The DOI matches its Crossref record; 18 of the 21 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Challenges in Marketing Socially Useful Goods to the Poor
Open accessAbstract
Market based solutions to alleviate poverty have become increasingly popular in recent years. Unfortunately, there are very few examples of profitable businesses that market socially useful goods in low-income markets and operate at a large scale. This article examines in-depth three case studies of multinational firms that tried to market unquestionably useful products -- clean water, eyeglasses, and nutritious yoghurt -- to the poor, and did not succeed commercially. The overarching lesson we draw from the case studies is that developing strategies for marketing socially useful goods to the poor, far from triggering a revolution in business thinking, requires firms to get back to the basic principles and rules of economics and business.
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Metadata
- Authors
- Garrette, B., & Karnani, A. G.
- Affiliations
- HEC Paris (FR)
- University of Michigan (US)
- ORCID
- Karnani, Aneel G.
- Venue
- California Management Review
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2009
- Volume
- 52
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 29-47
- ISSN
- 0008-1256 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3121951120
- Cited by
- 139
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 14
- FWCI
- 23.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- California Management Review (publishedVersion)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (submittedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- UNICEF
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Business and International Management › Innovation and Socioeconomic Development
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Business Strategies and Innovation
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Microfinance and Financial Inclusion
- Keywords
- low-income markets, poverty reduction, market-based solutions, multinational corporations, clean water, spectacle, commercial viability, business strategy, developing countries
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