of transformative subsistence
entrepreneurship.
Interpretation and Construction of a
Theoretical Model
The core phenomenon of interest in this research, TSE, is a
form of entrepreneurship that entails significant progress
toward personal and community well-being. In order for a sub-
sistence entrepreneur to achieve such a tall order in the face of
sustained economic hardship, it is useful to suggest that ability,
motivation, and opportunity are all important corridors of influ-
ence. Based on the insights from our data, this is also the first
theoretical integration we make.
Triggers, Qualities, and Models: Tripartite Influence
toward Transformative Subsistence Entrepreneurship
In essence, we suggest that environmental triggers such as fam-
ily undermining (negative) or supplier nurturance (positive)
throw up new motivations toward unexpected directions in life,
and open up an initial path toward TSE. If people have an abun-
dance of entrepreneurial qualities, such as entrepreneurial
spirit, management acumen, aspirational resilience, social
competence, and, abstract thinking, they can act on the motiva-
tions so triggered, and stay on the TSE path (ability). Impor-
tantly, if peoples enterprise model is characterized by
adaptive approaches to funding, growth and differentiation, and
envisioning beyond the immediate, they give themselves the
most opportunity to arrive at the cusp of TSE. In this manner
of motivation-ability-opportunity, these sets of factors can
combine to set in motion transformative subsistence entrepre-
neurship. This does not mean that all three are necessary
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11
conditions under all circumstances. Rather, the efficacy of
achieving entrepreneurial activity leading up to a TSE level can
suffer because of the lack of any one factor. Similarly, the com-
bined existence of all factors may still prove insufficient for
TSE outcomes if truly overwhelming shocks to the system
occur. Such is the overall fragile economics of a subsistence
marketplace ecosystem.
Transformative Subsistence Entrepreneurship in a
Systems Framework
A second theoretical notion is to situate the TSE phenomenon
in the conceptual framework of a system. As the TSE process
helps create and share product and service assortments among
other subsistence economy participants in a market exchange
setting, from a macromarketing perspective, the choice of a
systems framework is logical (Layton 2007). Further, the sub-
sistence marketplaces literature offers a recent system portrayal
of subsistence entrepreneurship, which therefore gives us a nat-
ural starting point (Viswanathan, Rosa, and Ruth 2010).
Subsistence market systems: The closed loop perspective. Viswa-
nathan, Rosa, and Ruth (2010) conceptualize subsistence mar-
ketplaces as consisting of microenterprises run by subsistence
consumermerchants (SCMs) consumers providing for
themselves and their nuclear families while also managing a
very small business generating consumption-augmenting
income (we use the terms subsistence entrepreneurs and SCMs
interchangeably). These SCMs operate as the hub of a self-
sustaining system of relationships among subsystems of ven-
dors, customers and family members.
They survive the immediate term by managing relationships
within and across these three subsystems, thus achieving a flow
of resources into and out of each subsystem. Such effort
employs various dimensions of relationship commitment
affective (want to be in this relationship), continuance (need
to), and normative (ought to). The system is conceptualized
as closed. It is described as self-regulating or self-
sustaining, referring to the presence of positive (reinforcing)
and negative (balancing) feedback loops that keep activities
in check so that the overall system remains viable. In being
so, the system helps the SCMs run a viable business at an
everyday level, and facilitates some surplus income to help
meet the sudden or somewhat longer-term needs of ones fam-
ily. In Figure 1, we produce a simplified, adapted version of
their model to aid our discussion.
The notion of intricate relationships between the subsistence
entrepreneur and her family, vendor and customer subsystems
resonates with the expressions of our informants, who also hail
from similar communities. As such, the model offers the foun-
dation we build on. However, the data from our interviews
point to a few avenues of addition or departure, which we now
explain.
