The impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on subsistence consumers' well‐being and coping strategies: Insights from India and Bangladesh

• Published date: 01 March 2022
• Author: Shobod Deba Nath,Kazi Md. Jamshed,Javed M. Shaikh
• Date: 01 March 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12440

SPECIAL ISSUE

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on

subsistence consumers' well-being and coping

strategies: Insights from India and Bangladesh

Shobod Deba Nath

1

| Kazi Md. Jamshed

1

| Javed M. Shaikh

2

1

Department of International Business,

University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

2

Faculty of Management Studies,

Sankalchand Patel University, Visnagar,

India

Correspondence

Shobod Deb Nath, Department of

International Business, University of

Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh.

Email: shobod@du.ac.bd

Abstract

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the overall

well-being of consumers is disastrous. However, there

is limited understanding of how the COVID-19

situation affects consumer well-being and how subsis-

tence consumers mitigate well-being concerns and

unique stresses. Following an exploratory, qualitative

approach, 39 in-depth semi-structured interviews with

subsistence consumers were conducted in India and

Bangladesh. Findings from the thematic analysis reveal

that subsistence consumers experienced unique stresses

and hardships during COVID-19, which are unforeseen

transitory financial stress, psychosocial stress, and mar-

ketplace and consumption-related stresses. Drawing on

the appraisal theory of stress, our analysis of the data

identifies the co-existence of two emotion-focused

coping strategies—religiosity and social support—that

interplay to overcome their well-being concerns in the

emerging countries of India and Bangladesh. There-

fore, it may be of particular interest to managers

and policymakers who seek to address the severe

consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on socio-

economically subsistence consumers.

KEYWORDS

consumer well-being, coping strategies, COVID-19 pandemic,

subsistence consumers

Received: 14 November 2020 Revised: 21 December 2021 Accepted: 12 January 2022

DOI: 10.1111/joca.12440

© 2022 American Council on Consumer Interests.

180 J Consum Aff. 2022;56:180–210.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/joca

1|INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the lives of billions of people upside-down worldwide,

killed hundreds of thousands, intensified human mental stress and suffering, and destabilized

all sectors of economies. As of today (21 December, 2021), the total infected cases in India

and Bangladesh are 34,752,164 and 1,581,634 respectively (Worldometer, 2021). A growing

number of recent studies indicate enormous economic and social impacts of the pandemic

across the world such as poverty, unemployment, inequality, food insecurity, and serious

health security (Nicola et al., 2020; World Bank, 2020a). The vulnerability and risks of subsis-

tence consumers (SCs) during the pandemic have been much more severe than the conse-

quences for affluent consumers in South Asia (World Bank, 2020a). For instance, affluent

consumers have savings and access to credit markets (Godinho et al., 2017) even during the

pandemic (World Bank, 2020a). A report from the World Bank estimated that due to COVID-

19, 35.5 million more people could fall into extreme poverty in 2020 across South Asian coun-

tries (World Bank, 2020a). This new group has also been identified as SCs, which have further

been added to the 4 billion poor, also known as the bottom- or base-of-the-pyramid (BoP)

consumers (Azmat et al., 2021; Viswanathan, Rosa, & Ruth, 2010a; Viswanathan,

Sridharan, & Richie, 2010b). As per the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER),

there was a large drop in income of the BoP consumers (daily laborers' income fell by 75%)

due to COVID-19 (Kataria, 2021). Therefore, COVID-19 has severely affected SCs' spending

patterns and consumption habits (Sheth, 2020; World Bank, 2020a) in the subsistence mar-

ketplaces (SMs).

While a growing number of studies can be found in the area of consumer affairs in both the

affluent and SM contexts, in this paper, we focus on one knowledge gap, that is, SCs' well-being

concerns and their coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. We focus on this unique

gap for two main reasons. First, COVID-19 became a global crisis from March 2020 and this

rare event has affected almost all spheres of human life (Baker et al., 2020). This situation

comes with multiple uncertainties for SCs comprising physiological, financial, psychosocial,

marketplace, and consumption-related stresses. For example, art is one of the powerful symbols

of cultural heritage and an earning source among the tribal SCs in Mexico, Tanzania, and

Native America. However, in the pandemic, a new challenge concerns these consumers-entre-

preneurs' current inability to reach local markets both physically and electronically

(Chakrabarti, 2021). As such, the life events of SCs are full of twists and turns. In a similar vein,

recent research suggests that SCs do not possess the financial resources to prevent shocks

whereas affluent consumers can maintain their consumption practices either even during job

loss because they can draw resources from their savings or from the credit market

(Venugopal, 2021). In their studies on Indian SCs, Jagadale et al. (2021) have also argued that

futurization is associated to sacrifice present comfort to reach a better future life in the affluent

context whereas it is quite opposite in the subsistence context. For instance, SCs are used to tol-

erate never-ending discomfort such as exploitation, discrimination and un-dignifying disrespect

because of the shackles of poverty and caste hierarchy systems (Jagadale et al., 2021). Besides,

negative social comparisons and stigmatization have detrimental impact on quality of life of

SMs (Farrell & Hill, 2018). Accordingly, SCs have been facing acute stress and challenges from

multiple sources that have raised further well-being concerns. Despite these concerns, scant

attention has been paid to investigating the impact of COVID-19 as a large crisis both in con-

sumer affairs in general and specific to SCs. Therefore, there is an urgent need for examining

SCs' well-being concerns during the on-going pandemic.

NATH ET AL.181