IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/corsem/v23y2016i2p113-128.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability Innovation at the Base of the Pyramid through Multi‐Sited Rapid Ethnography

Author

Listed:
  • Minna Halme
  • Arno Kourula
  • Sara Lindeman
  • Galina Kallio
  • Maria Lima‐Toivanen
  • Angelina Korsunova

Abstract

The past decade has seen a proliferation of suggestions for market‐based solutions to global poverty. While research emphasises that sustainability innovation aimed at poverty alleviation must be grounded in user needs, few studies demonstrate how to study the poor for purposes of early phase innovation in business enterprises, especially in multiple locations comparatively. This study suggests that the necessary understanding of low‐income users and their practices can be gained through multi‐sited rapid ethnography. We exemplify how the process moves from an understanding of the needs of the poor towards innovation and offer a general framework for evaluating the success of these types of projects. The paper describes the challenges and solutions found in a multi‐sited rapid ethnography research in urban base of the pyramid (BOP) contexts in Brazil, India, Russia, and Tanzania. It suggests businesses can learn about the poor with the help of this method and conduct sustainability innovation on the basis of the needs of the poor, rather than start with existing products. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Minna Halme & Arno Kourula & Sara Lindeman & Galina Kallio & Maria Lima‐Toivanen & Angelina Korsunova, 2016. "Sustainability Innovation at the Base of the Pyramid through Multi‐Sited Rapid Ethnography," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(2), pages 113-128, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:corsem:v:23:y:2016:i:2:p:113-128
    DOI: 10.1002/csr.1385
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1385
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/csr.1385?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Minna Halme & Juha Laurila, 2009. "Philanthropy, Integration or Innovation? Exploring the Financial and Societal Outcomes of Different Types of Corporate Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 84(3), pages 325-339, February.
    2. Arnold, Denis G. & Valentin, Andres, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility at the base of the pyramid," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 1904-1914.
    3. Cheryl Rodgers, 2010. "Sustainable entrepreneurship in SMEs: a case study analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(3), pages 125-132, May.
    4. Uwem E. Ite, 2004. "Multinationals and corporate social responsibility in developing countries: a case study of Nigeria," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(1), pages 1-11, March.
    5. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, 2007. "The Economic Lives of the Poor," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(1), pages 141-168, Winter.
    6. Peter Dobers & Minna Halme, 2009. "Corporate social responsibility and developing countries," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(5), pages 237-249, September.
    7. Viswanathan, Madhu & Rosa, José Antonio, 2010. "Understanding subsistence marketplaces: Toward sustainable consumption and commerce for a better world," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 535-537, June.
    8. Weidner, Kelly L. & Rosa, José Antonio & Viswanathan, Madhu, 2010. "Marketing to subsistence consumers: Lessons from practice," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 559-569, June.
    9. Francisco J. García‐Rodríguez & José León García‐Rodríguez & Carlos Castilla‐Gutiérrez & Silvério A. Major, 2013. "Corporate Social Responsibility of Oil Companies in Developing Countries: From Altruism to Business Strategy," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(6), pages 371-384, November.
    10. Richard Welford, 2002. "Globalization, corporate social responsibility and human rights," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(1), pages 1-7, March.
    11. Allen L. Hammond & William J. Kramer & Robert S. Katz & Julia T. Tran & Courtland Walker, 2007. "The Next 4 Billion," Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, MIT Press, vol. 2(1-2), pages 147-158, April.
    12. Shuchita Sharmin & Niaz Ahmed Khan & Ataur Rahman Belal, 2014. "Corporate Community Involvement In Bangladesh: An Empirical Study," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(1), pages 41-51, January.
    13. Monowar Mahmood & Janet Humphrey, 2013. "Stakeholder Expectation of Corporate Social Responsibility Practices: A Study on Local and Multinational Corporations in Kazakhstan," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(3), pages 168-181, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Srinivas Venugopal, 2021. "Envisioning a community‐centric approach to impact assessments in subsistence marketplaces," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 118-133, March.
