Base Of The Pyramid Markets In Latin America

This book focuses on the Base of the Pyramid (BOP) in Latin America and examines the role of the markets in serving low-income populations as consumers, distributors, and entrepreneurs. Deep inequalities, violence, and urbanisation characterise the region. Despite the reduction of poverty observed during the first two decades of the 21st century, Latin America is the most unequal region in the world. Outside active war zones, the region has the highest homicide rate in the world and violence and inequality are both deeply intertwined. Markets have a crucial role to play in closing this gap and offering job and income opportunities, especially to unemployed youth, paving the way for safer, more peaceful, and sustainable development. The book also offers a theoretical reflection on the role that community enterprises who manage common-pool resources can play in serving markets and creating income opportunities for the rural poor. The book is recommended for managers, policy makers, students, and scholars interested in Base of the Pyramid markets and their potential to lift people out of poverty and to promote a more equal society.

The Innovation and Sustainability in Base of the Pyramid Markets series comprises four volumes, covering theoretical perspectives, themes, and various aspects of interest across four key geographical regions where Base of the Pyramid (BOP) markets are located – Latin America, Asia, Africa, and affluent countries. This book focuses on the BOP markets in Asia, and in particular the challenge of how to address the needs of deprived population groups in a sustainable manner. Base of the Pyramid Markets in Asia deals with, amongst other topics, the innovation and innovativeness that is necessary to better the life of resource-poor population groups. The book covers various themes and aspects of BOP markets in Asia and their embeddedness in socio-cultural settings, and adopts a variety of theoretical angles for analysing the phenomena. Thus, this book aims at furthering our understanding of BOP markets in Asia and at deriving valuable recommendations for managers and policy makers. BOP markets face unique challenges and private sector actors alone cannot ensure sustainable value creation activities. Multidimensional elements and factors are needed to alleviate poverty and create economic development aligned with principles of sustainable development. Therefore, the book comprises critical and empirical studies as well as conceptual papers on the challenges linked to BOP markets in Asian countries. This book is recommended reading for managers and policy makers, as well as students and academics interested in Base of the Pyramid markets.

"The purpose of this special issue is to continue promoting the BoP conceptualization in the Latin American region, a contribution that began with the creation of the Argentine Base of the Pyramid Learning Laboratory in September 2005. The call for papers for this special issue of Greener Management International covered three key domains relating to the BoP approach: BoP as a new market as a source for the co-creation of new sustainable business ventures highlighting the role of local entrepreneurs; the role of technology and innovation; and sustainability."--Provided by publisher.

The purpose of this special issue is to continue promoting the BoP conceptualization in the Latin American region, a contribution that began with the creation of the Argentine Base of the Pyramid Learning Laboratory in September 2005.

In order to make progress toward the UN Millennium Development Goals – and particularly in terms of poverty alleviation – business has a pivotal role to play: in terms of core business; purchasing products from the poor; employing them; and selling them affordable services and products. Serving the global 4 billion people at the base of the economic ladder – the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) – with suitable products and services is a new but growing field in research and practice. In the initial years, the focus of BoP was very much on selling products and services to a huge untapped market. Practitioners and academics focused on developing new distribution channels to reach the low-income markets and new technological solutions to address their needs. These first-generation "fortune-finding" approaches are now described as "business to four billion". Over the last few years, however, new priorities have gained prominence. This new value proposition can be framed as "business with four billion" and is "fortune-creating". So-called Next Generation, or BoP 2.0, strategies can bring companies and their target groups closer together. The goal is to co-create new business models as well as product and service solutions together with the target group. Integrating BoP into the innovation process – be it in terms of idea generation, product/service development, production or distribution/marketing – is seen as way to increase not only the impact on poverty alleviation, but also the benefits to the company. This paradigm shift – to co-creation or embedded innovation – in fact closely mirrors a shift previously made by development researchers who argued that the poor should no longer be viewed as the target of poverty reduction efforts, but as partners in, and an asset to, the development process. Bottom-up development approaches – such as Participation, Community-Driven Development, Empowerment, Asset-Based Community Development or Local Knowledge – emphasize the role of the poor and see them as central to the design and implementation of the development process. Even though some BoP researchers consider selective parts of this knowledge in their research, a comprehensive study that rigorously examines BoP ventures from a bottom-up development perspective has not yet been completed. This book attempts to fill that gap. Putting the Poor First examines the applicability of different elements in the bottom-up development literature to the innovation process of BoP ventures. It unveils connections between the two approaches and builds a theoretical base for the case study research. With three in-depth case studies and eight companies participating in a survey, the current state and experiences of businesses applying a bottom-up development perspective with BoP ventures in Latin America and the Caribbean is analysed. The elements of a bottom-up development perspective applied in BoP practice can be grouped into three categories: drivers for choosing a bottom-up development perspective in BoP ventures (e.g. such that products and services are more readily accepted); circumstances that help or hinder the application of a bottom-up development perspective in BoP ventures (e.g. the acceptance of the company by communities or previous experiences with poverty alleviation projects); and success factors when choosing a bottom-up development perspective in BoP ventures (e.g. the importance of power structures, pluralism and self-esteem). The many recommendations, such as empowering the poor by encouraging co-creation and outsourcing innovation, fill gaps in theory, support practitioners and lay the foundations for further research. This will be a key book for BoP researchers and practitioners on the ground. The reconnection of development approaches with BoP strategies puts the poor first.

