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Subsistence and Sustainability: From Micro-Level Behavioral Insights to Macro-Level Implications on

Consumption, Conservation, and the Environment
Madhu Viswanathan, Kiju Jung, Srinivas Venugopal, Ishva Minefee and In Woo Jung
Journal of Macromarketing 2014 34: 8 originally published online 26 August 2013
DOI: 10.1177/0276146713499351

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Article
Journal of Macromarketing
2014, Vol. 34(1) 8-27
Subsistence and Sustainability: From ª The Author(s) 2013
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Micro-Level Behavioral Insights to DOI: 10.1177/0276146713499351
jmk.sagepub.com
Macro-Level Implications on Consumption,
Conservation, and the Environment

Madhu Viswanathan1, Kiju Jung1, Srinivas Venugopal1,

Ishva Minefee1, and In Woo Jung1

Abstract
The objective of this article is to develop micro-level behavioral insights at the intersection of poverty and the environment and
derive macro-marketing implications. This micro-level behavioral perspective encompasses psychological and socio-cultural
phenomena and emphasizes consumption and conservation. Construing the environment in a broad sense to encompass living
circumstances, we conducted interviews to uncover the distinctive nature of environmental issues in subsistence marketplaces. Our
findings emphasize the importance of different levels of spatial and psychological distance as well as a number of coping strategies that
reflect individuals and communities sustaining themselves through survival, relatedness, and growth. We link distances and coping to
efficacy and motivation to act, and derive implications for macro-level issues in marketing management, and public policy.

Keywords
subsistence, sustainability, poverty, environment, macromarketing

Introduction The objective of this study is to develop micro-level beha-

vioral understanding of poverty and the environment with an
Whereas there are many challenges in the 21st century, if the emphasis on consumption and conservation and a view to
environmental challenge is not solved, nothing else may
deriving macromarketing implications. The arena of poverty
matter. This is the sobering conclusion from many sources about
and the environment has been studied from macro levels as
the negative impact of the industrial era on the larger ecology
well as micro household levels, covering topics such as the use
(D’Souza and Peretiatko 2002; World Bank 1992). From a con-
of natural resources in rural settings (Agarwal 1989; Dasgupta
sumption perspective, continued increases in population, peak-
et al. 2005). However, these studies do not focus on developing
ing production levels of non-renewable energy, and rising
a deep understanding of the psychological and socio-cultural
shortages in food and water are just some of the portents of underpinnings of observed consumption behaviors. The mar-
things to come. From an environmental perspective, the negative keting literature has focused separately on both environmental
impact of carbon emissions through global warming and rising
sustainability (e.g., sustainable consumption; Kilbourne 2010)
sea levels, pollution, and deforestation points to disastrous global
and poverty (e.g., subsistence marketplaces; Viswanathan
consequences. Environmental problems are inextricably linked
et al. 2009). However, the intersection of poverty and the envi-
to the issue of global poverty, with the poor being disproportio-
ronment has not been focused on from a marketing perspective,
nately vulnerable to environmental problems and disasters.
such as in examining consumption and conservation (i.e. the
Rapid industrial development in affluent contexts has also had
focus of this article), or marketplace interactions as they relate
a disproportionate impact on environmental problems in con- to environmental issues. Specifically, we examine the micro-
texts of poverty (Shrivastava and Hart 1995). Thus, those with level behavioral aspects of surviving and subsisting in local
the smallest footprint bear a disproportionate burden of environ-
environments, covering such topics as challenges and coping.
mental problems at a global level (Thomas and Twyman 2005).
The 1992 World Development Report on Development and the
Environment asserts that the environment problem is in essence
1
a poverty problem (Peet and Watts 1993; World Bank 1992). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA
Perspectives on this topic range from poverty causing environ-
Corresponding Author:
mental degradation owing to survival pressures (Duraiappah Madhu Viswanathan, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 183 Wohlers
1998) to nurturing of environmental resources through adaptive Hall, 1206 South Sixth St., Champaign, IL 61820, USA.
strategies evolved by the poor (Scherr 2000). Email: mviswana@illinois.edu

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Viswanathan et al.
Psychological and socio-cultural understanding at the micro-
level provides a starting point to derive macro-level implica-
tions. Such an approach is in keeping with the subsistence
marketplaces approach and literature (Viswanathan and Rosa
2007), which adopts a bottom-up orientation, starting with gen-
erating rich understanding of individuals, communities and the
socio-cultural contexts of marketplaces in poverty. We also use
the term, environment, in a broad sense rather than addressing
specific environmental issues, to encompass living circum-
stances ranging from the immediate day-to-day living as well
as more societal and global level issues from the perspective
of the subsistence individual. Our focus is particularly relevant
in the macromarketing area, where sustainability and poverty
represent broad topics (see Kilbourne 2010; Kotler, Roberto, and
Leisner 2006) that have been examined at a macro level. By
using micro-level insights into sustainability and deriving impli-
cations for macromarketing, we provide a different perspective.
Given the bottom-up orientation of the study, a number of
questions at the intersection of subsistence and sustainability
are germane. What is the nature of environmental issues in
subsistence when compared to resource-rich settings? How
do subsistence consumers cope with environmental issues and
what do they strive to sustain in doing so? Using these broad
questions as a starting point, in this research, we examine the
interconnections between subsistence marketplaces and the
environment. A series of interviews reflect the bottom-up
approach adopted. The findings cover the distinctive nature
of environmental issues in subsistence contexts in terms of
being immediate (household), near (local), moderate (society)
or farthest (global) in distance both physically and psychologi-
cally. A number of coping strategies emerge beyond reducing
and reusing such as making and foregoing. These strategies
reflect individuals sustaining themselves through survival,
relatedness, and growth. We develop propositions that link dis-
tances and coping to efficacy and motivation to act, and derive
implications for macromarketing.
Following a review of the literature, we discuss the method
and findings of our study. Finally, we interpret the findings using
theoretical lenses and derive implications for macromarketing.
Literature Review
Following a discussion of the literature on sustainability in
marketing, we review the literature on poverty and market-
places, and finally, the broader literature outside of marketing
on poverty and the environment. Sustainability refers to
‘‘development that meets the needs of the present without com-
promising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs’’ (World Commission on Environment and Development
1987), covering topics ranging from climate change to human
rights (Chabowski, Mena, and Gonzalez-Padron 2011). Sus-
tainability has been studied in marketing (Chabowski, Mena,
and Gonzalez-Padron 2011), and recent calls for more research
(e.g. Kilbourne 2010) reflect its growing importance.
Research has ranged from potential theoretical lenses that
can be used (Connelly, Ketchen, and Slater 2011) to factors that
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9
lead to green consumer behavior, different approaches to seg-
mentation, and groups of individuals based on their approach
to sustainable consumption (McDonald et al. 2012), as well
as deep understanding of relevant groups such as the voluntary
simplicity movement. The literature covers topics from supply
chain management (Closs, Speier, and Meacham 2011) to
modeling cross-country comparisons of the implications of
sustainability (Huang and Rust 2011). The macromarketing
literature has covered such issues as moving from consumer-
ism/consumption to sustainability (Assadourian 2010; Schaefer
and Crane 2005), and the need for organizations to adopt a
sustainable market orientation (Mitchell, Wooliscroft, and
Higham 2010; Viswanathan et al. 2009).
The need for sustainable consumption is a central part of the
conversation in the marketing literature. For example, Thogersen
(2010) discusses the causes of unsustainable consumption
patterns in organic food production, particularly in a European
context. Likewise, scholars critique the ‘‘dark side’’ of consump-
tion and call for systemic policy changes to curb overconsump-
tion (e.g. Schaefer and Crane 2005; Varey 2010). Moreover, in
order to understand ‘‘sustainable consumption’’ Dolan (2002)
argues that scholars must focus on consumption practices
between individuals. Strizhakova and Coulter (2013) show how
a global cultural identity moderates the relationship between
materialism and environmentally friendly tendencies. From an
organizational perspective, topics such as product development
(e.g. Luchs et al. 2010) and competitive advantage through
sustainability have been studied (Kumar et al. 2011; Mitchell,
Wooliscroft, and Higham 2010). Sheth, Sethia, and Srinivas
(2011) present a framework for a customer-centric approach to
sustainability and introduce the concept of mindful consumption.
This brief overview of articles highlights that, although the
marketing discipline specializes in spanning micro to macro
level perspectives, a clear gap in the sustainability literature
in marketing is the need to understand the intersection of
poverty and the environment as it relates to such topics as con-
sumption and conservation, and marketplace interactions. Our
focus here is on the former topic.
Poverty and Micro-Level Behavior
A stream of research on subsistence marketplaces has adopted a
bottom-up micro-level behavioral perspective. It has examined
underlying variables that affect how the poor interact with the
marketplace, specifically focusing on thinking styles, emotional
factors, and social relationships (Viswanathan, Gajendiran, and
Venkatesan 2008). Unpacking poverty into individual level
constraints such as low literacy, this research suggests that
individuals living in subsistence marketplaces display unique
cognitive tendencies arising out of low literacy and accentuated
by low income that limit them to the here and now (Viswanathan
2011; Viswanathan, Rosa, and Harris 2005). Stemming from dif-
ficulties with abstract ideas, individuals are concrete in their
thinking in the following ways. First, individuals who subsist use
information at a tangible level rather than interpreting or com-
bining it to reach more abstract conclusions (e.g., depending
10
on price of a product rather than combining it with other
attributes to assess value of an exchange; interpreting health and
nutrition in concrete terms such as not going to the hospital).
Second, such individuals focus on the ‘‘what’’ and the ‘‘how’’
rather than the ‘‘why’’ in relatively abstract realms (i.e., involv-
ing very different levels of abstraction, e.g., what business to run
and how to do so in the here and now rather than why start a spe-
cific business or why run it a particular way; focusing on symp-
toms of health condition rather than underlying causes). This
tendency suggests a focus on the immediate in terms of environ-
mental issues. Envisioning issues beyond the immediate, con-
crete reality or across time requires abstracting across spatial
and temporal dimensions, which may be difficult to do. The
literature has noted that the tendency toward concrete thinking
is accentuated by low income and the need to meet immediate
needs (Viswanathan 2011). Another tendency is pictographic
thinking, reflecting a comfort level with what is perceived
through the senses that precedes the acquisition of literacy
(e.g., pattern matching letters of brand names or bus numbers;
even adding and subtracting by visualizing currency bills) (Vis-
wanathan, Rosa, and Harris 2005).
Also apparent from this research is the emotional toll that
poverty takes and how self-esteem is paramount in marketplace
encounters, particularly for those individuals with low levels of
literacy (Adkins and Ozanne 2005; Viswanathan, Gajendiran,
and Venkatesan 2008; Viswanathan, Rosa, and Harris 2005).
Along with how individuals think, how they feel is another
important consideration as self-esteem and basic dignity are
often central to their existence and to their interactions with the
marketplace. Stigma attached to low literacy is an important
driver of apprehensiveness and even fear in marketplace
interactions.
Subsistence consumer and entrepreneurs interact in one-to-
one interactional marketplaces where exchanges are fluid, buy-
ers and sellers are generally responsive, with a constant demand
from consumers for customization (Viswanathan et al. 2012).
Enduring relationships are sought as a way to multiply value
in exchanges and lower uncertainty, with the social and eco-
nomic being blurred. The larger context where exchanges and
relationships play out is characterized by pervasive oral commu-
nications and interdependence. Along with such practices as
reusing and reducing usage, individuals may have the option
of buying, the resourcefulness of making, or the resilience of
foregoing (Viswanathan at al. 2009).
As is evident from this discussion and from previous study,
formal regulatory institutions are generally absent in subsis-
tence contexts (Khanna and Palepu 2010; Rivera-Santos,
Rufin, and Kolk 2012). Although regulatory institutions allow
for enforceability of laws and regulations, provide legal protec-
tion, and support economic activities, these institutions remain
weak within marketplaces (Rivera-Santos, Rufin, and Kolk
2012). Thus, consumers and entrepreneurs in subsistence
contexts rely on informal institutions (e.g. culture and norms)
to dictate behaviors in the realm of consumption and conserva-
tion. For example, if community members have used traditional
methods to preserve the environment for several generations, it
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Journal of Macromarketing 34(1)
is likely that such normative practices will continue (i.e. be
passed on to children) in the absence of formal laws that dictate
the preservation of the environment.
In summary, the subsistence marketplaces literature empha-
sizes the importance of the immediacy in space, time, and
people that characterizes the one-to-one interactional market-
place and the cognitive constraints that lead to a focus on the
here and now. Although this literature has had a focus at the
micro-level, the intersection of subsistence marketplaces and
the local environment has not been addressed. In summary, our
literature review highlights the need to study the intersection of
subsistence marketplaces and the environment, through micro-
level behavior.
Poverty and the Environment
Environments in poverty contexts are disproportionately at risk
due to planetary destabilization. A majority of the poor in
developing regions of Asia and Africa live in ecologically fra-
gile areas (Leach and Mearns 1991). At a broad level, debates
center on the need for eradicating poverty before addressing
environmental problems versus the role of environmental
degradation in causing poverty. The centrality of natural
resources of poverty contexts have been studied in terms of
deforestation, access to water and sanitation, health-related
outcomes, and a variety of other topics (Angelsen and Kaimo-
witz 1999; Chaplin 1999; McMichael 2000). The relationship
between poverty and the environment is very complex with a
range of moderating factors at different levels of society. For
example, Chaplin (1999) argues that the ability of the Indian
middle class to buffer themselves against risks of poor sanitation
leads to less political pressure from them for sanitary reform, and
an inordinately high impact on the vulnerable poor. Angelsen
and Kaimowitz (1999) review and synthesize more than 140
economic models and note that little empirical evidence sup-
ports a relationship between poverty and deforestation (see
also Duraiappah 1998). Gray and Moseley (2005) maintain
that several of the macro perspectives on the environment-
poverty relationship assume the Malthusian view of the poor
being myopic in their psychological outlook. They review
empirical evidence from countries such as Sudan, Nigeria,
Ethiopia, and Ghana where the poor make sacrifices in the
present to enhance security in the future. The authors question
the efficacy of macro perspectives based on behavioral foun-
dations that are empirically inconsistent with the realities of
the poor, highlighting the need for a more nuanced and
well-rooted psychological foundation.
The literature on sustainability and poverty in marketing as
well as the broader literature on poverty and the environment
highlight the need for a micro-level focus on the intersection
of poverty and the environment from a marketing perspective,
such as through examining consumption and conservation, and
marketplace interactions as they relate to environmental issues.
Whereas a top-down view has dominated the literature over
the last twenty years, we offer a ‘‘bottom-up’’ view of sustain-
ability from the perspectives of low-income individuals, with
Viswanathan et al. 11