Adding the community subsystem. Based on our data, one key
addition we make to the Viswanathan, Rosa, and Ruth (2010)
12
Customer Vendor
Subsystem Subsystem
Family
Subsystem
Posive and negave feedback loops of normave,
aecve, and connuance commitment keeping
the relaonships across subsystems in balance
Figure 1. Closed loop system of ordinary subsistence entrepre-
neurship: A simplified representation adapted from Viswanathan,
Rosa, and Ruth (2010).
model is the introduction of a fourth important subsystem the
community subsystem (see Figure 2). As described earlier
when defining the TSE phenomenon, some of our informants
explicitly leverage their ongoing accumulation of tangible
resources in service of the subsistence community. A common
method is to loan money to other budding entrepreneurs. More
intangibly, but perhaps more importantly, some share with oth-
ers, their own paths to success in a mentoring capacity. There
may be still other avenues of community contribution. Overall,
this community-focused dimension of entrepreneurial behavior
presents a genuine concern for those beyond ones family sub-
system. It helps to increase the capacity of the community as a
subsystem (and ultimately the overall subsistence market-
place), to grow organically in a meaningful way. We suggest
that this is one key factor differentiating those subsistence
entrepreneurs on a SCM path from those on a TSE path.
When we look back at our sample, compiled initially to
represent entrepreneurs who were no longer merely subsist-
ing, we can detect three inflection points: (1) entrepreneurs
who showed only growth in their incomes; (2) those who
showed income growth and also much progress in personal
agency discussed earlier; and (3) those who showed not only
such comprehensive personal progress but also significant
contributions to community progress (see in Figure 2). This
last category, and arguably closest to a TSE level from our
definition, forms the bedrock of the addition of the commu-
nity subsystem to the model. The entrepreneurs Partha,
Natarajan, Celina, Sunder, and Dhanam best reflect this
dimension in our data.
Switching to an open systems interpretation. A second change we
make to the Viswanathan, Rosa, and Ruth (2010) model is the
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Journal of Macromarketing
nature of system specification. As just mentioned, the existing
model contains a closed loop characterization. The counter-
acting positive and negative feedback loops push the system
towards equilibrium; once this is reached, the capacity of the
system is conceptualized as fixed. This may be appropriate for
typical subsistence entrepreneurship that is focused on sur-
vival and maintenance. Clearly, such a level was also
reflected in our sample, in people at or near the first inflection
point discussed above.
However, this view does not fully explain the more dynamic
TSE elements that we could detect in some of our informants at
and beyond the second and third inflection points, that is,
achieving personal agency beyond just income growth, as well
as community well-being and growth. Hence, we build upon
Viswanathan, Rosa, and Ruth (2010) and present an open sys-
tems model of transformative subsistence entrepreneurship
(see Figure 2). An open system does not assume inputs and out-
puts (such as commitments and obligations) will be carefully
balanced within the system, and allows the inclusion of unba-
lanced system components (such as triggers and aspirations).
See Kast and Rosenzweig (1972) for a discussion. We now
explain the functioning of this system.
Environmental triggers. Beginning the Disruption. Recalling our
earlier point that critical incidents or situations occurring in life
can act as triggers, we start by suggesting that such environ-
mental triggers, defined previously, can begin to disrupt the
equilibrium conceptualized in the closed-loop model. Triggers,
when they occur and especially the negative ones, either impair
the ability of the entrepreneur to meet the basic survival needs
of her family, or spur them to take bigger risks to try and move
beyond survival. In either case, the delicate self-regulating bal-
ance of positive and negative feedback loops in a system will
be disrupted (see Figure 2). Fathima and Selvi illustrate:
Fathima: My husband went overseas looking for opportunity, but
he was duped by his migration agent, and lost two lakh rupees
[200,000, which is more than life savings]. That is why I started
this business, because we simply could not survive otherwise.
Selvi: If he [her husband] gives me the entire money what he
earns, we can improve [our life] more than this, but he gives
me only half of what he earns; the other half he wastes on
drinking.
These are examples of situations that all subsistence entre-
preneurs face as part and parcel of subsistence living. But the
propensity to respond in specific ways will vary across individ-
uals. When the trigger occurs, and if one doesnt do something
about it, then it can turn into a downward spiral large enough to
disrupt the delicate balance of commitments that were hypothe-
sized in the closed-loop model.