The Frugal Innovation and Bottom of the Pyramid Markets series comprises four volumes, covering theoretical perspectives, themes and various aspects of interest across four key geographical regions where BOP markets are located - South America, Asia, Africa and more engineered countries. BOP always addresses the poorest people or socioeconomic order or groups within a country, society, region or continent, thus, this series contributes a profound understanding of BOP markets across the most important geographical areas around the world and presents valuable insights on how the private sector can work together with other stakeholders to develop and operationalize economically viable business models in BOP markets, all the while contributing to sustainable development. Private actors such as multinationals, SMEs and entrepreneurs have a critical role to play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals agenda as laid down by United Nations in September 2015. Yet, BOP markets face unique challenges and the private sector alone cannot orchestrate sustainable value creation activities. Each volume presents several theoretical strands that highlight the diverse approaches and solutions to developing BOP markets further. Frugal, reverse and inclusive innovations can foster (sustainable) development and provide new business models and value streams that other countries can also benefit from. A variety of stylistic elements, such as research work, interviews and roundtable discussions, offer a wide and vivid impression of ongoing challenges and fruitful solutions.

Latin America has long held an important role in international economics and continues to attract attention as the region faces restructuration and implements new business conceptions. As a result, Latin America continues to experience economic growth, which further affirms the region’s great potential for future business endeavors. Business Development Opportunities and Market Entry Challenges in Latin America provides a practical, in-depth look at the different challenges and opportunities present in the Latin American economy. This text is of use to policymakers, managers, academicians, researchers, advanced-level students, technology developers, and government officials in furthering their research exposure to pertinent topics in market entry and business development in the region. This publication guides the reader to an understanding of the Latin American region both theoretically and practically through a collection of chapters concerning microfinance, political trust, opportunities and challenges for entrepreneurial activity, public-private academic cooperation, and poverty in Latin America.

Humanistic management has been part of a growing conversation about a different approach to management that contributes to dignity in the workplace and better organisations overall. The theoretical concepts have mostly derived from developed countries. This book seeks to redress the balance and looks at the development and application of the concepts, approaches and models of inequality, corruption, poverty, and uncertainty in the context of Latin America. The book provides a comprehensive overview of what is happening in Latin America in terms of Humanistic Management and the promotion of the Sustainable Development Goals. The first section describes the development of Humanistic Management by reviewing two different schools that have strongly influenced the discipline: the Montreal School and the Saint Gallen School. Humanistic Management is then presented as a model that can be used by scholars and practitioners in Latin America. The third part aims to explore how Humanistic Management has been, and could be, implemented across different organizations and business sectors in Latin America. Part four examines the implications of Humanistic Management for external stakeholders such as customers and consumers, suppliers, community, government, and universities. Finally, the conclusion provides new approaches to Humanistic Management for Latin America. Humanistic Management in Latin America will serve as a key reference and resource for teachers, researchers, students, experts and policy makers, who want to acquire a broad understanding of social responsibility and business across the world.