an emphasis on consumption and conservation. By deriving Table 1. Demographic Information of Informants.

macro-level implications from micro-level insights, we aim
Name Urban/ Age
to integrate micro and macro level approaches to sustainability. No. (fictitious) Rural Gender (yrs.) Education
We describe the method for our study in the next section.
1 Anbazhagan Urban Male NA 10th grade
2 Anand Rural Male 40 5th grade
Method 3 Bhuvaneswari Urban Female NA NA
4 Chiranjeevi Urban Male 35 12th grade
This study aimed to generate rich descriptions of the context
5 Damodaran Rural Male 38 10th grade
and lived experiences of low-income individuals with respect 6 Narasimhan Urban Male 37 10th grade
to the environment, which were then used as a basis to distill 7 Nandini Urban Female 41 10th grade
several insights. Management scholars (Dyer and Wilkins 8 Pankajam Urban Female NA 9th grade
1991) have highlighted the importance of such deep descrip- 9 Selvi Urban Female 39 9th grade
tions in developing theory that is well rooted in people’s reali- 10 Suseela Urban Female 48 9th grade
ties. Such grounded theory has been recommended for research 11 Sharada Urban Female NA NA
12 Sanjeevan Rural Male NA 9th grade
in novel settings as a methodological approach to analyze and
13 Venkatesan Urban Male 37 Bachelor of Arts
derive theoretical insights from the data (Corbin and Strauss 14 Selvarasan Rural Male NA Bachelor of Arts
2007; Goulding 1998). Our approach emphasized unstructured
interviews using broad topics and questions without specific
guidance from substantive aspects of relevant literature. Where
relevant, the insights that emerged are placed in the context of Table 1. The interviews lasted for half an hour to forty-five
the extant literature. Discussion in terms of specific theory was minutes. At the end of each interview, informants were given
the final step through the discovery process of writing the paper. a small monetary compensation for their time. The first author
The data were collected in an urban low-income community and research associates who speak the local language and are
in Chennai, South India and a rural farming community in Kan- from the same cultural context conducted the urban interviews.
chipuram district, South India. Chennai is the sixth most popu- The third author who is a native speaker of Tamil (local lan-
lous city in India with a population of around 4.7 million. guage) conducted the rural interviews. The interviews were
Chennai also has the fourth highest population of slum dwellers recorded, transcribed into Tamil and then translated. Member
in India, estimated at 820,000. Kanchipuram district is largely checks were used during data collection to ensure factual con-
agrarian with close to half its population engaged in agricul- sistencies and interpretations.
ture. Paddy rice and groundnuts are the major crops cultivated The interviews were conducted specifically to examine the
in this region. Tamil is the native language in both Chennai and issue of sustainability in subsistence contexts. The urban inter-
Kanchipuram district. The urban data and rural data were col- views were conducted in the first phase of data collection for
lected in two phases of research, each lasting from a few weeks the project. Rural interviews were conducted as part of the sec-
to a few months. ond phase in order to capture the commonalities and differ-
In-depth interviews were employed for gathering data, as ences across rural and urban subsistence contexts. Amato and
they are suitable for obtaining detailed accounts of the infor- Zuo (1992) note that the subjective experience of poverty as
mant’s perspectives, experiences, or situation, in their own well as the stress associated with it are likely to be different for
voices (Taylor and Bogdan 1998). In-depth interviews are also rural and urban poor. They observe that factors such as social
suitable because of the low-literacy levels of our informants support, kinship networks, and institutional membership are
and the prevailing oral traditions in the local context (Viswa- key differences across these contexts. Our motivation to
nathan et al. 2012). Interviews began at a concrete level in include rural informants stems from the objective of investigat-
terms of problems people face with their immediate environ- ing the issue of sustainability across these contextual differ-
ment, how their local environment affects them, and how they ences between urban and rural poor, given such factors as the
affect their own local environment, and then moved to broader different natural environments that they live in.
issues of how individuals affect nature and in turn are affected We analyzed the data independently using the constant com-
by nature. Terms such as global warming and climate change parative method, which involves researchers simultaneously
were reserved for the end of the interview, given their abstract coding and analyzing data across interviews to develop concepts
nature and the need to discern participants’ perceptions in an and relationships with the eventual goal of evolving coherent
open-ended way. Interviews were conducted with 14 infor- theoretical propositions (Taylor and Bogdan 1998). The authors
mants (ten urban, four rural). We employed purposive sam- used the descriptive data to develop concepts. The concepts were
pling in choosing rural and urban respondents in order to then used as sensitizing material to eventually develop coherent
capture the differences in experiences between the urban and theoretical propositions (Blumer 1969). Two of the authors are
rural poor. The informants were in the age group of 35-48 years originally from the cultural context of the research sites whereas
and their literacy levels ranged from 5th grade to bachelor’s the remaining three are outsiders. These variations in the back-
degree. Sample informants included eight males and six ground of authors enabled us to analyze and interpret data from
females. Detailed informant information is presented in different vantage points and arrive at a consensus (Thomas et al.

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12 Journal of Macromarketing 34(1)

Table 2. Challenges of Distance in Subsistence Marketplaces.

