items sorted by publication date
2006
Evidence of Microfinance’s Contribution to Achieving the Millennium Development Goals 
By Christopher Dunford, Freedom from Hunger, November 12, 2006
Can sustainable microfinance increase outreach and impact large number of poor?
>> More Details | created on: 10/27/2006
A Dime a Day: The Possibilities and Limits of Private Schooling in Pakistan
By TAHIR ANDRABI, JISHNU DAS & ASIM IJAZ KHWAJA , World Bank, November 1, 2006
This paper looks at the private schooling sector in Pakistan, a country that is seriously behind schedule in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Using new data, the authors document the phenomenal rise of the private sector in Pakistan and show that an increasing segment of children enrolled in private schools are from rural areas and from middle-class and poorer families.
>> More Details | created on: 12/07/2006
Microfinance as Business 
By David Roodman and Uzma Qureshi, Center for Global Development, October 13, 2006
CGD research fellow David Roodman and Uzma Qureshi analyze microfinance institutions (MFIs) as businesses, asking how some succeed in covering costs, earning returns, attracting capital, and scaling up.
>> More Details | created on: 11/10/2006
Microfinance as Business
By David Roodman and Uzma Qureshi, Center for Global Development, October 13, 2006
CGD research fellow David Roodman and Uzma Qureshi analyze microfinance institutions (MFIs) as businesses, asking how some succeed in covering costs, earning returns, attracting capital, and scaling up. They draw on existing literature and interviews with industry players and academics. Key microfinance business challenges include building volume, keeping loan repayment rates high, retaining customers, and minimizing scope for fraud.
>> More Details | created on: 02/02/2007
The Innovation Sandbox
By C.K. Prahalad, Strategy+Business, October, 2006
To create an impossibly low-cost, high-quality new business model, start by cultivating constraints.
>> More Details | created on: 10/06/2006
A Theory of Fringe Stakeholder-Driven Innovation
By Stu Hart, September 22, 2006
Doing business at the base of the pyramid (BoP) burst onto the scene a few years back as the latest phenomenon. But where is the movement these days? What strides have been made? What have been the successes and failures - and why? Stu Hart provided an update on where the base of the pyramid movement stands to UM students and faculty at his talk Sept. 21 for the WDI Global Impact Speaker Series.
Link to ICOS Presentation
>> More Details | created on: 10/25/2006
Mirage at the Bottom of the Pyramid: How the private sector can help alleviate poverty
By Aneel Karnani, August, 2006
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.
>> More Details | created on: 08/17/2006
Targeting the Poorest in Microfinance: Poverty Outreach of BDP ultrapoor programme
By Proloy Barua & Munshi Sulaiman, BRAC Research and Evaluation Division and Aga Khan Foundation Canada, August, 2006
Despite the general consensus that microfinance does not reach the poorest; recent evidence suggests that nearly 15% of microfinance clients in Bangladesh are among the poorest. So, BDP ultra poor are those struggling members of existing village organization (VO) or very poor households in a village who with some additional support can more fully participate and benefit from microfinance services. This study attempts to assess the targeting effectiveness of the BDP ultra poor programme by measuring relative poverty of BDP ultra poor.
>> More Details | created on: 10/20/2006
Working Papers: China's BOP Energy and Telecom Markets
By Changming Yan, NextBillion.net, August 1, 2006
Changming Yan, the Cameron Speth Intern at WRI in 2006, produced two working papers on China. The first details how methane generating pits might make a good BOP businesses, while the second examines BOP cell phone markets. Both are working papers, and the author invites comments, questions, suggestions, and criticism.
>> More Details | created on: 02/19/2008
From Poverty, Opportunity: Putting the Market to Work for Lower Income Families
The Brookings Institution, July 31, 2006
This report describes how public and private leaders have a substantial, and widely overlooked, opportunity today to help lower income families get ahead by bringing down the inflated prices they pay for basic necessities, such as food and housing.
>> More Details | created on: 07/31/2006
Technologies and Business Models that work in developing countries
By James Koch, May 26, 2006
The innovative adaption of advanced and "appropriate technologies" in developing countries offers valuable insight into the need for new design parameters to increase the diffusion of technological innovations to the poor. This adoption process also highlights how the challenges of infrastructure and distribution can be overcome, as well as how prevailing business models can be adapted to foster market creation at the bottom of the pyramid.
>> More Details | created on: 06/13/2006
Rethinking organizations that serve Latin America’s mass markets: a study of AES-EDC experience in Venezuela
By Henry Gómez-Samper & Patricia Márquez, May 24, 2006
The paper examines the experience of a privately-owned public utility as it undertook to turn poor consumers who obtained power from illegal connections, into paying customers. The methods used to focus on poor communities were shaped by visionary leadership when the company was acquired by a multinational corporation. Recommendations made by operating staff ushered the experience, and helped shaped a value proposition that benefited the company, appealed to poor consumers, and led to wide-ranging organizational change.
