Multinationals, international business, and poverty: A cross-disciplinary research overview and conceptual framework

This article examines the role of multinationals and international business in poverty alleviation, based on an analysis of articles in the top journals in business, economics, and policy. We develop a conceptual cross-disciplinary framework that maps and disentangles the impact of different types of international business activities on five dimensions of poverty, moderated by country and industry effects. While our study suggests that the impact of all the types of business activities on poverty is still unclear overall, we contribute to research and policy debates by identifying key insights from and main gaps in this cross-disciplinary stream of literature. A distinction is made between firm effects as part of both ‘mainstream’ and ‘responsible’ globalization, and firm-specific activities with and without the explicit goal of poverty alleviation, considering investment and trade. We propose areas for further research based on the framework, including the importance of interaction effects and contextual factors

Bridging the institutional divide: partnerships in subsistence markets

This study analyzes the impact of institutions on the structure of partnerships in subsistence markets (SMs). Grounded in institutional theory and transaction cost economics, the reasoning suggests that partnerships will adapt to the co-existence of SM-specific and external institutions in SMs. SM partnerships will include multiple partners from multiple sectors, each compensating for different institutional gaps in SMs. They will replace governance mechanisms discussed in the literature, such as formal contracts and equity, with substitutes better suited to SM contexts, including informal contracts, in-kind contributions, and gifts. The importance of these mechanisms will depend on the institutional distance between SM-specific and external institutions. Finally, different governance mechanisms will co-exist within the same partnership, as partners originating in the SM will rely on SM-specific institutions, while partners originating outside the SM will prefer to rely on external institutions where possible

Reviewing a decade of research on the "Base/Bottom of the Pyramid" (BOP) concept.

In 1998-1999, Prahalad and colleagues introduced the base/bottom of the pyramid (BOP) concept in an article and a working paper. This article’s goal is to answer the following question: What has become of the concept over the decade following its first systematic exposition in 1999? To answer this question, the authors conducted a systematic review of articles on the BOP, identifying 104 articles published in journals or proceedings over a 10-year period (2000-2009). This count excludes books, chapters, and teaching cases. The review shows that the BOP concept evolved dramatically following Prahalad’s original call to multinational enterprises (MNEs). Deemphasizing the role of MNEs over time, published BOP articles portray a more complex picture, with wide variations in terms of BOP contexts, of BOP initiatives, and of impacts of the BOP approach. A simple framework for organizing the reviewed articles helps discuss findings, identify the gaps that still exist in the literature, and suggest directions for future research