Quote
Number Spatial Distance Illustrative Quotes

1 Immediate and Near
2 Immediate and Near
3 Immediate and Near
4 Immediate and Near
5 Immediate and Near
6 Immediate and Near
7 Moderate and Far
8 Moderate and Far
9 Moderate and Far
10 Moderate and Far
11 Moderate and Far
12 Moderate and Far
‘‘Currently, the water is a problem (due to rain), the supply is mixed (contaminated), and the water is
the main source to spread the diseases. The water from drainages is mixed with drinking water
supply, so it is contaminated.’’ – Chiranjeevi, 35, Male, Urban
‘‘Our neighborhood is located nearby the sewerage water treatment plant established by the
government. They let out the treated water on the canal running behind our street. The canal also
carries the wastewater let out from the families living in upper areas. The canal water
contaminates the ground water in our areas. I doubt the quality of available water too. One day I
notice foul smell from the water and the other day it seems to be good. I cannot assure that we get
clean or good water always. – Selvi, 39, Female, Urban
‘‘ . . . Nobody is disposing the garbage properly. It is spread everywhere. The air passes through the
garbage, bringing the bad effects and foul smell. It is inhaled by everyone, from children to adults.
Then . . . the smoking of cigarettes . . . the smokers smoke the cigarettes in public places, which affect
everyone.’’ – Nandini, 41, Female, Urban
‘‘Even today I saw a plastic bag containing garbage thrown on the street by someone. My own
principle is not to use plastic. I used to go with a cloth bag while shopping. I used to advise others
not to use plastic. But nobody listens . . . They pack their domestic waste and garbage in a plastic
bag and simply throw it on the corner of the street while they go to work or shopping. People are
too lazy to use a broom and a box to keep separate the biodegradable and plastic materials. Even
the people going to work (educated) come out of their house, keeping their handbag in one hand
and a plastic bag filled with garbage in the other hand. They never bothered about the dustbins;
they simply throw the garbage on the corner of the street . . . due to plastic covers, the heat is
increased; it blocks the water flow also.’’ – Sharada, Female, Urban
‘‘There is no proper storage there also, suppose there is a rain and the paddy gets wet, there will be no
hope of selling it. They will say the paddy is wet and ask us to take it back.’’ – Damodaran, 38, Male, Rural
‘‘We cannot compare farming with business, because, we put our faith in the land – ‘bhoomi’ (earth)
– asking it to take care of us and we take care of it equally like our child.’’ – Anand, 40, Male, Rural
‘‘We should not destroy the forests that are beneficial to humans. It will lead to lack of air, failure of rain,
and destruction of nature. When the forest goes, even the plants and small trees will disappear
automatically. Awareness should be created to join hands in protecting the forest. We should protect
nature.’’ – Anbazhagan, Male, Urban
‘‘We grow ground nuts also, but at present it is not growing well so, we feel frustrated when we think
of groundnuts. That is the easiest to grow, but because of the unseasonal rains and the change in
climatic patterns, we are not able to make profits with that, even those who sowed now faced
heavy loss.’’ – Anand, 40, Male, Rural
‘‘Unnecessary buildings, they are mushrooming everywhere. In the past, the houses were made with
thatches and used palm leaves or coconut leaves. We didn’t find that much pollution when we
were living in such houses, because those leaves or thatches controlled and filtered whatever dust
passed through air. Now, we aren’t safe because of the present types of buildings. Suppose we
reside in a flat where someone came and murdered us, no one would notice us or come forward
to rescue us. The structure is not conducive to alert the neighbors. They can’t hear what is
happening in the nearby house.’’ – Nandini, 41, Female, Urban
‘‘Nowadays more flat systems [apartments] are flourishing and available than individual houses . . .
there was attachment in the joint family system. We cannot expect such socialization and attachment
among the families living in a flat system, whereas we can expect a kind of homogeneity among the
families living in individual houses on a street. Families living in a flat [apartment] system will not bother
about their neighbors.’’ – Bhuvaneswari, Female, Urban
‘‘Irrespective of the people or organization, whether it is a company or government or service
organization or politicians, they take care of the hygiene in their own rooms and drinking water for
their needs. They should give preference in providing clean water to the public. They use the official
machinery to keep their compound and nearby areas free from sanitation problems. They wouldn’t
bother about the end of their own street or next street where the public reside . . . nobody
understands that pollution would affect everyone. The air coming out from A/C machines, air
coolers, electric cookers, microwave ovens, etc. are poisonous . . . ’’ – Nandini, 41, Female, Urban
‘‘Earlier there were forests, but now all that has been encroached and it has been brought under
cultivation, and the way people work has also changed. Those days, they used to take the effort to mix
the vegetation by stamping with the feet with the dung and prepare the manure and only then, they
used to start the farming. But now people don’t even want to remove their shirts. Nowadays, the
whole context has changed, nobody wants to work, everybody wants more money very quickly, and
people want to become rich fast.’’ – Anand, 40, Male, Rural
(continued)
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Viswanathan et al. 13

Table 2. (continued)

Quote
Number Spatial Distance Illustrative Quotes

13 Moderate and Far ‘‘There is no truth. Truth is not prevailing in the society. Mother has no sincere affection for her child,
children has no affection for their parents. It becomes like mechanical life, all become like machines
. . . the reason is over-expectations. People try to cheat when they have too high expectations. For
example, those who are riding bicycles wish to acquire motorbikes, those who have bikes wish to get
their own car, those who have their own car wish to buy their own bungalow. Real affection is diluted
while the level of expectations increases.’’ – Nandini, 41, Female, Urban
14 Moderate and Far ‘‘The nature has changed. There is change in the season. Ancestors classified the seasons in a year
into four – winter, summer, etc. There is a proverb that says ‘‘Even the grinding stone will be
moved by the winds/storm coming in the month of [16 July-15 August]’’ . . . But, we can’t notice
the wind at all in this month.’’ – Nandini, 41, Female, Urban
15 Moderate and Far ‘‘I have heard that the hole in the ozone layer caused global warming. I believe that the pollution and
high smoke is the reason for the hole in the ozone layer. Erecting deep bore wells in too much
depth and sucking enormous water is also one of the reasons for the earth warming. Now the
number of trees and plants become less. More forests and more trees will give rain. There is a
possibility for the earth to get cool if it receives more rain due to forestation.’’ – Bhuvaneswari,
Female, Urban
16 Moderate and Far ‘‘All the smoke and pollution is the reason for climate changes. Also the overuse of electricity is one
of the reasons for climate changes. It is good for each person to reduce their consumption of
electricity by their level best. We should avoid burning more lights for more hours. Everyone
should try to plant and grow trees as much as possible. Government and society should help us to
achieve this through awareness.’’ – Bhuvaneswari, Female, Urban

2000). In reporting the findings, we use tables with verbatim
quotes organized by topic and further subcategorized by themes.
We also present some illustrative quotes in the body of the
manuscript. For a more exhaustive list of informant quotes, we
refer the reader to Tables 2, 3 and 4 where all the relevant quotes
are organized and presented by themes.
Challenges and Coping in Subsistence Marketplaces
We categorized the environmental challenges that our infor-
mants faced as being at immediate (household), near (local),
moderate (societal), or far (global) distances for those living
in subsistence, and the discussion unfolds accordingly
(Table 2). The environment in the immediate distance is the
informant’s own home and surroundings where most time is
typically spent. The near refers to the local environment in terms
of issues, such as sewage, air and water, outside the home, in the
streets, and in the community. The moderate distance represents
the larger society, such as cities, sets of villages, a province or
the country. The farthest distant environment represents tradi-
tional global environmental issues in other settings, such as
climate change and global warming. We present relevant pic-
tures of our research sites to provide a rich visual description
of the context (see Figure 1).
Challenges – Immediate and Near. In subsistence marketplaces,
environmental issues are not at some level of abstraction
wherein people can compartmentalize them, but rather hit
home at a local level. Local conditions contaminate water sup-
ply to households in the immediate distance (Quotes 1 and 2,
Table 2) (see Figure 1). If people use and dispose plastic bags,
sewages get blocked and diseases spread (Quotes 3 and 4,
Table 2).
Even today I saw a plastic bag containing garbage thrown on
the street by someone. My own principle is not to use plastic.
I used to go with a cloth bag while shopping. I used to advise
others not to use plastic. But nobody listens . . . They pack their
domestic waste and garbage in a plastic bag and simply throw it
on the corner of the street while they go to work or shopping.
People are too lazy to use a broom and a box to keep separate
the biodegradable and plastic materials. Even the people going
to work (educated) come out of their house, keeping their hand-
bag in one hand and a plastic bag filled with garbage in the
other hand. They never bothered about the dustbins; they sim-
ply throw the garbage on the corner of the street . . . due to plas-
tic covers, the heat is increased; it blocks the water flow also.
(Sharada, Female, Urban)
Environmental issues are not distant, but a day-to-day real-
ity. Quote 3 (Table 2) illustrates neighborhood practices at the
near/local distance and how they affect survival, and quality of
life at an immediate distance (i.e., in one’s own household),
workplace or nearby. A participant relates how plastic usage
affects the immediate environment (see Figure 1). The impact
is immediate in time and space (Quote 4, Table 2). Even distant
environmental factors such as weather conditions and rainfall
have a proximal impact to lives and livelihoods as illustrated
by Quote 5 (Table 2). Similarly, heavy rains have a dispropor-
tionately negative impact on poor urban neighborhoods due to
bad roads, and poor drainage and sanitation that have immedi-
ate economic implications.

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14 Journal of Macromarketing 34(1)

Table 3. Coping Strategies in Subsistence Marketplaces.