However, if one views the precipitating event as causing
enormous displacement and ends up doing something about it
(Shapero 1975), then the changed actions of the entrepreneur
will cause the disruption. For example, Dhanam discussed how
she and her husband at one point decided they were not going
Sridharan et al. 13

Customer Vendor
Subsystem Subsystem

Toward Individual
well-being Enterprise Model Environmental Toward Community
(EM) Triggers (ET) well-being
Income Growth
Improved Power Entrepreneurial Lending money
Everyday Control Qualies (EQ) Mentoring
Employing
Enhanced Rights
Formal Econ Ties

Family Community
Subsystem Subsystem

Balancing feedback loops of commitment across subsystems

Disrupon of balancing loops by ET, EQ, & EM

Note: ET begins the disrupon, EQ deepens it, and EM completes it

Figure 2. Open system of transformative subsistence entrepreneurship.

to seek out their extended family for resources or support any-
more. Their extended family had moved beyond subsistence
and was no longer committed to the entrepreneurs nuclear
family unit, and routinely scoffed at Dhanams circumstances.
Here, we interpret that the normative family commitment,
which was an important balancing force in the closed-loop
model, has become impaired, thereby beginning to destabilize
the system. In sum, environmental triggers act as shocks to
ones enterprise, and the entrepreneurs response can disrupt
the survival and maintenance loop of balancing forces. Thus,
the initial starting point of the open systems model is the set
of environmental triggers. The triggers may often be negative
events, although not necessarily so.
Entrepreneurial qualities: Continuing the disruption. Whereas envi-
ronmental triggers may provide a powerful starting point, the
potential for the equilibrium disruption to be perpetuated is
contingent on a subsistence entrepreneur producing sustained
adaptations to the trigger situation, enabled by her underlying
entrepreneurial qualities. We described earlier how both gen-
eric entrepreneurial qualities, such as being alert to new oppor-
tunities and possessing keen management acumen, and
qualities uniquely useful in subsistence contexts, such as
aspirational resilience, social competence and abstract think-
ing, enable the path toward TSE.
As such qualities become available and deployed in respond-
ing to a trigger situation, a subsistence entrepreneur will more
likely attract supportive mentoring attention from more experi-
enced and higher income vendors or customers in the commu-
nity. We earlier cited an example of Celina, who had a
fortuitous meeting with a prospective (higher income) vendor
that launched her on a new life trajectory of entrepreneurship.
While the happenstance meeting itself was an environmental
trigger, the vendor, impressed by her entrepreneurial qualities
went on to offer sustained mentorship.
Celina: He asked [in the first meeting] if I had prior experience in
this business; I told him no and that I have just a plan and deter-
mination. He was ready to teach me. He said if I start with items
worth 400 rupees, I would find it difficult to sell, so rather start
with a low budget. Initially he gave me two items for 150 rupees
each and asked me to sell them and return. I sold them success-
fully. After seeing this only, he was ready to sell goods to me at
wholesale rate. He also told me not to worry about money and
said he will give me 1 weeks time to pay. I told him my family
situation made me do this.
Celina was a new entrepreneur at the time of meeting this
vendor, but for existing entrepreneurs, a switch to supportive,
higher income suppliers, made possible by their qualities, can
go on to disrupt the continuance and normative commitments

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14
with their existing neighborhood vendors. In other words, the
disruption to the system equilibrium caused by environmental
triggers can deepen. Further, having been thus mentored, it is
highly likely Celina will go on to similarly mentor other
entrepreneurs in the community, thus bringing into focus a
community-referent contribution, and adding a transformative
dimension to a normal subsistence entrepreneurial process.
Enterprise model: Completing the disruption. Finally, further along
the curve, as a subsistence entrepreneur adopts a different set of
strategies in her enterprise model that are more abstract and
foresee beyond the immediate situation, the resulting move-
ment beyond her 24-hour business cycles essentially completes
the pattern of disruption to the closed-loop system.
Natarajan moved through a sequence of initially earning by
carrying passengers in an auto rickshaw he owned, next adding
a milk distribution business, then transitioning to it full time
with increasing revenues, and finally buying and operating a
provision store as well. In the context of the auto rickshaw busi-
ness, he saw an opportunity to leverage his vehicle asset differ-
ently by storing and transporting milk rather than passengers,
and thus adapted and customized it, removing seats and adding
support boards. This was likely risky in the short term but cre-
ated the opportunity for a more secure future in the long term,
by transitioning to a more remunerative business. For him,
remaining in business was the key, not remaining in a
business. His future thinking enabled long-term-oriented adap-
tive strategies.
