Title: Developing entrepreneurial activity systems at the bottom of the pyramid

Authors: Rebecca A. Luce

Addresses: Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, Xavier University, 3800 Victory Parkway, Cincinnati, OH 45207, USA

Abstract: A relatively new area of discussion within the strategic entrepreneurship domain is a creation of novel strategies by established firms to meet the needs of the poor at the bottom of the world|s economic pyramid. Scholars in this area advocate that multinational companies take advantage of profit making opportunities in serving the four billion people who are the world|s poorest consumers. To do so effectively, multinationals need to build new activity systems that support the novel strategies required to function in a setting, vastly different from their typical markets. Bottom of the pyramid (BOP) scholars strongly suggest companies involve multiple parties familiar with the BOP environment in this process. In this paper, I describe how companies can go about developing entrepreneurial activity systems that incorporate sources of knowledge and information from the bottoms of various pyramid stakeholders in a way that facilitates the design and execution of opportunistic strategies.

Keywords: bottom of the pyramid; BOP; entrepreneurial activity systems; novel strategies; fringe stakeholders; multinational corporations; MNCs; strategic entrepreneurship; poor people; poverty; economic pyramids; profit; consumers; multiple parties; opportunistic strategies; opportunism; knowledge; information; globalisation; global entrepreneurship; entrepreneurs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2010.034017

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2010 Vol.5 No.1, pp.4 - 16

Published online: 06 Jul 2010 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article