Quote
Number Strategies Illustrative Quotes

17 Control at Immediate ‘‘I stopped the use of plastic items. I collect the garbage from my house and dispose of it at the dustbin
Distance erected by the corporation. I use the brinjal, tomato, and chili seeds, which otherwise would become
waste while preparing the vegetables for the preparation of food, to spread at the corner and side
floor of the wall at my house. Sometimes the seeds yield more . . . I try my level best to walk to the
places where I want to go and avoid using vehicles.’’ – Bhuvaneswari, Female, Urban
18 Control at Immediate ‘‘My own practice to prevent the pollution in the house is . . . I would choose the light color or white
Distance color cloth to stitch window curtains. I always use a variety of cloth containing micro holes to filter the
dust from the air. The minute holes in the curtain cloth will enable free flow of air as well as filter the
dust. You look at the cloth after three or four days and find layers of dust.’’ – Nandini, 41, Female,
Urban
19 Making ‘‘We would collect the waste cloths from the tailor shop and make pillow covers and mats. We use
to make cloth bags from the old pants.’’ – Selvi, 39, Female, Urban
20 Foregoing ‘‘We cannot buy dresses all the time or whenever we wish to do so. We can buy new dress only for
festivals and during any important family functions. . . . depending on the income we budget for
dresses. We will buy dresses only for children, if our income is not sufficient. Because, their happiness
is central for us, as adult can understand the situation and compromise.’’ – Pankajam, Female, Urban
21 Cross-Using/Making ‘‘We have coconut trees in our compound. We make broomsticks from the coconut leaves grown
from our trees.’’ – Selvi, 39, Female, Urban
22 Cross-Using ‘‘Cow we use for milk, for getting manure for the farm. The cow dung we take to the farm and make
it as manure. The milk we use and apart from that we also sell at the society. Apart from what we
need for use if we sell at the society once in ten days, they make the payment which is also useful
. . . the main reason is that we get manure from the dung for the farm and apart from the milk used
at the house we sell it at the society and make a little extra money for house hold expenses.’’ –
Sanjeevan, Male, Rural
23 Reducing ‘‘If you take the food for example, we can have non-vegetarian food even for four days a week. But,
we restrict it to have only one day a week to save money. I try to reduce my own expenses such as
fuel and travel cost. Earlier, I used a two-wheeler or hired an auto to attend all my tasks.’’ –
Venkatesan, 37, Male, Urban
24 Reusing ‘‘I wouldn’t hesitate to use the old saree that was used by my sister . . . I would use the clothes or
dresses very gently so they would last for years.’’ – Selvi, 39, Female, Urban
25 Reusing ‘‘We wouldn’t waste even the water used to wash and clean the rice before cooking. We will keep
this rice-washed water for some time for dilution. We will remove the sluggish and precipitated
contents and use the diluted water for the preparation of gravy and side dishes. We will use the
remaining waste water for other purposes such as watering the plants, etc.’’ – Selvi, 39, Female,
Urban
26 Reusing/Cross-using ‘‘We wouldn’t waste any materials. For example, we had a damaged and rusted iron cot. When we
tried to dispose of it, we were offered only Rs.50/- as the cost of old iron. So, we converted it as a
lid for the water tank and saved money. It protects the tank water from contamination through
dust forming or birds’ excreta.’’ – Selvi, 39, Female, Urban
27 Harvesting ‘‘I have made arrangements to ensure that the rainwater that fell on the roof enters the well through
erected pipes. I wouldn’t allow the rainwater to be wasted. When we have continuous rain we collect
the rainwater and use it for domestic purposes.’’ – Selvi, 39, Female, Urban
28 Relating to the ‘‘We would do these ourselves without hiring any external labor, whether it is cleaning of our
Environment sewage system or renovating the well. We get fresh air around our house as we grow all these
plants and trees. We can make simple dishes from these vegetables and herbal plants.’’ – Selvi, 39,
Female, Urban
29 Relating to the ‘‘Burning soap covers along with neem leaves will chase the mosquitoes. We use the waste covers from
Environment the soap we used and collect a few dry leaves, including neem leaves, from the tree near the house to
burn and chase out the mosquitoes in the late evening.’’ – Bhuvaneswari, Female, Urban
30 Relating to the ‘‘We should try to keep our environment clean and protect our family members from diseases. It
Environment would help us to reduce the medical expenses . . . as an individual, we can’t do anything to control
or contain the air pollution. The number of vehicles is increasing day by day; controlling this is not
in my hands. We can grow plants and creepers, if we have a little space. We can prevent the
breeding of mosquitoes which is a major hazardous in the city if we avoid the stagnation of water
around our living places.’’ – Venkatesan, 37, Male, Urban
31 Collective Action ‘‘We can collect water from the well for domestic use. If we face any water scarcity, we will report it
to the ruling party man. They will approach the authorities and arrange the potable water through
water tankers. It will be stored in a common potable tank and shared by our neighbors.’’ – Selvi,
39, Female, Urban

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Viswanathan et al. 15

Table 4. Bottom-Up Perspective on Sustainability.

Quote Element of
Number Sustenance Illustrative Quote

32 Survival ‘‘Currently, the water is a problem (due to rain), the supply is mixed (contaminated), and the water is the main
source to spread the diseases. The water from drainages is mixed with drinking water supply, so it is
contaminated.’’ – Chiranjeevi, 35, Male, Urban
33 Survival ‘‘There is no proper storage there also; suppose there is a rain and the paddy gets wet there will be no hope of
selling it, they will say the paddy is wet and ask us to take it back.’’ – Damodaran, 38, Male, Rural l
34 Relatedness ‘‘For example when we start farming we need to take care of the cows, they need straw. If we grow ground
nuts then the plants can be used as fodder for the cattle and the goats, so we consider that at least for the
sake of the cattle we have grown this crop.’’ – Selvarasan, Male, Rural
35 Relatedness ‘‘Suppose we are spending the capital from our money alone then we can wait till we get a good rate for the
produce and then sell it. But suppose we have borrowed from others and used it then we cannot afford to
wait. So rather than wait for the three or four months and get that five rupees extra we just sell it as soon
as we get the harvest and settle the loans.’’ – Selvarasan, Male, Rural
36 Relatedness ‘‘Yes, some people do like that also, they note how the neighbor grows a crop and if it was good they follow that
method themselves. In this season the conditions for growth will be common, and the neighbor can be
helpful, mainly the pest control will be uniform and better, so they discuss and do it.’’ – Sanjeevan, Male, Rural
37 Relatedness ‘‘I will get the money from my friend and return it when I get my money, sometimes take money from
someone who can give and the rest we manage our own funds. Even now we spent 15000 for the crop, I
have borrowed ten thousand from my friend and I will return it to him in about 2 or three months, that is
how we manage.’’ – Sanjeevan, Male, Rural
38 Growth ‘‘Yes, the main reason is that we get manure from the dung for the farm and apart from the milk used at the
house we sell it at the society and make a little extra money for house hold expenses.’’ – Selvarasan, Male,
Rural
39 Growth ‘‘As far as education is concerned, the government is doing well and encourages female children to continue
their education through providing education materials including free bicycle to travel to school. We should
prepare our next generation with awareness on the importance of education, clean air, etc. to manage
their future.’’ – Bhuvaneswari, Female, Urban
40 Growth ‘‘In the village . . . there are computers and they want to do that, there are cell phones and many things like
that. Even though there is a shortage of labor in farming and increase in the cost of labor, most of the
children prefer studies’’ – Sanjeevan, Male, Rural
41 Growth ‘‘My children are studying in 4th std. Computers is one of their subject. They used to operate the computer as
part of their subject. If they feel that they need computer, I would consider the purchase of computer for
them. Neither have I learnt about computers nor had opportunities to operate. But, I shouldn’t allow my
children to face lack of computer knowledge or opportunity. I would always consider my children’s needs,
they are my priority.’’ – Narasimhan, 37, Male, Urban
42 Survival and ‘‘If every parent provides education to their children and has a little savings for the next generation, they can
Growth manage the future. Education is the basic need for the survival of all. If they get good education, they can get
jobs and earn enough to meet their needs.’’ – Suseela, 48, Female, Urban
43 Survival and ‘‘ . . . It is better to go as a wage laborer. But if everyone decides to go as a wage laborer there will be no one
Growth left to pay for the sowing. For example when we start farming we need to take care of the cows, they need
straw, if we grow ground nuts then the plants can be used as fodder for the cattle and the goats, so we
consider that at least for the sake of the cattle we have grown this crop.’’ – Sanjeevan, Male, Rural
44 Survival and ‘‘I try to provide a good education and healthy food for our children. I dispose of the garbage carefully and
Growth maintain cleanliness. I try to practice with my children to walk instead of depending on vehicles. I encourage
them to exercise to maintain their physical health. I stopped the use of plastic items. I collect the garbage from
my house and dispose of it at the dustbin erected by the corporation.’’ – Bhuvaneswari, Female, Urban
45 Survival and ‘‘Society should enable its children to learn good habits and practices. Society should ensure that its children
Growth grow healthy and are protected from diseases and are provided with good education. They should be
taught the importance of protecting their environment. Society should encourage the younger generation
to grow with a social consciousness and plant trees, etc.’’ – Bhuvaneswari, Female, Urban
46 Survival and ‘‘Society is helpful to provide employment, if we approach the society and seek employment opportunity after
Relatedness sharing our family problems, they will give priority to us among the ten or fifteen already searching job. We
survive because of the cooperation from the society.’’ – Pankajam, Female, Urban
47 Relatedness and ‘‘There is no truth; truth is not prevailing in the society. Mother has no sincere affection for her child, children
Growth has no affection for their parents. It becomes like mechanical life, all become like machines . . . the reason is
over-expectations. People try to cheat when they have too high of expectations. For example, those who
are riding bicycles wish to acquire motorbikes, those who have bikes wish to get their own car, those who
have their own car wish to buy their own bungalow. Real affection is diluted while the level of expectations
increases.’’ – Nandini, 41, Female, Urban

