Mobile Money Systems as Avant-Garde in the Digital Transition of Financial Relations

Mobile money is an electronic form of currency, which has become popular, particularly in developing countries over the last decade. This chapter summarizes the main findings from the empirical literature of the positive impacts (economic and social) of deploying mobile money platforms. They are reconfiguring and transforming pre-existing financial practices, including the unbanked segments of the population into formal economic relations, and providing self-reliance and security to local communities. This chapter also clarifies the types of data required to conduct more reliable empirical research and enhance cooperation among the parties involved in deploying and studying the effects of mobile money (MM) systems (i.e., among the academic community, policymakers/regulators, central banks, telecommunication companies, and entrepreneurs). Overall, this chapter presents a road map to establish a unified field of MM research by putting forward some lessons of improved inquiry and practice

Challenges and Constraints in Building Business Models to Fight Poverty

Today\u2019s grand challenges as sustainability, climate change, and poverty have raised vast attention of academics and practitioners both in developed and developing contexts. The United Nations, the World Bank, and governments as well as academics are converging in the relevance of finding solutions to fight poverty and increase the well-being of all humans (Oxfam 2017;World Bank Group 2018; Cumming et al. 2020). A recent solution to alleviate poverty has been referred to ventures as social entrepreneurship (Shepherd et al. 2020; Si et al. 2020), including all the tentative ways by which businesses are trying to solve the societal issues regarding poverty while also pursuing market dynamics and logics (Mair and Marti 2006; Saebi et al. 2019). This entry, then, has the purpose to effectively present the challenges and constraints that such social enterprises face in building their business model to fight poverty (Seelos and Mair 2005; Santos et al. 2015; Dembek et al. 2019)

Social Entrepreneurship and Scaling Strategies for Poverty Alleviation

Social Entrepreneurship for Poverty Alleviation In the last decades, governments, NGOs, policymakers, academics, and large corporations are increasing the attention on powerful mechanisms to alleviate poverty. In fact, being recognized as one of the leading SDGs by United Nations, poverty still represent a worldwide grand challenge, which comprise almost half the world\u2019s population. A recent research from BoP innovation center (2020) estimated that around 4.5 billion people globally live in the so-called base of the pyramid (BoP). The base of the pyramid include a vast population which face differences in the degree of poverty ranging from extreme poverty conditions (with households\u2019 daily incomes of 1 USD) (Sachs 2006; World Bank 2018) to lessconstrained conditions with 8 USD per day in some more developed countries (Alkire et al. 2014). Notably, worldwide this population represent a huge market for addressing the basic need of the poor, as water, electricity, consumer goods, and health care so that many institutions and profit companies are trying to address this market to help people to eradicate poverty, thereby generating a \u201cfortune\u201d for the organization with a huge untapped market (Prahalad and Hammond 2002; London and Hart 2004; Prahalad 2009). Despite the many approaches from governments and nonprofit institutions, a valuable approach has been recognized in businesses which can represent a powerful force toward poverty alleviation and eradication (Bruton et al. 2013; Dembek et al. 2020; Sutter et al. 2019)