Ten Frontier Technologies for International Development

The report finds clear evidence of the potential of frontier technologies to contribute to social, economic and political development gains in a number of ways, by: • Driving innovations in business models, products and processes that provide new goods and services to ‘bottom of the pyramid’ consumers; • Providing the means by which to make better use of existing underutilised household and productive assets; • Catalysing increases in demand, nationally and internationally, which create new industries and markets, leading to macro- and microeconomic growth; and • Changing demand for labour and capital, leading to direct job creation and transformation of the workforce. For all of the potential upsides, potential downsides must also be considered. While it will largely be the private sector that will drive deployment of these technologies, the public sector through national regulation, as well as development financing, will have a major role in mediating the pace and direction of technological change, both to achieve development objectives, and to protect potential losers.As new technologies and digital business models reshape economies and disrupt incumbencies, interest has surged in the potential of novel frontier technologies to also contribute to positive changes in international development and humanitarian contexts. Widespread adoption of new technologies is acknowledged as centrally important to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. But while frontier technologies can rapidly address large-scale economic, social or political challenges, they can also involve the displacement of existing technologies and carry considerable uncertainty and risk. Although there have been significant wins bringing the benefits of new technologies to poor consumers through examples such as mobile money or off-grid solar energy, there are many other areas where the applications may not yet have been developed into viable market solutions, or where opportunities have not yet been taken up in development practice

Creating Value for All: Strategies for Doing Business With the Poor

This report explains the U.N.'s Growing Inclusive Markets Initiative, and presents 50 case studies prepared for the Initiative by researchers from developing countries. These studies demonstrate the successful pursuit of both revenues and social impact by local and international small- and medium-sized companies, as well as multinational corporations. Highlights strategies used to overcome the most common obstacles to doing business with the poor, as well as two new tools: a strategy matrix to help find potential solutions to common constraints, and heat maps that identify opportunities by depicting access to water, credit, electricity or telephone service in specific geographical areas

Mobile Money: Communication, Consumption and Change in the Payments Space

This article explores the emerging field of 'mobile money': mobile phone-enabled systems for value transfer and storage, primarily in the developing world, which are heralded as signal interventions in the effort to broaden financial inclusion and bank the 'unbanked.' Focusing on the stories that circulate in the emergent network of expertise that is calling 'mobile money' into being, it discusses how economic techniques and social narratives about markets - specifically, narratives about the opportunities for profit and financial inclusion in the 'payments space' - format a consumer market for mobile money. Furthermore, it asks whether end-users' repurposing of mobile money - and the use of airtime as currency - heralds a new means of exchange or store of value, potentially remaking money in the process. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

Adaptation of the m-commerce value proposition for low-income markets

This research project investigates the requirements or factors that will influence mcommerce adoption in low-income markets. The framework incorporated awareness, availability, convenience, affordability and acceptability as variables for m-commerce adoption in low-income markets. Mobile commerce is the next step in the evolution of networked computing and is the utilisation of mobile communication for financial gain. In South Africa, the fast rate of mobile technology adoption has created an access footprint for mcommerce across the country. Businesses are adopting m-commerce into their business strategies to tap into these new markets. Recently the potential commercial benefit in low-income markets is being explored by business. In South Africa the low-income market has been characterised by the foundation tier of the economic pyramid. Although this market is seen as extremely price sensitive and has little to no disposable income, the collective potential of it is considerable. The research found that certain aspects of the framework were applicable. Awareness, knowledge and acceptability were seen to have the highest association with m-commerce adoption in the low-income market.Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012.Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)unrestricte

Crafting Alliances between a Mexican Agribusiness and the Base of the Pyramid: An Action Research into Strategizing