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16
Figure 1. Pictures of Research Sites.
Currently, the water is a problem (due to rain), the supply is mixed
(contaminated), and the water is the main source to spread the dis-
eases. The water from drainages is mixed with drinking water supply,
so it is contaminated. (Chiranjeevi, 35, Male, Urban)
By the same token, local environmental resources often act
as safety nets during times of uncertainty leading to a proximal
relationship and consequently, a very concrete view of the
environment. There seems to be an orientation of nurturing,
with the immediacy of survival not always leading to disregard
of environment. In a rural setting where the local environment
is the source of livelihood, a farmer describes how land is nur-
tured, and reflects on how they relate to the land as they would
to a person (Quote 6, Table 2).
We cannot compare farming with business, because, we put our
faith in the land – ‘bhoomi’ (earth) – asking it to take care of
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Journal of Macromarketing 34(1)
us and we take care of it equally like our child. (Anand, 40, Male,
Rural)
Challenges – Moderate and Far. Both in rural and urban settings,
subsistence living entails close interaction and intimacy with
the near/local environment. People have an intuitive sense of
sustainability, which is attributable to the value placed on
scarce resources and the direct dependence on nature. The
subsistence farmer’s direct reliance on rain for his/her liveli-
hood is illustrative of this point. Again, this is in contrast to
relatively affluent settings where people can shield them-
selves in large part from the vagaries of nature, such as the
weather. Depending on nature for a variety of needs also leads
to this orientation about the moderate distance (societal level),
as an informant noted (Quote 7, Table 2). In a rural setting,
uncontrollable factors such as weather play a major role
(Quote 8, Table 2).
Viswanathan et al.
We grow groundnuts also, but at present it is not growing well
so, we feel frustrated when we think of groundnuts. That is the
easiest to grow, but because of the unseasonal rains and the
change in climatic patterns, we are not able to make profits
with that, even those who sowed now faced heavy loss. (Anand,
40, Male, Rural)
In terms of the moderate (societal) distance environment,
informants expressed concerns about unsustainable develop-
ment affecting local environments (Quote 9, Table 2). Partici-
pants linked development to erosion of social networks and
relatedness. They harken back to a previous time when there
was a thriving joint family system, and bemoan the lack of
neighborhood support in current times (Quote 10, Table 2). At
this moderate distance (societal level), an informant brought
up the issue of unsustainable governance and lack of account-
ability (Quote 11, Table 2). Informants talked about how certain
well-meaning government initiatives related to environmental
conservation had limited impact owing to reduced awareness
on the part of members in society. Informants discussed the neg-
ative impact of economic survival on pooled environmental
resources (Quote 12, Table 2). They also noted a central issue
that underlies sustainability at a societal level – unsustainable
material expectations. Living at or near subsistence, they are
able to recognize how central such expectations are to sustain-
ability, perhaps something likely to be taken for granted in more
affluent settings (Quote 13, Table 2).
There is no truth. Truth is not prevailing in the society. Mother
has no sincere affection for her child; children have no affec-
tion for their parents. It becomes like mechanical life, all
become like machines . . . the reason is over-expectations. Peo-
ple try to cheat when they have too high expectations. For
example, those who are riding bicycles wish to acquire motor-
bikes, those who have bikes wish to get their own car, those
who have their own car wish to buy their own bungalow. Real
affection is diluted while the level of expectations increases.
(Nandini, 41, Female, Urban)
At the broadest level in terms of the distant environment
(global level), informants expressed thoughts about nature
itself (Quote 14, Table 2). When informants had heard of global
warming or other global phenomena, they drew from an intui-
tive sense of the environment and nature (Quotes 15, 16,
Table 2).
All the smoke and pollution is the reason for climate change.
Also the overuse of electricity is one of the reasons for climate
change. It is good for each person to reduce their consumption
of electricity by their level best. We should avoid burning more
lights for more hours. Everyone should try to plant and grow
trees as much as possible. Government and society should help
us to achieve this through awareness. (Bhuvaneswari, Female,
Urban)
Challenges – Summary. The proximity of environmental chal-
lenges in subsistence living contrasts to relatively resource-
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17
rich settings where individuals and communities have the
ability to create distance from these problems. Those better
off can afford to live in cleaner surroundings, enact local reg-
ulations, and transport their garbage to landfills (Gattig and
Hendrickx 2007). The environmental justice literature under-
scores the powerlessness of poor communities in proactively
participating in decisions related to the environment (Capek
1993).
Whereas these distances we speak of are primarily spatial,
they also have approximate associations with other forms of
distance, referred to in the literature as psychological distances.
Distance can be differentiated along temporal, spatial, social
(‘‘happening to people like me’’), and probabilistic (hypotheti-
cality or how likely an event is) dimensions (Trope and Liber-
man 2010). In subsistence contexts, all these distances are
small when compared to relatively resource-rich contexts. As
noted in previous research, the ability to envision beyond the
immediate is restricted by cognitive constraints. Immediate and
near distances capture one’s social context, whereas the socie-
tal and global represent greater social distances, with the latter
two being further differentiated. Similarly, hypothetical dis-
tances also have an approximate association as immediate and
near distances represent high certainty, moderate (societal)
distances less certainty, and the farthest (global) distances the
least certainty. In the temporal dimension, immediate and near
spatial distance may be closely tied to the immediate and the
near term, whereas societal and global distance may seem
temporally more removed. Thus, what we describe originally
in terms of spatial distance may be associated with other
dimensions of psychological distance, with the immediate and
near distances representing relatively small psychological
distance and the moderate and farther spatial distances repre-
senting greater psychological distances.
In relatively resource-rich settings, environmental problems
are often isolated at a physical distance (Kanté 2004). They
may intrude in some forms such as pollution in large cities, but
are often perceived as impacting dissimilar others (low-income
communities, or inhabitants of poor nations). In addition, envi-
ronmental problems may be perceived in terms of broader
issues such as the rise in sea-level and warming temperatures
whose ill-effects are temporally thought to be somewhat distant
(years or decades away), and have levels of likelihood attached
to them rather than absolute certainty (Church et al. 2008). In
this regard, research in relatively resource-rich settings using
distances categorized as self, town, country, continent, and
world has shown perceptions of more serious environmental
problems at greater distances (Uzzell 2000).
Coping and Sustaining. The next area of findings relate to how
individuals cope (see Table 3). Despite the lack of control in
so many aspects of life, people find ways to cope and strive
to move to a sustainable future. The way they cope depends
on the distance from environmental issues and roughly corre-
sponds to the degree of control they can exert. The nearness
of challenges is roughly associated with the degree of control
that subsistence individuals can exert at least in a relative sense
18
as they respond and cope in day-to-day life. There are many
examples of coping at the immediate distance (Quote 17,
Table 3). Informants also engage in many household-level sus-
tainable practices for their immediate environment in order to
wrest back some control in what is essentially a mostly
uncontrollable near (local) environment that permeates the
immediate distance (Quote 18, Table 3).
I stopped the use of plastic items. I collect the garbage from my
house and dispose of it at the dustbin erected by the corporation.
I use the brinjal, tomato, and chili seeds, which otherwise would
become waste while preparing the vegetables for the preparation
of food, to spread at the corner and side floor of the wall at my
house. Sometimes the seeds yield more . . . I try my level best to
walk to the places where I want to go and avoid using vehicles.
(Bhuvaneswari, Female, Urban)
People also find ways to cope by reducing, reusing,
recycling, cross-using, and harvesting resources (Lehman and
Geller 2004; USEPA 2012). Additionally, making and simply
foregoing are other ways to cope as noted elsewhere in the lit-
erature (Quotes 19 and 20, Table 3) (Viswanathan et al. 2009).
Cross-use of limited available resources is a recurring theme
in the coping strategies displayed in both rural and urban con-
texts (Quotes 21 and 22, Table 3). Reducing or sometimes
even foregoing the use of resources is a strategy often adopted
in subsistence to address the issue of resource constraints
(Quote 23, Table 3). Reusing resources such as clothes and
water ensures that these limited resources are optimally used
(Quotes 24 and 25, Table 3). Proactively augmenting scarce
but important resources such as water by harvesting rainfall
is crucial (Quote 27, Table 3). Underlying these coping stra-
tegies is the issue of doing so much more with less. These cop-
ing strategies address various facets of life such as better
health, reduced expenditure, and better quality of life (Quote
26, Table 3).
We wouldn’t waste any materials. For example, we had a damaged
and rusted iron cot. When we tried to dispose of it, we were offered
only Rs.50/- as the cost of old iron. So, we converted it as a lid for
the water tank and saved money. It protects the tank water from con-
tamination through dust forming or birds’ excreta. (Selvi, 39,
Female, Urban, example of cross-use).
We cannot buy dresses all the time or whenever we wish to do so.
We can buy new dress only for festivals and during any important
family functions. . . . depending on the income we budget for
dresses. We will buy dresses only for children, if our income is not
sufficient. Because, their happiness is central for us, as adult can
understand the situation and compromise. (Pankajam, Female,
Urban, example of foregoing).
I wouldn’t hesitate to use the old saree that was used by my sister . . . I
would use the cloths or dresses very gently so they would last for
years. (Selvi, 39, Female, Urban, example of reusing).
I have made arrangements to ensure that the rainwater that fell
on the roof enters the well through erected pipes. I wouldn’t allow
the rainwater to be wasted. When we have continuous rain we
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Journal of Macromarketing 34(1)
collect the rainwater and use it for domestic purposes. (Selvi, 39,
Female, Urban, example of harvesting).
Even in urban settings, the environment is something to be
nurtured for providing resources and benefits. Relating to the
environment is a key element in coping. Planting trees and
plants around the house, for example, not only enhances the
quality of air but also provides fresh vegetables and herbs for
cooking (Quote 28, Table 3). Given the extreme resource con-
straints in subsistence marketplaces, informants illustrated how
locally available herbs and waste materials are used to counter
serious health hazards from mosquitoes (Quote 29, Table 3).
We would do these ourselves without hiring any external labor,
whether it is cleaning of our sewage system or renovating the well.
We get fresh air around our house as we grow all these plants and
trees. We can make simple dishes from these vegetables and herbal
plants. (Selvi, 39, Female, Urban)
A central aspect of these coping strategies is that they
involve the very immediate environment (i.e., the household),
perhaps the only arena where there is some degree of control
(Quotes 17 and 18, Table 3). Informants speak to the need to
relate to the environment and nurture it at immediate and near
distances (Quote 30, Table 3). Whereas the reference to num-
ber of vehicles is both at local and societal levels, coping
relates back to the immediate distance. Collective action is
another aspect of coping for issues at near (local) distance
(Quote 31, Table 3).
We can collect water from the well for domestic use. If we face
any water scarcity, we will report it to the ruling party man.
They will approach the authorities and arrange the potable
water through water tankers. It will be stored in a common
potable tank and shared by our neighbors. (Selvi, 39, Female,
Urban)
Striving to Sustain – Sustenance through Survival, Relatedness, and
Growth. Our analysis suggested that, in enacting these coping
strategies, individuals strive to sustain three key elements – sur-
vival, relatedness, and growth (Table 4). In Figure 2, we iden-
tify and summarize these three arenas. The first arena is