>> More Details | created on: 05/24/2006
Hybrid Value Chains: Social Innovations and the Development of the Small Farmer Irrigation Market in Mexico New Entry
By Valeria Budinich & Kimberly Manno Reott, Social Science Research Network, March 1, 2006
The 'Hybrid Value Chain' model is systematically transforming the relationships between the business and citizen sectors. At the core of this approach is the assumption that many social innovations are relevant to pioneering businesses at the 'Base of the Pyramid' and that the social entrepreneurs who have developed these innovations are natural partners for these businesses.
>> More Details | created on: 05/14/2007
A grassroots approach to emerging-market consumers
By Christopher P. Beshouri, The McKinsey Quarterly, 2006
By tapping into local networks, companies can serve low-income markets profitably, delivering significant value to shareholders while creating the essential market infrastructure for economic development in the neediest communities.
>> More Details | created on: 07/17/2007
Building Linkages for Competitive and Responsible Entrepreneurship
By Jane Nelson, January 1, 2006
This paper provides a framework for categorizing six different models of multi-sector partnership and collective corporate action. It illustrates examples of existing initiatives and offers recommendations for increasing their scale and effectiveness.
>> More Details | created on: 10/31/2007
Governance and getting the private sector to provide better water and sanitation services to the urban poor
By GORDON MCGRANAHAN & DAVID SATTERTHWAITE, Human Settlements Programme, 2006
The paper finds that the principles and governance tools required to get private providers to improve provision to the urban poor are very similar to those needed to improve public provision. While there is no single model of good water and sanitation governance, and no reason to favour private providers, good local governance is critical to getting the best out of private as well as public providers.
>> More Details | created on: 01/12/2007
Entrepreneurial Self-efficacy in Central Asian Transition Economies: Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis
By Fred Luthans & Elina S. Ibrayeva, Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1, January, 2006
In both quantitative and qualitative field studies, the self-efficacy of entrepreneurs in the transition economies of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan is examined. Using a social cognitive framework, the complex interaction among these entrepreneurs' personal characteristics, environment, and self-efficacy is analyzed by structural equation modeling.
>> More Details | created on: 02/02/2006
Discovering Hidden Assets--Financing the Base of the Pyramid
Development Alternatives Vol. 10, Issue 1, December, 2005
A collection of policy issues pertaining to the Base of the Pyramid
>> More Details | created on: 03/06/2006
Food Policy and Poverty in Indonesia: A General Equilibrium Analysis
By Peter G. Warr, Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Vol. 49, No. 4, December, 2005
Rice is Indonesia's staple food and accounts for large shares of both consumers' budgets and total employment. Until recently, Indonesia was the world's largest importer, but rice import policy is now highly protectionist. Since early 2004, rice imports have been officially banned. Advocates of this policy say it reduces poverty by assisting poor farmers. Opponents say it increases poverty, stressing negative effects on poor consumers. This paper uses a general equilibrium model of the Indonesian economy to analyse the effects of a ban on rice imports.
>> More Details | created on: 01/23/2006
International Technology Diffusion and the Growth of TFP in the Manufacturing Sector of Developing Economies
By Andreas Sawides & Marios Zachariadis, November, 2005 (Review of Development Economics, Vol. 9, No. 4)
This paper evaluates various channels through which foreign technology diffuses to the manufacturing sector of developing economies. These economies undertake virtually no own R&D, so they rely on foreign technology to a much larger extent than developed economies. We investigate the direct effect of foreign R&D, as well as technology embodied in imports of intermediate and capital goods and foreign direct investment, on the growth of total factor productivity and value added in the manufacturing sector of 32 economies during 1965-92. We find that foreign R&D typically has the biggest positive impact on domestic productivity and value-added growth. Imports of capital goods and foreign direct investment also play a similar role, but their effect is of smaller magnitude and is not always significant.
>> More Details | created on: 01/20/2006
Private Sector Strategies for Providing Healthcare at the Base of the Pyramid
By John Paul, NextBillion.net, November 1, 2005
The role of the private sector in improving the delivery of healthcare in developing countries is still being debated. Although private sector strategies may improve efficiencies and lower costs, some fear that turning healthcare entirely into a consumer service will marginalize the poor even further, or question whether or not providing healthcare to low income communities can be done profitably. The debate may finally be settled based on the success of several new business models that are blurring the line between NGOs and the private sector. This report highlights a number of such enterprises organized into four broad categories: franchised networks that provide health services, ventures that produce health-related consumer products, enterprises that provide financial services and health insurance, and entities that are using the latest technologies to provide world class healthcare.
