Incorporated citizens: multinational high-tech companies and the BoP

In this article, I examine HP’s e-Inclusion program and its implementation in India to show how the high-tech industry’s efforts to alleviate poverty profitably are guided by C. K. Prahalad’s ideas about the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP), and are framed as digital corporate citizenship activities. While the BoP highlights the importance of new markets for high-tech companies, the discourse of digital corporate citizenship creates an enabling environment in which transnational high-tech companies can gain political access to new consumers at the BoP. The resulting digital corporate citizenship/BoP nexus leads to the extension of governments’ bureaucratic reach and the formation of electronic entrepreneurs

Cultural capital investment interim impact evaluation

This report provides interim impact evaluation evidence on a major initiative to develop the quality and opportunity of cultural provision in the East Midlands. Eight venues across the region have been supported through an investment totalling £120 million, which include a mix of brand new buildings and bringing new life to existing facilities. This report sets out what the investment has achieved so far and how information on the impact of the venues will be collected in the future

The entry of multinational companies to the base of the pyramid: A network perspective

Multinational corporations (MNCs) have traditionally ignored low-income markets, usually referred to as the base of the pyramid (BOP). Despite the dominant poverty in this market, a growing number of MNCs are attempting to learn about successful strategies for entering this market segment. Some of the studies suggest that establishing relationships with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is crucial at the BOP. In this paper, we focus on relationship between MNCs and NGOs and try to explain how they facilitate MNCs? entry into this market. A network perspective has been adopted in this research and the relationship between MNCs and NGOs has been analysed in relation to this theoretical framework. Interviews with four MNCs and their NGO partners in India suggest that corporations can enter the BOP market by building trust in their relationships with NGOs and consequently the BOP, demonstrating their commitment and strengthening their legitimate position among NGOs and BOP communities

A Bag-of-Paths Node Criticality Measure

This work compares several node (and network) criticality measures quantifying to which extend each node is critical with respect to the communication flow between nodes of the network, and introduces a new measure based on the Bag-of-Paths (BoP) framework. Network disconnection simulation experiments show that the new BoP measure outperforms all the other measures on a sample of Erdos-Renyi and Albert-Barabasi graphs. Furthermore, a faster (still O(n^3)), approximate, BoP criticality relying on the Sherman-Morrison rank-one update of a matrix is introduced for tackling larger networks. This approximate measure shows similar performances as the original, exact, one

Mirage at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Poor people -- at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) -- represent a very attractive market opportunity. The ‘BOP proposition’ argues that selling to the poor can simultaneously be profitable and help eradicate poverty. This is at best a harmless illusion and potentially a dangerous delusion. This paper shows that the BOP argument is riddled with fallacies, and proposes an alternative perspective on how the private sector can help alleviate poverty. Rather than focusing on the poor as consumers, we need to view the poor as producers. The only way to alleviate poverty is to raise the real income of the poor.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57215/1/wp835 .pd

Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: An Alternative Perspective

The Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) has emerged as one of the dominant ideas in business. Cognizant of the overwhelming attention BOP has attracted and its potential impact on the billions of the poor and on managerial practices, the author analyzes the different aspects of BOP approach on how large corporations can serve low income customers profitably. An attempt is made to provide an alternate perspective on the BOP concept. I argue for the facilitation of selective consumption by the poor by avoiding their undesirable inclusion (marketing products that are not likely to enhance their wellbeing or products that are likely to be abused by them) and exclusion (not offering products that are likely to enhances their wellbeing) in target market selection decisions by the private sector organizations. A framework is presented for assessing the appropriateness of large corporations’ participation in BOP markets. I also emphasize the need to strengthen the role of the poor as a producer for rapid poverty alleviation.