Enabling Consumer and Entrepreneurial Literacy in Subsistence Marketplaces

Recent work has begun to provide broad insight into the role and nature of innovation targeted at the bottom of the pyramid or the 4 billion poor in the global marketplace. Examples of such a focus include the business literature and the literature on social entrepreneurship as well as partnerships between business, government, and non-profit organizations to address the problems faced by the global poor.

This book specifically examines two sides to the equation when studying subsistence marketplaces, viewing individuals as both consumers and entrepreneurs. It briefly describes research on low-literate, poor buyers and sellers in Tamil Nadu, India, leading to the development of an innovative educational program that combines basic business education and consumer education.

A focus on marketplace know-how, the complement to financing and microloans for the poor to enable them to function in the economic realm Research insights into a previously neglected phenomenon across resource and literacy barriers, subsistence marketplaces A unique educational program that conveys abstract concepts to low-literate individuals by using methods that leverage their inherent social skills A discussion of implications of research on subsistence marketplaces and of marketplace literacy education for research and practice in business, education, and a variety of disciplines

Klappentext

This book describes research on low-literate, poor buyers and sellers in subsistence marketplaces, the consequent development of an innovative marketplace literacy educational program that enables consumer and entrepreneurial literacy, and implications of the research and the educational program for business, education, and a variety of disciplines and functions. There are two important resources that individuals living in subsistence need to function in the economic realm: finances and know-how. The book describes an educational program that focuses on enabling generic skills about the marketplace. This program uses the "know-why" or an understanding of marketplaces as a basis for the know-how of being an informed buyer or seller. This volume discusses implications of the research and the educational program for non-profit organizations, for research and practice in education, for business research and practice, and for academic and applied research.

Inhalt
Basic Research on Low-Literate, Low-Income Buyers and Sellers.- Developing a Consumer and Entrepreneurial Literacy Educational Program.- Consumer and Entrepreneurial Literacy Program Marketplace Literacy.- Consumer and Entrepreneurial Literacy Program Consumer Literacy.- Consumer and Entrepreneurial Literacy Program: Day 3 Entrepreneurial Literacy.- Consumer and Entrepreneurial Literacy Program: Day 4 Entrepreneurial Literacy.- Consumer and Entrepreneurial Literacy Program: Day 5 Societal Responsibility and Other Miscellaneous Issues.- Implications for Nonprofit Organizations.- Implications for Education.- Implications for Business.- Implications for Basic and Applied Research.