In the context of the milk business, Natarajan typically
started his day at 2:00 am collecting milk wholesale (non-
existent in his previous auto context), and maintained a pattern
of doing door-to-door delivery in one neighborhood and
switching to a roadside shop front in another neighborhood, all
dictated by different customer segments (e.g. small tea shop
owners needing milk during extremely busy morning hours
vs. residential customers happy to procure milk on the way
back from morning walks). His operating model ensured he
was there to deliver milk to his customers even on days of mon-
soonal rains in knee-deep water . He earned his customers
respect, as well as earn a larger slice of the pie when the domi-
nant government-owned brand of milk experienced a severe
supply shortage.
Such commitment toward customers at large and as well as
a drive to seek opportunities while jostling with formal econ-
omy competition serve to establish deep respect for an entre-
preneur by the community as a whole. This becomes a net new
level of resource in the system previously unavailable, and
unbalances the family-customer-vendor system of balanced
feedback loops (in a positive and growth sense). In his provi-
sion store business, he was quick to detect latent demand, and
sequentially added new lines of business beyond basic gro-
ceries and provisions including 25-litre water bottles and
freshly made batter for idlis and dosas (traditional South
Indian breakfast crepes and savory cakes), unfamiliar lines of
business to typical subsistence enterprises. These initiatives
help perpetuate newfound resources (e.g. respect) and end
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Journal of Macromarketing
up constantly pushing out the boundaries of the system in
which an entrepreneur operates.
In summary, as an eventual transformative subsistence
entrepreneur, Natarajan was able to detect and act on overall
market growth directions rather than merely react and balance
various proximal pressures. Such emphasis on future growth
and differentiation, promotes enterprise actions that reflect an
ability to envision the future, and by their ambitious nature,
go against the grain of delicately balancing mutual commit-
ment loops of a closed-loop system. This does not occur in all
subsistence enterprises. As we alluded to earlier, even in our
own sample consisting only of entrepreneurs who were no lon-
ger existentially struggling, several of our informants appeared
to stop at a point of achieving stability. They were highly
focused on gaining home ownership, achieving education for
their children, and retiring a substantial initial debt in order
to feel more secure. They were largely interested in the welfare
and stability of the family subsystem, and worked hard in the
domains of customer and vendor subsystems to achieve this
goal. Thus, they more clearly adhered to the depiction in Vis-
wanathan, Rosa, and Ruth (2010).
Discussion
In this article, we have attempted to achieve synergy between
the insights of the emerging stream of subsistence marketplaces
research and the more longstanding macromarketing perspec-
tive, which offers the useful analytical framework of sys-
tems to study marketing action. We have offered the
concept of transformative subsistence entrepreneurship (TSE)
as a fresh way of looking at marketing value created by a subset
of enterprising individuals in subsistence communities.
We have highlighted that those entrepreneurs on a TSE path
experience far more than just economic progress and also lift
their communities with them. Next, we have described three
formative processes toward TSE that together comprise the
effects of environmental triggers (often leading to motivation),
entrepreneurial qualities (which map on to abilities), and enter-
prise models (which relate to how opportunities are exploited);
and specified that a combinatory configuration of these
three things create the conditions for ascent on to a TSE
level. Finally, we have situated the TSE concept in a sys-
tems framework. We have adopted and further built on a rel-
evant recent effort at system specification in subsistence
contexts (Viswanathan, Rosa, and Ruth 2010), and positioned
the entrepreneur tending toward TSE as the hub of a set of
four subsystems customer, vendor, family, and community.
Aided by triggers from some subsystems (e.g., family and ven-
dor), a transformative subsistence entrepreneur is motivated to
move beyond subsistence to build a stronger enterprise model
and, as a result, over time achieves some stability (e.g., home
ownership, purchase of productive assets) and greater opportu-
nity for children. But they spread their influence beyond the
family, vendor and customer subsystems to a broader commu-
nity subsystem. This influence gives them the ability to
Sridharan et al.
leverage their success and connections to generate organic
growth of the overall system.