physical survival, which includes covering very basic needs
such as food, water, shelter, sanitation, and clean air. The moti-
vation here is simply survival, having the basic necessities for
sustenance. Survival relates to a variety of physiological needs,
which, in turn, are dependent on the local environment. Envi-
ronmental degradation has a direct impact on health, quality
of life and a host of other issues related to basic physical sur-
vival. A number of examples above relate to physical survival
in terms of food, clean air, and other such necessities. As our
discussion to this point suggests, surviving in a physical sense
is a central aspect of what individuals strive to sustain through
coping (Quotes 32 and 33, Table 4).
Currently, the water is a problem (due to rain), the supply is
mixed (contaminated), and the water is the main source to
Viswanathan et al.
Figure 2. Bottom-up perspective on sustainability.
spread the diseases. The water from drainages is mixed with
drinking water supply, so it is contaminated. (Chiranjeevi, 35,
Male, Urban)
Another theme is relatedness, starting with basic identity
and extending to relationships with family, community, the
environment, and other entities. As shown by the one-to-one
interactional world of intensely personal interactions (Viswa-
nathan et al. 2012) and by the erosion of social networks with
unsustainable development emphasized in the earlier quotes,
this realm of relatedness provides the bulwark against the next
crises and a sense of identity in the face of lack of basic
resources. Relatedness is tied to the environment in a number
of ways, such as through the erosion of relationships with
development, or unsustainable material expectations that affect
relationships, or the erosion of cultural beliefs in the face of
materialism. In this regard, environmental degradation may
be perceived as ‘‘shared’’ by the households of close-knit com-
munities. Environmentally hazardous behaviors such as dispos-
ing of garbage on the streets may be weighed against the social
cost of harming relationships.
Relatedness also extends to the local environment itself as
earlier quotes on nurturing natural resources highlight. For
example, in rural settings farmers must take care of their live-
stock (Quote 34, Table 4). Relatedness plays a multi-faceted
role in subsistence. Neighboring farmers share information
on farming and also collaborate to guard against pest attacks,
which can have disastrous impact on their income (Quote 36,
Table 4). Relatedness also provides a buffer in times of cash
constraints (Quote 37, Table 4). Financial assistance from
friends and family becomes critical with limited access to
formal financial services.
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19
I will get the money from my friend and return it when I get my
money, sometimes take money from someone who can give and
the rest we manage our own funds. Even now we spent Rs.
15000 for the crop, I have borrowed ten thousand from my friend
and I will return it to him in about two or three months, that is how
we manage. (Sanjeevan, Male, Rural)
The final theme is growth, best captured by quotes about
striving for a better future for children through education.
Closest to the conventional notion of sustainability in an inter-
generational sense is the aspiration to move toward a better
future. If survival is based on finding a footing in terms of basic
physiological needs and relatedness is about identity, then
growth is about building on this foundation to reach for a better
future. A better environment for children to live in is implicit in
growth; although prominent in the quotes are the need for
growth in terms of education and quality of life. The theme
of growth refers to individuals passing sustainable practices
on to the next generation and is at the heart of sustainability
(Quotes 38, 39, 40, and 41, Table 4).
‘My children are studying in 4th std. Computers is one of their sub-
ject. They used to operate the computer as part of their subject. If
they feel that they need computer, I would consider the purchase of
computer for them. Neither have I learnt about computers nor had
opportunities to operate. But, I shouldn’t allow my children to face
lack of computer knowledge or opportunity. I would always con-
sider my children’s needs, they are my priority. (Narasimhan, 37,
Male, Urban)
Although growth needs are an important facet of sustaining
oneself, the present condition of subsistence often poses trade-
offs between growth and survival needs (Quote 42, Table 4).
Jobs with higher incomes could be foregone for the sake of pre-
serving the important safety net of livestock (Quote 43,
Table 4). Despite the lack of control in so many aspects of life,
people find ways to pass on sustainable practices to the next
generation (Quotes 44 and 45, Table 4).
I try to provide a good education and healthy food for our children.
I dispose of the garbage carefully and maintain cleanliness. I try to
practice with my children to walk instead of depending on vehicles.
I encourage them to exercise to maintain their physical health. I
stopped the use of plastic items. I collect the garbage from my
house and dispose of it at the dustbin erected by the corporation.
(Bhuvaneswari, Female, Urban)
Each of these elements interacts with the others. The imme-
diacy of survival may have a negative impact on relatedness if
cultural norms and traditions are more difficult to follow, but a
potentially positive impact if social support enables survival
(Quote 46, Table 4). Relatedness and growth may have a com-
plex relationship. Identity and belonging provide a foundation
for growth, but norms and expectations may inhibit growth and
the pursuit of opportunities (Quote 47, Table 4). Survival is, of
course, necessary for growth, but the pursuit of survival often
means focusing on the immediate while sacrificing medium
20
term growth opportunities. Thus, the bottom-up view of what
subsistence individuals strive to sustain is a complex interplay
between the need to survive and subsist in terms of basic, phy-
siological needs, the need to relate in terms of basic psycholo-
gical needs, and the need to move from subsistence toward a
more sustainable path through growth for oneself or the next
generation.
Society is helpful to provide employment, if we approach the soci-
ety and seek employment opportunity after sharing our family
problems, they will give priority to us among the ten or fifteen
already searching job. We survive because of the cooperation from
the society. (Pankajam, Female, Urban)
Placing this discussion in the context of extensive past
research (Kenrick et al. 2010), Maslow’s (1943) classic work
organizes the hierarchy in terms of immediate physiological,
safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization needs. The notion
of a hierarchy rather than primary and secondary drives is based
on cognitive and developmental priorities. Many researchers
have examined and modified the hierarchy, such as Kenrick
et al.’s (2010) updated hierarchy of fundamental human
motives – immediate physiological, self-protection, affiliation,
status/esteem, mate acquisition, mate retention, and parenting.
Alderfer (1972) categorized Maslow’s hierarchy into existence
(capturing physiological and safety needs), relatedness (captur-
ing safety, social, and self-esteem needs), and growth (captur-
ing self-esteem and actualization needs). Although almost
similar to the terminology we use, important distinctions dis-
cussed here relate to the grounding of these categories in the
reality of subsistence rather than in Maslow’s original hierar-
chy. In this regard, we generate a categorization of what subsis-
tence individuals strive to sustain in subsistence contexts. We
argue that a key set of needs relate to basic physical survival
encompassing physiological and safety aspects of the hierarchy.
Survival is the basis or the necessary condition in a sense for
thinking about what to sustain. Clearly, the issues listed under
this category can be further divided and placed in established
hierarchies of needs. The category of relatedness captures love
and esteem needs in the classic Maslow hierarchy of affiliation
and status/esteem in one of the later modifications.
As research on subsistence marketplaces shows, the need to
relate interacts constantly with the need to survive. Sometimes,
the need to survive in terms of basic physiological and safety
issues may mean an inability to participate in social relation-
ships, such as keeping up traditions that involve scarce
resources (Viswanathan 2007). Often, relationships bolster the
ability to survive. Included in the need to relate is how one’s
own identity and sense of dignity is closely tied to relatedness
in this one-to-one interactional world and the motivation to
survive. Survival and relatedness provide the foundation to
envision growth, whether for oneself or for the next generation,
through such means as education, and upward mobility.
Growth places individuals on a sustainable path, made possible
by first gaining some foothold through survival. Perhaps the
parallel here is to self-actualization, but it is not so much the
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Journal of Macromarketing 34(1)
realization of one’s full individual potential that is in focus.
Rather, the focus is on realizing some path that leads to growth
for one’s family in the immediate or medium term or for one’s
children in the longer term. Growth is fueled by the hope for a
better future, if not for oneself, then certainly for one’s chil-
dren. It captures the essence of a sustainable path. Self-
actualization, on the other hand, is a luxury that subsistence
individuals often cannot afford.
Efficacy and Motivation to Sustain at Different Distances. The dif-
ferent distances discussed earlier may have a complex relation-
ship with the themes of survival, relatedness, and growth. We
focus specifically on two sets of constructs. One is related to
control, self-efficacy (‘‘a person’s belief in his or her capability
to perform a given task’’; Boyd and Vozikis 1994, p. 66), and
response efficacy (Ajzen 1991; Bandura 1977). The other is
associated with motivation to act (Nicolaij and Hendrickx
2003; Pahl et al. 2005). Survival involves a minimal carbon
footprint, but entails the use of resources for the immediate
term, sometimes without considering the medium term (e.g.,
firewood and deforestation). Survival-related issues arise at
immediate and near distances. Whereas individuals exert some
control over the immediate, they lack much control over the
near distance, although perhaps having some collective effi-
cacy (‘‘social cohesion among neighbors combined with their
willingness to intervene on behalf of the common good’’;
Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls, 1997, p. 918) in addressing
local issues. Relatedness also manifests at immediate and near
distances and includes relating to the local environment and
one’s own community. Relatedness may lead to community
level action that may improve the local environment. Cultural
beliefs and traditions that arise in a relational context may both
enhance or potentially harm the environment as well. Survival
and relatedness are also needed in the immediate and near dis-
tances to negotiate the present.
Growth, however, pertains to longer term or temporally fur-
ther distances and may involve envisioning intermediate and
sometimes more removed spatial and social distances. With
an emphasis on a better life for the next generation, individuals
may consider societal and global issues. Yet, with an over-
whelming lack of control of near distances and the large local
environmental challenges, survival and relatedness may take
precedence over growth and its focus on intermediate and more
distant environmental issues. In the realm of growth, individu-
als may perceive some level of efficacy in engineering change
at greater distances.
We develop propositions about distance, efficacy and
motivation, which are summarized in Figure 3. The immediate
spatial distance is the arena where individuals possess relative
control and efficacy. It relates to basic survival, punctuating the
motivation to act, and pertains to relatedness in terms of
belonging and one’s own family. Physical survival and related-
ness go hand-in-hand in reinforcing their effects. Degree of
control and efficacy falls off moving to the local (near) distance
despite the immediate negative impacts as the local environ-
ment permeates the household. Nevertheless, there is room for
Viswanathan et al.
Figure 3. Levels of control and motivation as a function of perceived
spatial distance.
collective efficacy and the motivation to act, while lower, is
still at a moderate level. The immediate spatial distance also
includes social, hypothetical, and temporal distances, with
the combined effects of different types of distances perhaps
accentuating the total impact. In this regard, the research on
subsistence marketplaces reviewed earlier points to the empha-
sis on the here and now, arising from the survival impetus as
well as from cognitive constraints such as low literacy and con-
sequent concrete thinking.
In moving to greater spatial distances and considering the
societal and global levels, social and temporal distances grow
as well, with no control or efficacy. However, the growth
imperative in striving to sustain, which is at some temporal dis-
tance rather than immediate, as well as spatial distance in envi-
sioning moving to a better future in a better surrounding, may
lead to a moderate level of motivation to act for challenges
framed at societal and global levels. The discussion is summar-
