How to Design and Implement Social Business Models for Base-of-the-Pyramid (BoP) Markets?

Abstract

This article studies for-profit social enterprises, which bundle entrepreneurial attitude with the passion to design and implement inclusive business models targeting the basic needs at the Base-of-thePyramid (BoP). The research objective involves understanding the challenges and strategic choices required for inclusive business models at the BoP. A qualitative multi-case-based research methodology is used for data collection and analysis. The experience of four social enterprises studied helps to gauge the 'provisioning-for-all' discourse, and resolve the theoretical tension as to why 'self-sustaining' should mean 'profit driven', as self-sustaining can signify 'not-for-profit' as well. The BoP market challenges include market imperfections; ethical dilemmas; missed identity; scarce resources; identifying real needs; quantifying socioeconomic impact. The corresponding strategic choices are identified and mapped to the challenges, to enable social entrepreneurs to implement better informed decisions and social interventions at the BoP.Cet article s'intéresse aux entreprises sociales à but lucratif, qui combinent à la fois l'attitude entrepreneuriale et la passion de créer et de mettre en oeuvre des modèles d'entreprise inclusifs qui ciblent les besoins primaires, ceux à la base de la pyramide. L'objectif de l'étude est de comprendre les défis et les choix stratégiques nécessaires aux modèles d'entreprise inclusifs pour la base de la pyramide. Pour la collecte et l'analyse des données, nous utilisons une méthodologie de recherche qualitative, basée sur plusieurs études de cas. L'expérience de quatre entreprises sociales étudiées ici nous aide à juger de la façon dont les besoins de tous sont pris en compte, et à résoudre la tension théorique à propos de l'amalgame entre l'autosuffisance d'une entreprise et la recherche du profit, alors qu'une entreprise autosuffisante peut également avoir un but non lucratif. Les défis du marché à la base de la pyramide comprennent les imperfections du marché ; un dilemme éthique ; une identité manquée ; des ressources limitées ; l'identification du vrai besoin et la quantification de l'impact socio-économique. Les choix stratégiques sont identifiés et mis en relation avec les défis correspondants afin de permettre aux entrepreneurs sociaux d'appliquer de meilleures décisions et de mettre en oeuvre des interventions sociales à la base de la pyramide.

Co-Development of Supply Chain in the BOP Markets

“…Sodhi and Tang [4] highlights this problem would cost a lot of efforts and resources to redesign and operate supply chain. Previous related studies focusing on the singular difficulty of addressing the BOP segment include the following topics: product development [5][6][7], business models [2,8,9], partnerships [10,11], marketing and distribution [12,13]. However, few of them are systematically arranged to analyze how supply chain management can be applied to integrate the BOP into the value position and creation appropriately.…”

Social Entrepreneurship and Scaling Strategies for Poverty Alleviation

“…Scholars and practitioners, thereby, converged in the importance of social entrepreneurs which use market and managerial dynamics to fight poverty, but literature also document many challenges that BoP social enterprises face when approaching the scaling and growth (Davies et al 2019;Ciambotti et al 2020). In fact, in order to alleviate poverty of millions of people under the poverty threshold, BoP social enterprises have successfully combine business model components (Seelos and Mair 2007;Goyal et al 2015;Hahn et al 2018;Ciambotti et al 2020), figure out valuable resources and capabilities (Linna 2013;Ciambotti and Pedrini 2019a), to finally implement strategies to scale the social and financial missions (Yunus et al 2010;Lashitew et al 2020).…”

“…Social enterprises typically combine social and commercial missions in the same organization (Battilana et al 2012;Santos et al 2015). In particular, BoP social enterprises have the social goal of poverty alleviation of a certain group of people (beneficiaries), while also assuring a financial sustainability (Santos et al 2015;Goyal et al 2015;Doherty et al 2020). An important aspect of this interplay between social and financial missions is that a social enterprise has to scale simultaneously both missions so that to achieve greater impact (reduce poverty to a larger amount of people) and increasing the financial sustainability (Yunus et al 2010;.…”

Enabling Factors and Strategies for the Transition Toward a Circular Economy (CE)

“…Demonstrating practices provides better prospects for dissemination and adoption of circular models. The authors list lessons learned from the experience of Indian companies and highlight the following factors [43]:…”