Implications for Theory and Research
Subsistence and macromarketing research. We set out to integrate
subsistence marketplace and macromarketing theoretical per-
spectives. We have done so by offering detail and nuance from
the vantage point of entrepreneurs in subsistence marketplaces,
and abstracting from the data to a conceptual level through our
open systems model. Throughout the paper, we have clearly
situated our work within the subsistence stream and showed
specific layers of new insight being added to that body of
knowledge. We also note that the work also centrally adheres
to macromarketing scholarship, which has been an early tradi-
tion within the history of the academic discipline of marketing,
of using detailed and/or humanistic empirical observations of
impoverished environments to build theory (e.g. Slater 1965).
We have offered an open systems perspective of the central
phenomenon. For example, the environmental triggers we have
identified represent an unbalanced system component that
needed to be explained. Being disrespected or ostracized by
ones family is an unending source of social tension. Respond-
ing to these can be done either by cycling through a stable,
closed system of maintenance, as SCMs might do, or disrup-
tively innovating and reshaping system dynamics, as TSEs
might do. The first system produces equilibrium solutions that
are time-independent and produced by stable trajectories (von
Bertalanffy 1972). The second system suggests that the trajec-
tory of subsistence entrepreneurship over time can produce
divergent solutions and not just equilibrium ones (von
Bertalanffy 1972). This provides insight into a pathway out
of poverty. For example, it can be argued that TSEs present
an attractive proposition to external formal economy actors
seeking local partnerships. Their market knowledge and per-
sonal agency represent embedded and often intangible
resources, which can complement the traditional resources
brought to bear by formal enterprises. As such, TSEs can act
as market agents acting and negotiating for the community in
a way that would maximize resources important for the growth
of the system. In this manner, our ideas entwine the phenomena
of subsistence marketplaces more tightly with the possibilities
offered by the systems perspective and thusf should serve as a
platform for future systems studies of subsistence phenomena.
Transformative consumer research. We also note that our study of
transformative subsistence entrepreneurship is quite consistent
with the tenets of a dynamic but diffuse collection of emerging
scholarship that commonly answers to a core normative goal of
improving consumer well-being transformative consumer
research (Mick et al. 2012). A core quality of transformative con-
sumer research (TCR) is to develop insights that directly translate
into new capabilities and behaviors of consumers that support
their well-being (Mick et al. 2012). This study, although it focuses
on the entrepreneurial actors, answers this description. Our
insights of a potentially transformative business path can help
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15
develop new capabilities in subsistence entrepreneurs, that is, the
seller side of the exchange dyad. Second, TCR acknowledges that
achieving individual and collective dimensions of well-being
simultaneously is a significant challenge needing examination
(Kozinets, Belz, and McDonagh 2012). This study, with its explo-
ration of individual and community dimensions of TSE, heeds
this call. Further, Blocker et al. (2013) observe that achieving
transformative aims for impoverished consumers will require
acknowledgment of their creativity and resilience. The solutions
explored in this paper reflect this mindset and hence stand to assist
TCR scholars similarly seeking to examine consumer-level phe-
nomena in subsistence contexts.
Other strands of transformative entrepreneurship research in poverty.
Emerging work in entrepreneurship has indeed noted the divide
between subsistence and transformative forms of entrepreneur-
ship in an economy (Schoar 2010). However, in this work, the
label transformative is presented as the antithesis of operat-
ing in or near poverty and, in fact, policy makers in emerging
markets are explicitly cautioned to avoid assuming the emer-
gence of transformative entrepreneurs from the pool of subsis-
tence entrepreneurs. In other words, transformative
entrepreneurship is assumed to occur in a different slice of eco-
nomic segment other than the impoverished. Our work, by
demonstrating transformative entrepreneurship within subsis-
tence segments, offers a different and complementary view.
Our work is further distinct from that of economists in the sense
that it is not just about economics (income growth and job gen-
eration), and encompasses growth in local market capabilities
where TSEs mentor others and help improve others capabil-
ities, and in the process, accumulate embedded, intangible
assets of knowledge, influence, and respect.
In a different vein, Tobias, Mair, and Barbosa-Leiker (2013)
see transformative entrepreneuring as a process that unfolds
in society through the actions of many actors, with the ultimate
outcomes of poverty reduction and social conflict resolution
(based on a study in post-conflict Rwanda). Their work positions
policy makers and traditionally larger, non-poor entrepreneurs
as the ones who create entrepreneurial opportunities in the face
of socio-economic constraints (thus top down); positions ordi-
nary entrepreneurs as those who make use of such opportuni-
ties; and characterizes the sum total of this process (at a
collective level) as transformative entrepreneuring. In contrast,
in our work, transformative entrepreneuring is an individual
level phenomenon that exerts bottom up influence. Thus, future
work should integrate these multiple vantage points in studying
a transformative element in entrepreneurship amidst poverty.
