Adoption of Pro-poor Innovations in the Context of the Base of the Pyramid and Subsistence Marketplaces: Challenges, Opportunities and Research Agenda

In countries such as Bangladesh some innovations have diffused rapidly and been taken up by large segments of the population (e.g., mobile phones). However, some innovations which offer the promise of time saving, greater efficiency and better economy have been slower in their take up (e.g., gas stoves). What explains these contrasting examples? The study of consumer innovation adoption is vast. However, the majority of research in this area has been written about economically developed economies where consumers have excess disposable income to spend on the latest gadgets. Yet, innovations benefit economically less wealthy consumers too (e.g., mobile banking, information communication technologies etc.). Such innovations have been termed pro-poor innovations by some (Ramani, SadreGhazi, and Duysters 2012) and are innovations which offer some developmental benefit within so called “Base-of-the-Pyramid” markets. The literature in this area is fragmented and scattered across numerous disciplines such as business, health, development, economics and others. Given this, researchers interested in this area have great opportunities to expand our knowledge base and contribute to an area of societal importance. This chapter reviews literature in this area, presents some challenges (opportunities!) for doing research in this context and provides a future research agenda.