ized in Figure 3 where perceived immediate, local, societal,
and global distances are represented on the horizontal axis and
levels of control and motivation on the vertical axis.
Comparing Subsistence to Relatively Resource-Rich Contexts. How
does our analysis contrast subsistence with relatively resource-
rich contexts? The biggest distinction between environmental
issues in advanced versus subsistence contexts is one of distance –
temporally, socially, spatially, and hypothetically. A burgeoning
literature on environmental psychology suggests that the
appraisal and importance of current environmental situations
are significantly discounted and the importance of the situations
decreases as distance from the perceiver increases (Nicolaij and
Hendrickx 2003; Pahl et al. 2005). In general, environmental
risks and their perceptions in advanced settings are psychologi-
cally distal, meaning that they are certainly uncertain, alienated
from ‘‘here and now,’’ and unlikely to affect selves and similar
others (Gattig and Hendrickx 2007). Therefore, environmental
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21
risks in advanced contexts are more likely to be mentally repre-
sented in remote and abstract terms, and their negative conse-
quences seem abstract and metaphoric as a result, not leading
to appropriate action. In other words, when environmental risks
and their negative consequences are psychologically distal,
one’s relevance and vulnerability to them would become weaker
and less immediate, lowering risk aversion and motivation to act
(Gifford et al. 2009; Loewenstein et al. 2001; Nicolaij and Hen-
drickx 2003; Pahl et al. 2005). In subsistence contexts, on the
other hand, environmental risks and their perceptions are psy-
chologically near, meaning that they are very certain, happen
‘‘here and now,’’ and very likely to affect selves and similar oth-
ers. As psychological distances are likely to be very small as
well, people would make concrete representations of environ-
mental events, which are deeply embedded in their daily lives.
Construal level theory (CLT hereafter) focuses on psycholo-
gical distance and its effect on mental representations of events,
attitudes, and behaviors (Trope, Liberman, and Wakslak 2007;
Trope and Liberman 2003). Such construals can be at relatively
high (abstract) or low (concrete) levels, the former being
decontextualized and representing the gist of events and the lat-
ter being contextualized and capturing specific details. Adapt-
ing from examples in the literature to an environmental
example, plastic disposal blocking sewage in a neighborhood
could be construed in terms of immediate aspects of the envi-
ronment such as filth and odor, or at a higher level in terms
of environmental degradation or in terms of health hazards.
Such abstraction involves omitting details and focusing on cer-
tain underlying features. The literature has described how such
abstraction can occur based on object categorization, traits, and
goal-directed actions (Trope, Liberman, and Wakslak 2007;
Trope and Liberman 2003, 2010).
CLT’s basic proposition is that the more psychologically
distant an event is the more abstract its representation (Trope
and Liberman 2010). Conversely, the closer an event is to
direct experience, the more concrete and detailed the represen-
tation stemming from direct knowledge of the here and now. A
spatial analogy would be viewing the planet earth from distant
space versus from close at hand where details of terrain and
geographic boundaries are discernible. What is discernible, in
turn, influences attitudes and behaviors. A close psychological
distance to an event or challenge leads to easier perception of
details and more concrete understanding of challenges. This
means specific problems and their consequences, as well as the
anticipated and actual results of actions, are more quickly and
tangibly felt, allowing one to evaluate the feedback (i.e., as
effective versus not effective, or working versus not working)
and respond in continuation, alteration, or termination of the
action to mitigate the problem.
Two competing explanations may be drawn from this situa-
tion in which environmental risks and their impact are near in
all dimensions of psychological distance, in contrast to
resource-rich settings in which they are often perceived to be
alienated from here and now, to happen to others, and to be
uncertain. More vivid and concrete mental representations of
environmental risks and their direct negative consequences in
22
the subsistence marketplaces would lead people to understand
their vulnerability to the risks and the urgent need to act against
(Damasio 2005; Nisbett and Ross 1980), therefore encouraging
them to behave accordingly (Slovic et al. 2005). On the other
hand, vivid and concrete representations of environmental risks
and their consequences may discourage individuals and reduce
their motivation to act. Such concrete representations of envi-
ronmental risks may spill over onto representations about plan-
ning remedial behaviors, and lead people to put greater weight
on the feasibility (i.e., the means or how) than on the desirabil-
ity of remedial behaviors. These concrete mental representa-
tions in planning remedial behaviors and cognitive tendencies
toward concrete thinking stemming from the low literacy and
low income may combine to lead to the predominance of fea-
sibility rather than desirability of remedial actions. Noteworthy
here is the chronic and overwhelming nature of low-quality
environments in subsistence coupled with individual level
constraints. This may lead people to reject goals seemingly
difficult to achieve (Freitas, Gollwitzer, and Trope 2004; Trope
and Liberman 2010), in turn engendering shortsightedness,
inefficacy, and inaction. The extreme constraints that people
experience in subsistence marketplaces may inhibit them from
exercising their agency to translate their motivation to act
against environmental risks into actual behaviors.
Taken together, these considerations argue against eco-
psychological findings in resource-rich settings that people
have greater behavioral intentions for remedial actions when
environmental risks are psychologically proximal. For exam-
ple, low levels of psychological distances (greater proximity)
have been found to be associated with an increase in concern
for climate change (Spence, Poortinga, and Pidgeon, 2012).
Rather, as our data suggest, coping takes the form of small
solutions in one’s own home (i.e., the immediate environment),
to try to minimize the harmful effects of the immediate and
near (i.e., local environment) in a small way. When feasibility
dominates the evaluation of actions at a near distance with
overwhelming lack of control, it may lower behavioral inten-
tions, while actually increasing such intentions for more distant
psychologically distant phenomena (e.g., global warming).
The farther rather than closer psychological distance of
environmental risks may be central to increasing subsistence
individuals’ engagement in remedial actions. Level of control
and associated efficacy is, thus, an important variable to con-
sider for immediate, near and distant environments on the spa-
tial dimension. The growth motivation for subsistence contexts
and the overwhelming challenges with the local environment
and the lack of control over it in immediate and near distances
may lead to a greater motivation to act for farther distances then
for those in resource-rich contexts.
Discussion
Our micro-level research provides the foundation for a number
of macro-level implications that are firmly rooted in the mate-
rial and psychological realities of subsistence marketplaces. Our
delineation of different spatial distances and dimensions of
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Journal of Macromarketing 34(1)
psychological distances, and associated motivation and control,
offers a more nuanced view to explain the complex behaviors
observed in subsistence marketplaces in connection with the
environment. This differs starkly from broad generalizations
found in the literature from some decades ago that characterize
this population as merely survival-focused and short-term
oriented (Lewis 1966). Whereas people in subsistence market-
places are more likely to act on their immediate needs (Viswa-
nathan 2011), this does not suggest that only one simple
dimension exists, or that individuals in subsistence market-
places fail to see farther distances. As with other settings, differ-
ent spatial dimensions exist in subsistence marketplaces and
often interact with one another (Viswanathan et al. 2012). In
light of the complex relationship between different motivations
at varying distances and their consequent actions, macromark-
eters and policymakers need to recognize and address each of
the levels of spatial distance as well as the various dimensions
of psychological distance and their interactions.
Despite resource constraints, people do not make decisions
based solely on the immediate and the economically beneficial,
but consider conflicting motivations at different spatial dis-
tances. But they are often only able to act at the immediate
level due to bare survival necessities and lack of control over
farther distances. However, in making impossible trade-offs,
people still strive to keep certain domains, such as children’s
education, in the set of choices that cannot be compromised.
Even under resource constraints, people plan for the future
through sacrifices and investments at immediate distance.
Environmental sustainability does not necessarily come at
the cost of immediate economic gains. Whereas a growing
population and scant material resources often lead people to
consume in unsustainable ways for survival, they realize the
value of environmental sustainability and are able to make
decisions that create synergy between economic gains and sus-
tainability at the immediate and to a lesser extent near dis-
tances. In the following sub-sections, we develop specific
implications of this research for macromarketers.
Bottom-Up Orientation. In this research, we adopt a bottom-up
approach in studying the relationship between poverty and the
environment with an emphasis on consumption and conserva-
tion exemplified in the subsistence marketplaces literature
(Viswanathan et al. 2012). Macro-economic approaches focus
on structural issues and highlight broad relationship patterns
(Vu 2010). Our bottom-up method complements these studies
by focusing on the nuanced interplay between psychological
and ecological factors for consumption and conservation in
contexts of poverty. The literature on ecology highlights the
importance of reciprocal interactions between humans, the
local setting, and the broader social context (Bronfenbrenner
1977). Our bottom-up approach captures the contextually
embedded nature of behavior in poverty and advances under-
standing that is firmly rooted in the everyday reality of individ-
uals living in poverty. Prior research on poverty has
underscored the importance of obtaining a deep understanding
of the life circumstances of individuals and the broader socio-
Viswanathan et al.
cultural context in which they operate (Viswanathan et al.
2012).
Research in cross-cultural psychology has highlighted
differences in the cognitive predilections of individuals from
different cultures. For example, Nisbett et al. (2001) find that
individuals from diverse cultures not only differ in their
beliefs, but also in their information processing strategies.
This stream of literature has furthered our collective under-
standing of psychological factors across cultures and has also
enriched existing theories. The authors maintain that socio-
cognitive systems of thought capture the influence of social
factors on cognition. A similar argument could be advanced
for ‘‘econo-cognitive’’ systems of thought where cognition
differs across economic strata, as well as across different
interactions with the environment.
Community Empowerment and Education. We argue that, in
subsistence, the perceived level of control will diminish at a
rapid rate with increases in perceived spatial distances. This
decrease in level of control could curtail proactive measures
to nourish or preserve the environment, especially at the near
and societal levels. Prior research has shown perceived level
of control to be an important factor in exercising human agency
(Bandura 1986). Consequently, we argue that empowering
local communities to participate in decision-making about the
management of their own environmental resources will
enhance outcomes.
In her book, Governing the Commons, Elinor Ostrom (1990)
enumerates instances ranging from communal tenure systems
in Switzerland to irrigation communities in Philippines where
collective management of common environmental resources
has worked. However, empowering decision making should
be coupled with environmental literacy programs at the com-
munity level, which focus not only on strategies for preserving
or nurturing the environment, but also on the more abstract
questions of ‘‘why’’ it is important to preserve or nurture the
environment. Such literacy programs can spawn from colla-
borations between governmental, business, and civil society
organizations (Selsky and Parker 2005). These cross-sector
social partnerships, or CSSPs, can assist in creating an under-
standing of ‘‘why’’ nurturing the environment is critical. Span-
ning different distances, the ‘‘why’’ is fundamentally difficult
for low-literate individuals to grasp given their tendency toward
concrete thinking, accentuated by the need to survive the imme-
diate time-frame. Prior research on subsistence consumers and