Implications for Policy and Practice
Informal economy: Marginal sector vs. vibrant entrepreneurial
ecosystem. Developing economies contain large segments of
impoverished markets represented heavily in regions such as
South America, Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Many social dis-
ciplines have traditionally studied economic activity conducted
in these contexts as a marginal sector, assumed to only consist
16
of petty traders and producers (Castells and Portes 1989) and a
surplus of cheap, casual labor (Chen, Jhabvala, and Lund
2002). The implication is that the sector remains at the margins
of an economy; its people are vulnerable and mired in chronic
poverty; and hence public institutions must respond by develop-
ing social protection and job creation policies.
Indeed two of Indias most recent and prominent public
policies, the Food Security Bill of 2013 and the Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005,
are examples of this stance. Given the sad reality of chronic
poverty for many, the enormous importance of such platforms
cannot be discounted. However, marketing theorists have
shown that much creation and exchange of value occur in
these contexts through vibrant entrepreneurial enterprise
models (Viswanathan, Rosa, and Ruth 2010). Large numbers
of subsistence entrepreneurs operate tiny micro enterprises,
and play a critical marketing role in their communities, sen-
sing and satisfying consumer needs, and achieving a mechan-
ism of survival for themselves (Viswanathan et al. 2014). In
other words, it is a dynamic marketplace where people are
constantly trying to move out of poverty using their own ini-
tiative (Narayan, Pritchett, and Kapoor 2009).
We have strengthened this marketing perspective by pre-
senting insights from a small, unique sub-segment of entrepre-
neurs in subsistence on the verge of escaping poverty or have
just escaped it. They thrive and grow beyond survival, achieve
considerable respect and agency, and even transform their
communities. This transformation is essential to understand for
policy makers. Although representing a small part of the entre-
preneurial population in poverty, such TSEs may hold the key
to the disruptive development of subsistence marketplaces.
Public policies that promote the development of TSEs can
ensure effective interplay between formal and informal econ-
omy sectors, which is an acknowledged priority area in eco-
nomic policy work (Harris-White 2004). This is also
important for private sector initiatives, as little marketing the-
ory guides the managerial efforts of modern, formal economy,
global or local marketers that are specifically seeking to engage
with the productive players in subsistence marketplaces (Webb
et al. 2010).
We have specifically shown the entrepreneurial triggers,
entrepreneurial qualities and enterprise models that influence
the TSE process. Accordingly, public and private institutions
can seek to augment the opportunity structures facing potential
TSEs. They can do little about precipitating trigger events but
they can certainly unblock skewed opportunity structures that
thwart poor peoples initiatives (Narayan, Pritchett, and
Kapoor 2009, p. 30). For instance, although micro-credit pro-
grams initially gained much favor in developing countries for
their supposed encouragement of entrepreneurship, their recent
travails demonstrate that these programs did not address the
fundamental issue of facilitating more equal opportunity struc-
tures for the poor. This involves not just giving credit, but also
leveling the playing field through education and access.
In the language of systems theory, this is about enabling a
relatively closed system to benefit from moving to a relatively
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Journal of Macromarketing
open system with synergized activities between external enti-
ties and players within the system. They have deep knowledge
about their communities and norms, particularly as they relate
to potential tensions between individual and community
growth. Understanding and fostering transformative subsis-
tence entrepreneurship can thus potentially overcome the
ongoing struggles of micro-credit. This is consistent with
bottom-up empowerment and mobility-out-of-poverty perspec-
tives (Narayan 2009; Viswanathan and Rosa 2007), implying
that the imposition of external or global market methods is not
optimal.
Enriching the entrepreneurial informal economy: Bottom-up agency
through education. How specifically can transformative subsis-
tence entrepreneurship be facilitated? Our discussion of entre-
preneurial qualities suggests that entrepreneurial education
might provide an answer, both in formal school curricula as
well as non-formal adult education.