>> More Details | created on: 02/19/2008
Housing Policy in Developing Countries: Conjectures and Refutations
By Robert M. Buckley & Jerry Kalarickal, World Bank Research Observer, Vol. 20, No, 2, October, 2005
This article discusses housing policy in developing economies. It examines recent research findings in light of earlier arguments as to the benefits of more market-oriented approaches.
>> More Details | created on: 01/20/2006
Public Spending, Pro-Poor Growth and Poverty Reduction in Tunisia: A Multilevel Analysis
By Sami Bibi & Rim Chatti, Working Paper Series , September, 2005
One of the main goals of this study is to assess to what extent public spending contribute to enhance economic growth and poverty reduction. For this purpose, multilevel analysis approaches are followed to capture the likely effects of some public expenditure on growth, inequality, and poverty. One of the most important results of this study is that policies aimed at enhancing the purchase power of the poor are more effective in reducing poverty than policies aimed to improve human capital in the short run. Yet, in the long run, the second route enables to push up economic growth and to boost poverty reduction. These results give evidence that there is some trade-offs between short and long run. Thus, policies like conditional cash transfers are needed in the short run to smooth the negative impact of the policy changes that enhance economic growth and poverty reduction in the long run.
>> More Details | created on: 01/20/2006
Farm Productivity and Market Structure: Evidence from Cotton Reforms in Zambia
By Irene Brambilla & Guido Porto, Yale Working Papers on Economic Applications and Policy Discussion Paper No. 2 , July, 2005
This paper investigates the impacts of cotton marketing reforms on farm productivity, a key element for poverty alleviation, in rural Zambia. The reforms comprised the elimination of the Zambian cotton marketing board that was in place since 1977. Following liberalization, the sector adopted an outgrower scheme, whereby firms provided extension services to farmers and sold inputs on loans that were repaid at the time of harvest. There are two distinctive phases of the reforms: a failure of the outgrower scheme, and a subsequent period of success of the scheme. Our findings indicate that the reforms led to interesting dynamics in cotton farming. During the phase of failure, farmers were pushed back into subsistence and productivity in cotton declined. With the improvement of the outgrower scheme of later years, farmers devoted larger shares of land to cash crops, and farm productivity significantly increased.
>> More Details | created on: 01/20/2006
Is Private Education Good for the Poor?
By James Tooley, Working Paper from University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (England), June 25, 2005
Private education is often assumed to be concerned only with serving the elite or middle classes, not the poor. And unregistered or unrecognised private schools are thought to be of the lowest.
>> More Details | created on: 11/23/2005
Corporate Sector Involvement in Education for all
By Tiphaine Bertsch & Rebecca Bouchet, et al, UNESCO Study, June 1, 2005
This paper is a micro-level analysis of partnerships in education between corporate and public stakeholders.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Outcomes of an Ethiopian Microfinance Program and Management Actions to Improve Services
By Shannon Doocy & Dan Norell, et al, Journal of Microfinance, Vol. 7, No. 1; , June, 2005
This paper examines the impact of participation in an Ethiopian microfinance program on indicators of socioeconomic status including wealth, income, and home or land ownership.
>> More Details | created on: 01/23/2006
South African Pro-poor Microfinance Institutions
By Ted Baumann, Journal of Microfinance, Vol. 7, No. 1; , June, 2005
This article compares the performance of selected South African microcredit nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that have a poverty-alleviation focus against various benchmarks drawn from the MicroBanking Bulletin. Donors, governments, and many analysts regard sustainability as the benchmark of microfinance institutions’ (MFIs) performance.
>> More Details | created on: 01/23/2006
Microcredit, Social Capital, and Politics: The Case of a Small Rural Town--Gossas, Senegal
By Jainabah M.L. Kah & Dana L. Olds, et al, Journal of Microfinance, Vol. 7, No. 1; , June, 2005
Through an exploratory approach, we studied the evolution, sustainability, and management of ten microcredit institutions located in Gossas, a small town in Senegal, Sub-Saharan Africa. Prevailing ideas about social capital, in the form of social relationships within and between microcredit institutions and financing NGOs, donors, and governments, are examined using both rational choice and Marxist social capital theories to highlight the social struggles in social capital.
>> More Details | created on: 01/23/2006
Scaling-Up Microfinance for India's Rural Poor
By Priya Basu & Pradeep Srivastava, World Bank Policy Research Working Papers No. 3646, June, 2005
The paper reviews the current level and pattern of access to finance for India's rural poor and examines some of the key microfinance approaches in India, especially looking at the Self Help Group (SHG) Bank Linkage initiative.
