"Rise of the middle of the pyramid in Africa" : theoretical and practical realities for understanding consumer and firm interactions

Using a combination of both primary and secondary data in four African countries, the primary objective of this paper is to investigate the profile of African middle of the pyramid (MOP) consumers, factors that influence their purchase decision making and identifying the key product categories that are central to the respondents' middle class status. The paper also establishes respondents perceptions of their interactions with firms in order to identify potential implications for international marketers. The key rationale focusing countries in Africa is the fact that current research on the middle class in developing countries has pre-dominantly focused on the middle class in China and India, yet there is empirical evidence demonstrating the rising influence and importance of the middle class in Africa (ADB, 2011; Randell,2009). Our aim is to expand scope of research in the area beyond the current focus on China and India, given the collective potential that the MOP has in Sub-Saharan Africa. This will enhance the generalizability of findings relating to the middle class across research contexts. This is a gap that is identified as a direction for future research by Banerjee and Duflo, (2008) who pose a challenge to international business researchers to go beyond focusing on classifying the middle class and expand the scope of their inquiry into understanding what drives them to buy products and the potential implications for interaction with both firms and consumers.