Crafting Alliances Between A Mexican Agribusiness And The Base Of The Pyramid: An Action Research Into Strategizing By Sergio Quinones-Romandia May 2016 Committee Chair: Lars Mathiassen Major Academic Unit: J. Mack Robinson College of Business More than 4 billion people in the world face hunger every day. In addition to this imperative shortcoming, the world’s poor confront other side effects of poverty as well, including violence, forced mobility, lack of access to education and early death. In a globalized world where capitalism has become the prevailing economic ideology, alleviating poverty can no longer be the exclusive responsibility of governments, richer nations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Today, the private sector must also “take the torch” and contribute to easing the suffering of more than half the world’s population. The Base of the Pyramid (BOP) strategy is an important opportunity for the world’s private sector to create new business opportunities while at the same time helping address and alleviate poverty. However, while the literature describes several study cases, we still have limited knowledge about the process through which managers engage in BOP strategizing. Against this backdrop, this dissertation provides a detailed account of how a Mexican agribusiness: Agroservicios Nacionales, SAPI de CV (ANSA) developed and implemented a BOP strategy to co-create value with its distributors and poor corn farmers. Our Georgia State University (GSU) research team combined Dynamic Capability Theory (DCT) and Option-Driven Strategizing (ODS) and adopted action research to establish close collaboration among the firm’s top directors, a select group of its managers, designated local distributors, and our researcher team members. This dissertation presents a detailed account of the strategizing process, how AgroEstacion was conceived, how it was implemented, and the outcomes and experiences of the overall process. I also discuss the challenges our team faced, how they were resolved, and the opportunities that emerged from the strategizing process. Finally, I describe an Integrated Model that firms can use to strategize BOP opportunities in a way that benefits both their business and the surrounding society. This dissertation also represents the challenges of utilizing DCT in a practical case, following the suggestions of several authors as Teece, Pisano, Shuen, Zollo, Winters and others, from major works of writing that encourage researchers to take this theory into a more aggregate system and apply it in a practical case

Lola v Skadden and the Automation of the Legal Profession

Technological innovation has accelerated at an exponential pace in the last few decades, ushering in an era of unprecedented advancements in algorithms and artificial intelligence technologies. Traditionally, the legal field has protected itself from technological disruptions by maintaining a professional monopoly over legal work and limiting the practice of law to only those who are licensed

Disruptive technology business models in cloud computing

Thesis (S.M. in System Design and Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, System Design and Management Program, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references.Cloud computing, a term whose origins have been in existence for more than a decade, has come into fruition due to technological capabilities and marketplace demands. Cloud computing can be defined as a scalable and flexible shared computing solution in which third-party suppliers use virtualization technologies to create and distribute computing resources to customers on-demand, via the Internet browser. Cloud computing is steadily replacing more rigid software and services licensing models in both small/medium business (SMB) and in the enterprise. This analysis poses a twofold examination of cloud computing as a disruptive technology. First, cloud computing has replaced existing software and services licensing business models, owing to its scalability, flexibility, and utility-based pricing. Second, as cloud computing takes hold as the prominent computing services business paradigm, other disruptive forces will surface to further integrate and differentiate the cloud computing landscape. These forces include the customer-driven need to create hybrid clouds between private and public cloud domains, vendor-agnostic solutions in the cloud, along with open standards to make cloud computing ubiquitous. Three criteria are assessed in characterizing cloud computing as a disruptive technology (Christensen, 2002).1 First, cloud computing as an innovation, must enable less-skilled and/or less-wealthy individuals to receive the same utility as only the more-skilled and/or more-wealthy intermediaries could formerly attain. Second, cloud computing must target customers at the low end of a market with modest demands on performance, but with a performance trajectory capable of exceeding those demands and thus taking over markets, tier by tier. As a corollary to this second criterion, the cloud computing business model allows the disruptive innovator to achieve attractive returns at prices that are unattractive to the incumbents. Third, an ecosystem in the form of a fully integrated single entity or a set of modular entities is required to successfully support the disruptive innovation. The analysis has shown that cloud computing is replacing traditional outsourcing and premise-based data centers for software applications and services delivery. Scalability, flexibility, virtualization, and cost are essential business drivers. However, current cloud computing solutions, especially in the enterprise, lack sufficient security and customer control. This gives rise to numerous subordinate disruptive business solutions which enable the enterprise and emerging demographics to develop and deploy their applications and services in a secure, controlled, profitable, and ubiquitous environment.by Alexis Krikos.S.M.in System Design and Managemen

Analysis of the Relationship between Frugal Innovation and Sustainable Development

The relation between Frugal Innovation and Sustainability is a widely discussed topic in current academic literature. To assess the correlation between these two concepts, a sample of the most frequently mentioned Frugal Innovations was selected. The criteria to evaluate the sustainability potential for each of these cases was built upon the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a global reference indicator. Frugal Innovations among the banking, transport, energy, ICT, water, appliances and healthcare sectors were evaluated. The results suggested a positive contribution and impact of Frugal Innovations towards economic, social and environmental development

