The Business Relationship for Empowerment: How Women Entrepreneurs Thrive in Resource-Poor Marketplaces

Marketing can help pave the way to a better world by empowering women entrepreneurs through business-to-business (B2B) relationships in ultra-poor marketplaces. Although women’s empowerment has received much attention in the international development literature, the marketing trajectories that women follow in their entrepreneurial activities and empowerment processes remain underexplored. Specifically, past marketing research has not empirically examined the influence of relationship dynamics on women’s empowerment. This paper highlights how the quality of trust-based relationships helps alleviate poverty by shaping perceptions of respect and reciprocal exchanges among ultra-poor women in resource-poor settings. To test the causal chain of the B2B relationship drivers-empowerment model, our research drew on data from 301 ultra-poor women entrepreneurs (i.e., the business customers of a social bank) operating in B2B marketplaces in Bangladesh. Based on the social exchange, relationship marketing, and psychological empowerment theories, the findings confirm the effects of trust (ability, benevolence, integrity)—as the foundation of respect (recognition, responsibility, and empathy) and reciprocity (community informativeness, community support, and enjoyment)—on women customer empowerment of social banks (meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact) in ultra-poor marketplaces