Development of an Innovation Adoption Framework in a Low-Income Market

Abstract Research on innovation and the low-income market has focused primarily on product development and marketing management, taking a top-down approach, from business to consumer. From the individual’s point of view, little attention has been paid to understanding the adoption of innovation by low-income consumers. This article aims to present the development of a framework for innovation adoption by low-income consumers assuming a bottom-up approach, focusing mainly on consumers and their structural and individual constraints found in the context of poverty. The theoretical assumptions underlying the framework are the constraints faced by market consumers at the base of the pyramid, which include low income, lack of information, knowledge and confidence. In order to find alternatives to minimize this effect, we searched in the literature for factors that could influence this effect. As a result, the paper presents a theoretical framework that seeks to show the relationship between the constraints in the low-income market and its influence on innovation adoption. Based on the supposition this is a negative relationship, the framework presents variables supported by literature on innovation and low-income markets, which can influence this main effect.