Appropriation of Community Knowledge Towards an Understanding of the Potential Harm and Benefits

In Base of the Pyramid (BoP) and subsistence marketplaces literature, a general consensus prevails that the process of creating solutions for the poor is most successful when marketers gain a local perspective. This paper highlights that, as companies seek this local perspective within impoverished communities, they can appropriate community knowledge. Drawing on research in the area of community knowledge, an area of growing importance that is all but missing from the marketing literature, this paper explicates key features of community knowledge. Appropriation of community knowledge can have potential benefits to communities, but also can cause social harm, including undermining financial, economic, and cultural safety, in the BoP community. The papers proposes a framework, bridging ethical and legal approaches, that guides marketers to consider consent, cognitive justice, capacity, and community impact in order to mitigate harm and generate social benefits.