Viswanathan, Gajendiran, and Venkatesan (2008) discuss
their marketplace literacy program as a case in point. Run by
the NGO Marketplace Literacy Project in contexts similar to
our study in Chennai, the program recruits actual and would-
be entrepreneurs in a five-day training workshop. This edu-
cation has been shown to enable the overcoming of specific
cognitive biases arising from being low-literate and poor, such
as concrete thinking and pictographic thinking. Such programs
can encourage subsistence entrepreneurs to think beyond the
immediate temporally (leading to savings, reinvestment, and
growth) or spatially (value chains involving buying and selling
in geographically dispersed ways). For some participants, the
program may foster these tendencies newly as they may be
engaging in exchange in intuitive and concrete ways. For others
with innate entrepreneurial qualities, the program may serve as
a local, social setting that draws out their own awareness of
those qualities. It would be, however, important that such edu-
cational programs are developed from the bottom up, remain
grounded in the day-today realities of subsistence entrepre-
neurs, and aim for nurturance of the community subsystem
identified in our model. Any of government, social, or private
business broadly united in the effort to achieve empowerment
of impoverished communities could champion it.
Another dimension to marketplace education is that those
approaching a TSE level of entrepreneurship are then ideal can-
didates to educate others in the community, given their social
competence and deep understanding of their communities. In
particular, they can share with others their grasp of the abstract
notion of why they are in business, rather than mere business
know-how. Identifying such entrepreneurs to serve as examples
and even lead educational programs is a program design aspect
to consider. This would then be a fundamentally different type
of education from that of teaching specific livelihoods; one that
ends up developing an ecosystem for thriving, emergent enter-
prise models in the local community and becoming in itself a
positive environmental trigger for participants. Again, for pub-
lic or private entities championing the education program, this
kind of win-win can occur only when there is a co-creation
Sridharan et al.
mindset and specific emphasis on nurturing transformative sub-
sistence entrepreneurship on a wider scale to alleviate poverty
in communities.
Conclusion
Through our study, we have highlighted a process of entrepre-
neurial activity, TSE, which enables poor people to enhance
their own well-being and that of their communities, and chart
a path out of poverty out of their own initiative. However,
shocks to the fragile system may prevent this process from
coming to fruition. Hence, through our subsequent discussion,
we have highlighted that market institutions can augment peo-
ples initiative by creating favorable opportunity structures that
direct the poors initiative to avenues of scaling up. Whereas
our data have provided a starting point to discuss TSE, they are
restricted to two locations within India. Considerable qualita-
tive and quantitative research is needed to further understand
the relationships between variables as well as to delineate the
two proposed dimensions of TSE. We hope that other scholars
will join in this fruitful line of inquiry.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge support from a Department of
Marketing Research Grant, Monash University, that helped fund two
travels to India for data collection.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, author-
ship, and/or publication of this article.
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Author Biographies
Srinivas Sridharan is an Associate Professor of Marketing in the
Faculty of Business & Economics, Monash University. He has a PhD
in Marketing from Indiana University, and previously taught at the
University of Western Ontario. His research examines market beha-
viour in contexts of poverty. He has investigated empirical settings
in India, China, and Fiji. He has taught diverse marketing courses
across undergraduate, Masters, and PhD programs.
Sridharan et al.
Elliot Maltz is a Professor of Marketing in the Atkinson Graduate
School of Management, Willamette University. He has a PhD in
Marketing from the University of Texas at Austin, and previously
taught at the University of Southern California. His research exam-
ines how marketing can combine with other functions to help
organizations be market driven. His teaching interests include mar-
keting strategy, new product planning, sustainability and supply
chain planning.
Madhubalan Viswanathan is the Diane and Steven N. Miller Profes-
sor in Business at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He
has a PhD in Marketing from the University of Minnesota. His
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19
research spans two areas: measurement and research methodology,
and literacy, poverty, and subsistence marketplace behaviors. His
studies have examined settings in North and South America, Asia, and
Africa. He teaches courses on research methods and on subsistence
and sustainability, winning numerous awards.
Samir Gupta is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing in the Faculty of Busi-
ness & Economics, Monash University. He has a PhD in Marketing
from The University of New South Wales. His research examines the
processes of innovation, relationships, and new product development
in organizations and multi-firm industry networks. He teaches courses
on innovation and business marketing.