Beyond radical affordability in the base of the pyramid: The role of consumer self‐confidence in product acceptance

When developing products and services for base of the economic pyramid (BoP) consumers, it has been widely assumed that organizations must set extremely low prices that are dependent on substantial product acceptance and economies of scale. However, such pricing is often not feasible. Growing eviden...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of consumer affairs 2023, Vol.57 (1), p.619-647
Main Authors: Blocker, Christopher P., Manning, Kenneth C., Trujillo, Carlos A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
base‐of‐the‐pyramid
consumer self‐confidence
Consumers
Economies of scale
Experiments
poverty
Prices
product acceptance
Radicalism
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:When developing products and services for base of the economic pyramid (BoP) consumers, it has been widely assumed that organizations must set extremely low prices that are dependent on substantial product acceptance and economies of scale. However, such pricing is often not feasible. Growing evidence suggests that more moderate price levels are needed for organizations to viably serve the needs of low‐income consumers. However, price sensitivity is less understood in low‐income contexts. To promote the success of social enterprises through fresh insight, we reexamine the extremely low‐price BoP assumption by investigating product acceptance among low‐income consumers using two experiments in Latin America. Results reveal that a belief in one's capabilities to make effective consumption decisions, consumer self‐confidence, helps explain the acceptance of moderately‐priced products. Discussion highlights directions for stimulating acceptance of socially beneficial products in low‐income contexts.
ISSN:0022-0078
1745-6606
DOI:10.1111/joca.12514