Global Virtual Immersion in a Post-Covid World: Lessons Learned in Moving from Sympathy to Informed Empathy in Subsistence Marketplaces

ABSTRACT

We describe lessons learned from one-and-a-half decades of global virtual immersion practices in subsistence marketplaces, and explore implications for international business teaching and learning in the post-pandemic world. Global virtual immersion refers to bottom-up learning experiences, typically in contexts much different than what we may be familiar with, without being physically present in a specific geographic location. “Bottom-up” learning connotes learning from actual ground-level reality rather than the opposite, “top-down” reliance on prior knowledge. The aim of global virtual immersion is to move learners from sympathy – a most natural human emotion in response to poverty and suffering, to informed empathy, developing an understanding of subsistence marketplaces in different countries through a variety of means. Students, thus, broaden their global horizons, paving the way for additional learning and perhaps actual immersion, where possible. This process is particularly relevant as global contexts are so diverse and often elude generalities, and more so at lower income levels. This “bottom-up” approach for understanding subsistence marketplaces enables a better appreciation of the environmental realities, social contexts, market-level exchange systems, and individual behaviors of subsistence consumers and entrepreneurs, providing a particularly important learning approach for international business education across geographically diverse settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Global virtual immersion
• sympathy
• informed empathy
• subsistence marketplaces
• post-pandemic world

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ The subsistence marketplaces stream has evolved over the last two decades, adopting a bottom-up approach to study those living with the least material resources around the world, in their own right rather than as means to other ends. Our approach begins at the micro-level of life circumstances of consumers and entrepreneurs living in the broad range of low income, taking a bottom-up, inside-out approach. The term, marketplaces, rather than markets, is a constant reminder to respect these preexisting marketplaces and be humble in unlearning our own preconceptions and learning from those who survive each day in these contexts. We have developed unique research about such contexts, education about these subsistence marketplaces for students, and education for these communities through marketplace literacy that has now reached more than 100,000 women in four continents.

² Details about this course are available on request.

³ A synthesis of research in subsistence marketplaces can be found in Subsistence Marketplaces (Viswanathan 2013).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Madhu Viswanathan

Madhu Viswanathan (B.Tech, Mechanical Engineering, IIT, Madras, 1985; Ph.D. (Marketing), University of Minnesota, 1990) is Professor of Marketing, College of Business Administration at Loyola Marymount University in 2019, and Professor Emeritus, Gies College of Business, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His research programs are on measurement, and subsistence marketplaces, where he has authored several books including Measurement Error and Research Design (Sage, 2005), Enabling Consumer and Entrepreneurial Literacy in Subsistence Marketplaces (Springer, 2008), Subsistence Marketplaces (2013), and Bottom-Up Enterprise (2016). He pioneered the area of subsistence marketplaces, a bottom-up approach to poverty and marketplaces (www.business.illinois.edu/subsistence). He teaches courses on research methods, subsistence, and sustainability reaching thousands of students in-person and on-line. He founded and directs the Marketplace Literacy Project (www.marketplaceliteracy.org), pioneering marketplace literacy education that has reached more than 100,000 women across four continents. He has received numerous awards and served on the Livelihoods Advisory Board of UNHCR.

Arun Sreekumar

Arun Sreekumar is Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He earned his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to doctoral studies, he worked for many years in India and East Africa, supporting the businesses of low-income micro-entrepreneurs. Arun's research examines the behavior of consumers and entrepreneurs in marketplaces characterized by resource constraints and inequality. The goal of his research is to improve the welfare of individuals with the least access to social and economic opportunities. His research has appeared in leading marketing journals (such as Journal of Marketing, European Journal of Marketing, and Journal of Consumer Affairs). Arun teaches courses on new product development and entrepreneurial marketing. He has also taught in executive training programmes for various national and multinational companies.

Ronald Duncan

Ron Duncan serves as a Senior Lecturer in the College of Business Administration at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He also holds a position of lecturer in the School of Earth, Society and Environment at the University of Illinois, Champaign- Urbana. Ron brings nearly 35 years of experience in engineering, management science and educational administration to his positions. He holds a master’s degree in management science and a bachelor’s degree in human resource management from Oakland City University, as well as post-graduate studies in Workforce Education and Development from Southern Illinois University and Doctoral work in Public Administration with the University of Illinois, Springfield.

Sophy Cai

Dr. Xiuying Cai is an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Education at Xiamen University, China. She obtained her PhD in Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She specializes in global studies in education, philosophy of education, education for sustainable development, experiential education, and service learning. She has published in leading journals such as Discourse: Cultural Politics of Education and Oxford Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality in Education. She teaches courses on Globalization and Higher Education, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Education, as well as Qualitative Research.