Suchergebnisse

In African countries such as Ghana, micro-entrepreneurs make formal economy goods and services available to Base-of-Pyramid (BOP) consumers. Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) co-opted the BOP business model when entering the BOP market. We conducted a multiple case study of six MNEs and 36 micro-entrepreneurs in three key sectors. In FMGC and telecommunications, reverse bridging enables MNEs to capture value from BOP business models. This has a negative impact on both the financial and social capital of micro-entrepreneurs. In finance, micro-entrepreneurs are buffered from these negative effects of co-optation through a process we call integrating, which maintains and enhances their social capital even when their financial capital is reduced. Our research contributes to the BOP literature, first, by demonstrating that financial and social capital are closely intertwined at the BOP, and second, by analyzing how negative effects of co-optation can be buffered by enhancing micro-entrepreneurs' social capital.

In African countries such as Ghana, microentrepreneurs make formal economy goods and services available to base of the pyramid (BOP) consumers. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) co-opt BOP business models when they enter the BOP market. We conducted a case study of six MNEs and 36 microentrepreneurs in three key sectors. In two sectors (fast-moving consumer goods and telecommunications), reverse bridging enables MNEs to capture value from BOP business models, which has a negative impact on both the financial and social capital of microentrepreneurs. In the third sector (finance), microentrepreneurs are buffered from the negative effects of co-optation through a process of integrating, which enhances their social capital but reduces their financial capital. Our research contributes to the BOP literature, first by demonstrating that financial and social capital are intertwined at the BOP level, and second by analyzing how the negative effects of co-optation can be cushioned by enhancing microentrepreneurs' social capital.