How the poor in a developing country view business' contribution to quality-of-life 5 years after a national economic crisis

Abstract

This study proposes and tests a three-step model of business' contribution to quality of life 5 years after a devastating national economic crisis in a developing country. The model incorporates both a beneficent dimension of the marketplace (represented by consumer attitude toward marketing - CATM) and a non-maleficent dimension (represented by consumer trust for market-related institutions - CTMRI). This study compares how the poor and the non-poor draw differently on these two dimensions in forming their perceptions about how business contributes to their quality of life. Beginning with the exogenous construct attitude toward changes in marketing practices since the last economic crisis (5 years ago), this study 1) proposes a causal model that introduces a first-order construct - Business' Contribution to My Quality of Life (BCM-QOL), and 2) explains how BCM-QOL serves as a mediator between marketplace perceptions of both beneficence and non-maleficence and quality of life. Results reveal differences between how the poor and the non-poor in a developing country think about the effects of market changes after an economic crisis. Consumers living below the Turkish poverty line, although not within the UN-defined ranks of the global poor (e.g., 2 per-day earnings) tend to see their place in the market in a manner similar to subsistence consumers. © 2009 Elsevier Inc.