>> More Details | created on: 01/19/2006
Credit Constraints as a Barrier to Technology Adoption by the Poor: Lessons from South-Indian Small Scale Fishery
By Gine, Xavier, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, June, 2005 (No. 3665)
The paper studies the diffusion of plastic reinforced fiber boats in a fishing village in Tamil Nadu and the dynamics of income inequality during this process
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Dynamic Transformations for Base-of-the-Pyramid Market Clusters.
By Eric J Arnould & Jakki J. Mohr, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, June 1, 2005
>> More Details | created on: 01/03/2006
At the Bottom of the Pyramid: Responsible Design for Responsible Business
By Nirmal Sethia, Design Managment Review, June 1, 2005
In this article, Nirmal Sethia, a professor of management and director of the Center for Business and Design in the College of Business Administration at California State Polytechnic University, in Pomona, calls our attention to what he calls "a pressing business responsibility that is a significant new business opportunity." The opportunity he refers to is what he calls "the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP)-almost four billion people, or nearly two-thirds of humanity, who live at the bottom of the economic pyramid, with a vast majority of them struggling to survive on less than two dollars a day."
>> More Details | created on: 03/20/2006
Strategies that Pit Emerging Markets
By Tarun Khanna & Krishna G. Palepu, Harvard Business Review, June, 2005
When entering emerging markets, many firms simply go with what they know--and fall far short of their goals.
>> More Details | created on: 01/23/2006
Microcredit in Sub-Saharan Africa
By Terry F. Buss, Journal of Microfinance, Vol. 7, No. 1; , June, 2005
The stark reality is that most poor people in the world still lack access to sustainable financial services, whether it is savings, credit, or insurance. The great challenge before us is to address the constraints that exclude people from full participation in the financial sector. The International Year of Microcredit offers a pivotal opportunity for the international community to engage in a shared commitment to meet this challenge.
>> More Details | created on: 01/23/2006
Informal Finance for Private Sector Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
By Ernest Aryeetey, Journal of Microfinance, Vol. 7, No. 1; , June, 2005
Discusses what can be done to make informal finance and microfinance suitable for financing growing small to medium size enterprises (SMEs) in Sub-Saharan Africa.
>> More Details | created on: 01/23/2006
The Quest for Customer Focus
By Ranjay Gulati & James B. Oldroyd, Harvard Business Review, April, 2005 (Subscription Required)
Companies have poured enormous amounts of money into customer relationship management, but in many cases the investment hasn't really paid off. That's because getting closer to customers isn't about building an information technology system. It's a learning journey--one that unfolds over four stages, requiring people and business units to coordinate in progressively more sophisiticated ways.
>> More Details | created on: 06/13/2006
Ending Poverty Starts with Enterprise not Charity
By Kurt Hoffman, Shell Foundation, March 14, 2005
The Director of the Shell Foundation discusses how BOP strategies can be applied to solving poverty.
>> More Details | created on: 03/13/2006
Globalization and Complementary Policies: Poverty Impacts in Rural Zambia
By Jorge F. Balat & Guido Porto, NBER Working Paper No. W11175 , March, 2005
In this paper, we have two main objectives: to investigate the links between globalization and poverty observed in Zambia during the 1990s, and to explore the poverty impacts of non-traditional export growth.
>> More Details | created on: 01/20/2006
Expanding in China
By Ann Chen & Vijay Vishwanath, Harvard Business Review, March, 2005
Bain consultants offer three key strategies multinationals can use to expand from China's premium segment into the broader market.
>> More Details | created on: 01/23/2006
Global Manufacturers at a Crossroads
By Peter Koudal, Harvard Business Review, March, 2005
As multinationals decrease their direct investment in low-wage markets, they're opening the door to competitors.
>> More Details | created on: 01/23/2006
Lessons from the Slums of Brazil
By David Neeleman & Daisy Wademan, Harvard Business Review, March, 2005
JetBlue's David Neeleman talks about how his lessons from working with the poor have informed his company's culture.
>> More Details | created on: 01/23/2006
Productive Friction: How Difficult Business Partnerships Can Accelerate Innovation
By John Hagel III & John Seely Brown, Harvard Business Review, February, 2005
Companies are becoming more dependent on business partners, but coordinating with outsiders takes its tool. However, as the article points out, interactions between organizations can yield benefits beyond the goods or services contracted for. Companies get better at what they do--and improve faster than their competitors--by working with outsiders whose specialized capabilities complement their own.
>> More Details | created on: 01/23/2006