    2. Krzysztof Dembek & Nagaraj Sivasubramaniam & Danielle A. Chmielewski, 2020. "A Systematic Review of the Bottom/Base of the Pyramid Literature: Cumulative Evidence and Future Directions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 165(3), pages 365-382, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simon Joncourt & Heiko Gebauer & Javier Reynoso & Karla Cabrera & Ana Valdes & Katharina Greve, 2019. "Extending the Base-of-the-Pyramid Concept," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(3), pages 241-261, October.
    2. Monowar Mahmood & Janet Humphrey, 2013. "Stakeholder Expectation of Corporate Social Responsibility Practices: A Study on Local and Multinational Corporations in Kazakhstan," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(3), pages 168-181, May.
    3. Javier Aguilera‐Caracuel & Jaime Guerrero‐Villegas, 2018. "How Corporate Social Responsibility Helps MNEs to Improve their Reputation. The Moderating Effects of Geographical Diversification and Operating in Developing Regions," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(4), pages 355-372, July.
    4. Tassilo Schuster & Dirk Holtbrügge, 2014. "Benefits of Cross‐sector Partnerships in Markets at the Base of the Pyramid," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 188-203, March.
    5. Praceus, Sarah & Herstatt, Cornelius, 2012. "Consumer innovation in the poor versus rich world: Some differences and similarities," Working Papers 71, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
    6. Gibson Meira Oliveira & André Gustavo Carvalho Machado, 2017. "Dynamic of Innovation in Services for Consumers at the Bottom of the Pyramid," Brazilian Business Review, Fucape Business School, vol. 14(6), pages 609-623, November.
    7. Agarwal, Nivedita & Chakrabarti, Ronika & Brem, Alexander & Bocken, Nancy, 2018. "Market driving at Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP): An analysis of social enterprises from the healthcare sector," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 234-244.
    8. Joern H. Block & Marcus Wagner, 2014. "The Effect of Family Ownership on Different Dimensions of Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from Large US Firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(7), pages 475-492, November.
    9. Khan, Majid & Lockhart, James & Bathurst, Ralph, 2021. "The institutional analysis of CSR: Learnings from an emerging country," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    10. Baumuller, Heike & Husmann, Christine Ladenburger & von Braun, Joachim, 2011. "Innovative business approaches for the reduction of extreme poverty and marginality?," Working Papers 147921, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    11. Minna Halme & Maria Korpela, 2014. "Responsible Innovation Toward Sustainable Development in Small and Medium‐Sized Enterprises: a Resource Perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(8), pages 547-566, December.
    12. Louis Mosake Njomo, 2019. "Consumer Behaviour in Subsistence Marketplaces in Cameroon, An Exploratory Study of the Village of Batoke in Limbe Sub-Division, South West Region," International Journal of Economics and Financial Research, Academic Research Publishing Group, vol. 5(8), pages 184-195, 08-2019.
    13. Mohamed Chakib Kolsi & Osama F Attayah, 2018. "Environmental policy disclosures and sustainable development: Determinants, measure and impact on firm value for ADX listed companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(5), pages 807-818, September.
    14. Mbaye Fall Diallo & Christine Lambey-Checchin, 2017. "Consumers’ Perceptions of Retail Business Ethics and Loyalty to the Retailer: The Moderating Role of Social Discount Practices," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 141(3), pages 435-449, March.
    15. Ronika Chakrabarti, 2021. "Why art matters: Artistic consumer‐entrepreneurship in subsistence marketplaces," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 134-150, March.
    16. Rivera-Santos, Miguel & Rufín, Carlos, 2010. "Global village vs. small town: Understanding networks at the Base of the Pyramid," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 126-139, April.
    17. Levänen, Jarkko & Lindeman, Sara & Halme, Minna & Tervo, Matti & Lyytinen, Tatu, 2022. "Bridging divergent institutional logics through intermediation practices: Insights from a developing country context," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    18. Rüdiger Hahn, 2009. "The Ethical Rational of Business for the Poor – Integrating the Concepts Bottom of the Pyramid, Sustainable Development, and Corporate Citizenship," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 84(3), pages 313-324, February.
    19. Ramani, Shyama & SadreGhazi, Shuan & Duysters, Geert, 2010. "On the Delivery of Pro-Poor Innovations: Managerial Lessons from Sanitation Activists in India," MERIT Working Papers 2010-018, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    20. Fikru, Mahelet G., 2016. "Determinants of International Standards in sub-Saharan Africa: The role of institutional pressure from different stakeholders," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 296-307.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:corsem:v:23:y:2016:i:2:p:113-128. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1535-3966 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.