entrepreneurs reveals the challenge faced by subsistence entre-
preneurs and consumers to focus on abstract ‘‘why’’ questions
as opposed to the more concrete ‘‘how’’ questions (Viswanathan
et al. 2009), arguing for the need to concretize, localize, and
socialize education. Based on our findings, we argue that
empowering the community to have a say in managing their own
environmental resources coupled with community level environ-
mental literacy programs focusing on both the ‘‘how’’ and
‘‘why’’ of environmental sustainability will go a long way in
enhancing the collective efficacy of the community in managing
their environment.
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23
Local Solutions. Our research captures multifarious, locally
evolved practices, such as reuse, recycle, cross-use, making,
foregoing, and harvesting. These locally sustainable practices
are important sources of learning for designing solutions for
environmental preservation in subsistence marketplaces. Local
solutions work because they are harmonious with the material
and socio-cultural realities of poor communities. Consequently,
systematic efforts on the part of macromarketers to understand
and promote local solutions could have far-reaching impact.
This strategy of harnessing innovative practices evolved by the
community could go hand-in-hand with the more top-down sys-
tem level solutions suggested in the literature. The diversity of
subsistence marketplaces across geographies poses daunting
challenges in understanding contextual specificities and design-
ing relevant solutions. In a seminal article, Hayek (1945) argues
the impossibility of obtaining specific knowledge on the part of
centralized entities and advocates more decentralized decision-
making. In a similar vein, we propose viewing communities as
equal partners in addressing environmental problems. Such a
mindset of mutual learning in subsistence marketplaces has also
been advocated in the context of business solutions (Viswa-
nathan et al. 2012).
Ameliorating Survival Pressures. Our model emphasizes the cen-
trality of survival pressures on subsistence environmental
decision-making. Consequently, when faced with severe sur-
vival pressures environmental concerns could be relegated in
importance. Macromarketers can play an important role in
designing solutions that ameliorate the survival pressures faced
by the poor and thereby alter the nature of trade-offs. More
specifically, such outcomes could be achieved by designing
business models that reduce the financial risk to which the poor
are exposed. In the context of agriculture, where subsistence
farmers are exposed to a high degree of risk due to the vagaries
of weather conditions, crop insurance could significantly reduce
the financial threats they face. Catastrophic risk is an important
determinant of decision-making in these contexts. Subsistence
farmers are known to resort to several risk-mitigating strategies
including crop diversification, under-investment in risky modern
inputs, and livestock enterprises. The development economics
literature also underscores the importance of solutions such as
crop insurance and access to financing in reducing the risk faced
by subsistence farmers (Townsend 1995). Given the importance
of risk exposure, the challenge for macromarketers is to develop
business models for risk mitigating solutions that are accessible,
affordable, and relevant in subsistence marketplaces. In this
regard, the subsistence marketplaces literature proposes a
number of strategies for macromarketers to design products and
solutions for the low-income markets (see Viswanathan and
Sridharan 2012).
From Trade-offs to Synergies among Survival, Relatedness and
Growth. Our research shows that people in subsistence market-
places understand the importance of their relationships with oth-
ers and the environment in order to bolster their survival both in
the short- and long-terms. They also grasp the importance of
24
growth to improve quality of life for themselves and the next
generation. However, given imminent threats to survival, they
often make trade-offs among survival, relatedness, and growth,
engaging in behaviors that erode community and employ
resources unsustainably. These trade-off relationships pose a
dilemma that practitioners in business, government, and social
enterprises must address. How can practitioners use macromar-
keting insights to help the poor survive without compromising
relatedness and growth? On one hand, if there exists a false
trade-off due to shortsighted valuing the present over the future,
solutions can focus on education to enable people in subsistence
marketplaces to view relationships among survival, relatedness
and growth from a long-term perspective and understand syner-
gistic relationships. On the other hand, if trade-offs are inevitable,
researchers and practitioners should understand the complexity
and interconnectedness of issues of survival, relatedness, and
growth as a basis to design and implement solutions that minimize
negative outcomes.
In conclusion, our bottom-up study of micro-behavioral
issues at the intersection of poverty and the environment
provides unique insights on the interplay between spatial and
psychological distances in real and perceived environmental
challenges, the nature of coping strategies in arenas of suste-
nance, and outcomes in terms of perceived efficacy and moti-
vation to action. In turn, these issues provide rich insights for
designing macro-level policy and solutions. For instance, a
bottom-up notion of sustainability that is grounded in field
research, leads to the tensions and synergies between surviving,
relating, and growing. In contrast, a top-down notion of people,
planet, and profit would lack the granularity and grounding to
both understand the phenomenon from the appropriate vantage
point and detail, and to provide a basis for designing solutions
in terms of broad outlines as well as specificity.
Research Limitations
The fieldwork for this research was conducted in rural and
urban Tamil Nadu, India, in order to capture both commonal-
ities and differences across rural and urban contexts. The num-
ber of informants was small, with relatively fewer interviews in
rural settings. We adopted an emic perspective on issues of sus-
tainability in subsistence contexts, examining a phenomenon as
an interconnected whole, as opposed to an etic perspective,
which attempts to understand a phenomenon as relationships
between constructs isolated by the researcher (Morris et al.
1999). Our motivation, as evidenced by the bottom-up orienta-
tion, has been to explore the issue of sustainability from the
participant’s perspective, privileging the meaning participants
confer to their realities and the responses that are thereby
evoked (McCaslin and Scott 2003). Although an emic perspec-
tive enables us to study the phenomenon embedded within
socio-cultural and historical factors, we acknowledge that sub-
sistence contexts across geographies could vary on factors such
as social stratification, inter-group relations, and political
stability, as noted in prior research (Viswanathan 2010). Our
objective with this study is not to draw broad generalizations, but
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Journal of Macromarketing 34(1)
on the contrary, to advance a well-rooted conceptualization of
sustainability in subsistence marketplaces as an interconnected
whole, which supplements the reductionist approaches prevalent
in the literature. Consequently, despite being embedded within
contextual peculiarities, our research design and perspective
serves our goals for this research.
Another limitation was the exclusion of other stakeholders,
such as non-profit organizations and governmental entities,
as informants. Such triangulated data would enable a fuller
picture of the phenomenon. Our goal, given a bottom-up focus,
was to begin with those who survive and subsist in these envir-
onments. However, future research should explore other sources
of data as well.
Future Research
Our research uncovers many areas that future research should
investigate. First, we offer a broad picture of how individuals
in subsistence marketplaces negotiate the tradeoffs associated
with environmental sustainability, survival, growth, and relat-
edness needs. Our analysis provides a broad psychological
framework to examine specific and substantive issues such as
pollution and health, irrigation and food security, climate
change, and livelihood. These issues are of prime concern to
the wellbeing of individuals in subsistence marketplaces and
research focused on these specific domains can inform both
theory and practice by shedding greater light on behavioral
determinants. Second, our research offers preliminary insights
into the processes adopted by individuals in subsistence to
navigate the real and immediate threats posed by environmen-
tal challenges. Process research investigating the sequence of
activities employed by individuals to address environmental
challenges will further deepen our understanding and offer rich
insights for studying more affluent contexts where environ-
mental challenges are more distant and abstract. Third, our
research has focused on individuals in subsistence and individ-
ual psychological tendencies in relation to the environment.
Prior research on subsistence marketplaces offers many insights
on how individuals overcome constraints, both individual, con-
straints such as access to capital, and contextual, such as infra-
structure (Viswanathan et al. 2010, 2012). Whereas our
research focused on consumption and conservation, a focus on
marketplace interactions relating to the environment would
uncover tensions and synergies between the one-to-one intensely
social marketplace interactions and environmental elements.
Consequently, research focused on the role of subsistence mar-
ketplace exchange in addressing the environmental challenges
promises to be a rich area of future inquiry. In this regard, a focus
on dependent variables such as purchase intention and relation-
ship endurance would be very useful. Fourth, as pointed out in
the research limitations section, more comparative research
across subsistence marketplaces in emerging contexts such
as Asia and Africa, and in subsistence marketplaces within
developed contexts such as United States and Europe, will
go a long way in furthering our understanding of the role
played by socio-cultural and political factors in influencing
Viswanathan et al.
the human-environment nexus. In conclusion, a bottom-up
approach to developing micro-level behavioral insights pro-
vides a basis to derive macromarketing implications of conse-
quence to researchers and practitioners.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, author-
ship, and/or publication of this article.
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Author Biographies
Madhu Viswanathan is the Diane and Steven N. Miller Professor in
Business, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He earned a B.
Tech (Mech. Engg, IIT, Madras, 1985), and a PhD (Marketing, Univer-
sity of Minnesota, 1990). His research and teaching are on measurement/
research methods, and literacy, poverty, and subsistence marketplaces.
He founded the Subsistence Marketplaces Initiative (www.business.illi-
nois.edu/subsistence), creating unique synergies between research,
teaching, and social initiatives, and the Marketplace Literacy Project
(www.marketplaceliteracy.org), a non-profit providing marketplace
literacy education to low-income consumers and subsistence market-
places. He has received research, teaching, curriculum development,
social entrepreneurship, humanitarian, leadership, public engagement,
international achievement, and career achievement awards.
Kiju Jung is a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois, Urbana-
Champaign. His interests are in sustainability, consumer well-being,
and consumer behavior. He focuses on understanding how to embed
sustainability into human consumption practices. Additionally, Kiju
aims to explore human functioning and remedy human ill-being in sub-
sistence marketplaces using socio-psychological lenses. He also focuses
on the effects of power and gender in human interactions and in human-
nonhuman interactions in the context of consumption and survival.
Srinivas Venugopal is pursuing his doctoral degree in marketing at
the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and has a background
in social entrepreneurship. Srini’s research interests lie in the area of
poverty and sustainability. He explores poverty at the individual and
social level. At the individual level, Srini explores the impact of
resource constraints and uncertainty on consumer motivation, cogni-
tion, and behavior. At the societal level, he investigates the emergence
of business ecosystems in subsistence marketplaces.
Ishva Minefee is a doctoral student in International Business at the
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His research emphasizes
the influence of role models in new venture creation in subsistence
contexts. Additionally, he focuses on how nongovernmental organiza-
tions interact with communities and enact social change in poverty
settings. Ishva does work in a comparative, cross-country setting to
create deeper insights into global phenomena.
In Woo Jung graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign with a B.A. in Global Studies. He is currently pursuing a
Masters in Public Administration at the London School of Economics
and Political Science with a concentration in public policy and manage-
ment. His research interests include marginalized persons, community
and economic development, and human motivations and behavior.