Kreative acts of strategy (kaos): a business plan for a new type of small consultancy

M310: Marketing Z100: Cultural Economics; Economic Sociology; Economic AnthropologyThe proposed business is designed as a small Creative Brand Consulting and Collaborative Innovation firm that caters to Small-to-Medium sized (SME) consumer goods/services producing enterprises. It derives its innovative approach from a proprietary framework, which is implemented as an analysis tool to audit a client’s business in a strategically new way. The ASP framework draws its pillars, Authenticity, Sustainability, and Product Functionality from the condensation of contemporary discourse about these topics. All of the pillar traits can be found in many of today’s successful, global brands, which encourages to manifest them as a strategically applicable tool. The overall goal is hereby to reduce so-called negative externalities, that is, to reduce environmental/societal harm and to enhance outcomes’ functional value to eventually create a more friendly but efficient co-living environment. It is believed that doing so increases a brands’ intrinsic value through claiming a socially beneficial purpose apart from the purpose to grow infinitely. Apart from offering Management Consulting services for small businesses within the respective context, the proposed plan stipulates a risk diversification through the offer of additional business services. The innovative approach focuses on a lean business structure, which entails to form a “temporary” enterprise by collaborating with contractors only when needed, that is, project based. The proposed business aims to grow slowly and organically, as it is demanded by its values and its mission to successfully shape a consumption environment that both grows and produces positive societal outcomes.O negócio proposto é designado como uma pequena consultoria criativa de marca e firma de inovação colaborativa que presta serviços a pequenas e médias empresas (PME) produtoras de bens consumíveis (englobando também, nesta categoria, bens perecíveis) e/ou serviços. As estratégias inovadoras, na qual os serviços propostos neste negócio são baseados, derivam de um framework da empresa que é implementado como uma ferramenta de análise, de modo a auditar o negócio do cliente duma nova forma estratégica, na qual foi dada a definição de ASP framework. O ASP framework cria os seus pilares, Autenticidade, Sustentabilidade, e funcionalidade do Produto, como um resultado da condensação de discursos contemporâneos referentes aos mesmos. Todas as características dos pilares podem ser encontrados em inúmeras marcas globais de sucesso, pelo que encoraja a manifestá-las como uma estratégia aplicável.Tendo por base de aplicação o meio retratado precedentemente, o objetivo é reduzir as negatividades externas, ou seja, reduzir perigos ambientais e sociais de modo a aprimorar o valor funcional (resultados) com o intuito de criar um ambiente eficiente de coabitação societal e, eventualmente, mais amigável. A sua aplicação é espectável na medida que contribui para um incremento no valor intrínseco da marca, reivindicando uma proposta de benefício social e contrariando a proposta comum de crescimento infinito. Para além de oferecer consultoria de gestão de serviços para pequenas empresas (PE), englobadas no respetivo contexto, o plano proposto estipula uma diversificação de riscos através duma oferta adicional de serviços de negócios. Esta aproximação inovadora foca-se numa estrutura de aprendizagem do negócio, que consiste na formação de uma empresa temporária, colaborando com contratantes apenas quando preciso consoante o projeto. Em suma, o negócio proposto procura um crescimento vagaroso e orgânico, tal como é exigido através dos seus valores e missão para moldar, com sucesso, um ambiente de consumismo que não só cresce mas também contribui positivamente para resultados sociais

Digitisation and Low-Carbon Energy Transitions

The world is digitising as the need for low-carbon transitions gains urgency. Decarbonising energy requires the digital process control of energy production, transmission and end use. Diversified electrification across sectors requires real-time digital coordination of distributed energy production, At the same time, digitisation is accompanied by significant increases in energy demand, partly compensated through energy efficiency gains. The emergent linkages between digitisation and decarbonisation – that constitute and enable the twin transition – are the subject of this book. The collection features authors from across the social sciences who situate digitisation and low-carbon energy transitions in the socio-technical and political economic contexts in which they unfold, to offer insights on the dynamics and contingencies of digitisation in and beyond the energy sector. This is an open access book