Twenty-five Years of Management Research on Poverty: A Systematic Review of the Literature and a Research Agenda
Stefanidis, A.; Casselman, M. & Horak, S. (2022).
Twenty-five
Years of Management Research on Poverty: A Systematic Review of the Literature
and a Research Agenda. Business Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility,
inpress.
DOI: 10.1111/beer.12503
Link:
https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12503
Abstract
Despite significant economic growth in both developed and emerging markets,
several disadvantaged and marginalized segments of the global population still
live in poverty. Recognizing the important role of business in alleviating
poverty, management scholars have been increasingly investigating the topic of
poverty. Although reviews of the extant literature have provided overviews of
select poverty-related themes, such as that of the base of the pyramid, no one
study has reviewed the topic of poverty across the management literature. The
present systematic literature review collects, organizes and analyzes several
hundred articles on poverty research, published in business and management
journals during the past twenty-five years. The study identifies major themes in
poverty research, reveals thematic overlaps among subdisciplines, summarizes
adopted research methodologies and recognizes opportunities for future research.
We find that, despite the wide variation of research topics and approaches, the
studied themes remain relatively insulated within each subdiscipline of
management research. Drawing on United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals,
we conclude that, although the number of articles on poverty has increased
considerably during the last decade, there are several research niches that
future management scholars can investigate to alleviate one of the most pressing
global challenges of our time.
Keywords
Poverty, business ethics, base of the pyramid, social entrepreneurship working
poor, microfinance, corporate social responsibility.