From Subsistence Marketplaces Up, from General Macromarketing Theories Down: Bringing Marketing’s Contribution to Development into the Theoretical Midrange

Marketing researchers have recently begun exploring the specific context of subsistence marketplaces in developing and emerging economies using a bottom-up approach. Such literature offers an increasing number of conceptual frameworks and theoretical approaches derived from or inspired by a sound understanding of the real-life contexts of subsistence marketplaces. This article draws attention to a complementary top-down approach that begins from basic thinking on marketing’s contribution to development and, through midrange theories, eventually connects with bottom-up insights into subsistence marketplaces. The top-down approach helps create a unique theoretical midrange for development-oriented research in marketing that is complementary to other disciplines in the development debate. A bottom-up and top-down shaped theoretical midrange promises transformative interventions that can attend to the specific context at hand, while connecting with basic marketing principles on development.