Subsistence Consumer-Merchant Deviance: A Conceptual Foundation

Recent research in the subsistence consumer domain has focused on an array of topics, including understanding relationships within social and kinship communities (Viswanathan, Gajendiran, and Venkatesan 2008), the influence of subsistence consumption culture on marketing systems (Eckhardt and Mahi 2012) and business functions (Viswanathan et al. 2009), the influence of economic liberalization on subsistence economies on strategic and organizational change (Carman and Dominguez 2001) and social marketing for improved economic well-being (Kotler, Roberto, and Leisner 2006). These and similar studies effectively identify some of the underlying cognitive, behavioral, social and physiological complexities of subsistence markets and their subsequent influence on marketing strategies and tactics. There has been limited study, however, into how these complex factors drive subsistence consumer-merchant misbehavior. Subsistence consumer-merchants (SCMs) are defined as consumers who provide for themselves and their families by managing microenterprises that serve as important final links in the supply chain for major companies (Viswanathan, Rosa and Ruth 2010). Their misbehavior, also called deviant behavior (Merton 1949), influences the relationships that subsistence consumer-merchants have with different actors within their social system, and on the social image of companies and their products. Deviant behavior exists whenever individuals, in this case SCMs, violate prevailing norms for their social groups or communities (Warren 2003). This paper focuses on the pervasiveness of deviant behavior among SCMs and some of the social and cognitive factors that lead to such behaviors. Its underlying thesis is that deviant behavior among SCMs is unavoidable, and that companies and marketing systems seeking to do businesses in emerging markets need to develop plans and procedures to deal with it. The paper contributes to the field’s knowledge of SCM behaviors.